What chicks to buy?

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JoshyBenns

JoshyBenns

Hatching
7 Years
Jun 15, 2012
2
0
7
Hi everybody I'm thinking about buying some day old chicks to start my own little farm. I'm wondering what type of chicks would be a good chick to start with and how many I should buy. Thanks!
 
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Define and set your goals. Do you want chickens for 'pretty', meat, eggs, or dual purpose? This will factor into your final choice.
 
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. Sourland is right your choices for breeds will depend upon what they are needed for
 
If you go to MyPetChicken.com they have a tool that helps you choose what kind of chickens might best suit you. I think it's called "which chick" or some such thing...
 
I'm looking for dual purpose but sort of a pretty looking chicken. I have a garden shed about 6 feet x 7 feet, how many chickens can i hold and how big should a pen be on the outside?
 
Generally you want about 4 square feet per bird inside the coop and as much as possible outside. Some good, pretty looking dual purpose birds are Orpingtons, Wyandottes, Sussexs, Australorps, Plymouth Rocks and all of the different colors those come in! (buff, barred, silver laced etc.)
 
We just got our first chicks almost a month ago but it took days of decision making to find & agree on the types that we wanted, my BF wanted meat & egg layers & I wanted pretty & unusual eggs so we finally decided on Ameraucanas, Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, Light Sussex (turning out to be bigger than most & so pretty!), Olive Eggers, Black Jersey Giant, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Rhode Island Red, Golden Laced Wyandotte, Easter Eggers & Black Sumatras (because the roos are sooooo pretty). We have room for 12 but because the place I ordered many of them from does not sex their chicks, we ordered double that just in case. After we made our decision it took some researching to find the places that offered most of the breeds we wanted and even then we had to wait 4 months. One place sent us extras, so now we have 30
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Hope that helps & good luck with your new farm!
 
You'll want to pick a breed that is suited for your climate, too. I live in Minnesota where it can get to -30 in the winter, so I chose chickens that would have a rose comb. Apparently the larger combs tend to get frostbitten in our winters. We chose all the same breed to start out with so we wouldn't get confused. (We're middle-aged, so avoiding confusion is important.) Some breeds have calmer and friendlier temperaments, too. Wyandottes are supposed to be pretty calm and sociable, so that's what we chose. I was really tempted to get a few Black Australorps despite their combs because I love their feathers. Maybe I could knit them little hats
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CorlyB said:
You'll want to pick a breed that is suited for your climate, too. I live in Minnesota where it can get to -30 in the winter, so I chose chickens that would have a rose comb. Apparently the larger combs tend to get frostbitten in our winters. We chose all the same breed to start out with so we wouldn't get confused. (We're middle-aged, so avoiding confusion is important.) Some breeds have calmer and friendlier temperaments, too. Wyandottes are supposed to be pretty calm and sociable, so that's what we chose. I was really tempted to get a few Black Australorps despite their combs because I love their feathers. Maybe I could knit them little hats
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Click to expand...
I had a Cuckoo Maran rooster this winter and he lost his comb, it didn't seem to bother him. I live in Manitoba so our winters aren't that different then yours.
 

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