New from Texas!

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Hello and Welcome To BYC! Be sure to check out the Breeds section, there are member reviews on all the breeds you are interested in https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/category/chicken-breeds

ac12607 said:

Thank you everyone! Y'all are so nice!

Michael- we are north of the dfw area. We have been looking at storey's guide to raising chickens for breed info. We've got it narrowed down so far to ameraucana, barnevelder, Delaware, Dominique, or Rhode Island white (but I'm thinking we counted this one out for some reason I can't remember right now), and then for sure some silkies to hatch some chicks. Any thoughts on those breeds?

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Our home towns are not too far from where you are. Blue Ridge for my wife and Greenville for me. Those are all good breeds, although likely the Ameraucanas you are considering are in fact Easter Eggers which are actually hybrids bred by hatcheries to lay eggs in colors other than just blue (olive, green, beige, and even pale pink or gold). Many of these hatcheries incorrectly market their Easter Eggers as Araucanas or Ameraucanas. If you're not familiar with the differences, there is a good article at http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/09/ameraucana-easter-egger-or-araucana.html explaining the differences between Araucanas, Ameraucanas, and Easter Eggers. Easter Eggers are good birds; good layers, hardy, fairly docile, inexpensive, and easily available. They are my granddaughter's (pictured in my avatar) favorite chickens. She loves their colored eggs. I'm not sure why you have taken the Rhode Island Whites off of your list, but perhaps it was because they can sometimes be aggressive (especially the roosters). I love the chocolate eggs of the Barnevelders and the Delawares are docile and very good layers. A couple of other very hardy, calm, and gentle breeds you might want to consider are Black Australorps (superb layers) and Buff Orpingtons. My children, and now my granddaughter, made lap pets of both these breeds. Whatever breeds you decide to get, good luck with your flock.

I'm not sure how to do that quote thing you did.....but thank you for all that information!! I looked up the breeds we were interested in and I got a little discouraged. It seemed that they might be more aggressive than I had wanted (I have little kids....5, 2 and 5 months) and there was at least one that said they were egg killers (or something to that affect). But I'm going to look them all up again when I have more time with my husband and go over everything. We want to have dual purpose birds that lay decent and provide meat.

That easter egger chicken seems pretty neat...it might be fun for the kids to see the different colors of eggs. Anyway, thank you again!

Welcome to the flock. Silkies are usually favorites with children but, they are the best layers and wouldn't provide much of a meal. The catch is they are very difficult to sex before 4-5 mos. of age and sometimes not till they crow or lay eggs. Any one that quarantees young birds to be the sex you want may disappoint you badly. Most areas don't allow roosters, and there is such a glut of them looking for homes, it's a very sad and frustrating prospect.

You're welcome. To insert another member's quote, just click on the little green quote box at the bottom of the post box where they made that quote. The quote will automatically paste in the reply box and then you can type your reply in underneath the quote. )