New chicken breeder

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I live in a coastal town similar to Acalpulco and Ixtapa @ChickenCanoe. Will be posting pics of property soon and bee looking for setup designs later this week. Thanks.
 
Let us know more about your plans Carlos.
Are you going for eggs or meat or both?
If both, you could either go dual purpose or two breeds.
Since you are in a coastal area, the suggestion for a Mediterranean breed is a good one.
Also let us know if they will be free ranged chickens or confined.
2 DP Mediterranean breeds I can recommend are Catalanas and Black Penedesencas.
You may be able to find both in Mexico. I know the former is popular in South America and the latter is supposed to be in several Latin American countries.

I've never considered the color of a bird to make a big difference in aerial predators.
If a hawk can see a mouse in a grassy field from 500 meters in the air, it can see a chicken, regardless of the color.
 
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Hello!
400

Welcome to BYC and the coop! There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to joined the BYC family. I look forward to seeing you around BYC.
 
The chickens are meant to be sold for theyre meat. i would like a little bit of eggs coming out for personal use but thats not too important. Intend on keeping them confined due to the amount of predetors in the area. Im still not sure if just building them a moveable run is enough. I dont see the point in having a coop if its already hot as hell here all year and all day including at night. Any thoughts on that?
 
They need a safe place to spend the night. Chickens have terrible night vision. They are pretty helpless during the night time hours, and must be protected. That means a sturdy coop with lots of hardware cloth secured with screws and washers. An electric fence perimeter might be needed to keep some of the larger predators out.
 
carlosbenitezv said:
The chickens are meant to be sold for theyre meat. i would like a little bit of eggs coming out for personal use but thats not too important. Intend on keeping them confined due to the amount of predetors in the area. Im still not sure if just building them a moveable run is enough. I dont see the point in having a coop if its already hot as hell here all year and all day including at night. Any thoughts on that?
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For hot as hell, I'd definitely look into the Catalanas and Black Penedesencas. They both lay well. You won't get big thick breast meat but the Cats are very popular for meat in South America and Spain. Black Penes are so famous for meat quality in Spain that they have their own festival (Fira del Gall) the last weekend before Christmas where people go to select a rooster for their Christmas dinner.
They're both quite heat hardy and lay well.
The downside is that these breeds don't handle confinement very well. They're excellent foragers and if your primary daytime predators are aerial like hawks, the roosters will protect the flocks. If you have a lot of dogs in the area, that can be a problem. Locking them in at night as Junebuggena suggests will protect from Jaguars, jaguarundis, cougars, raccoons and the like.

Does your property have a lot of shade? That's necessary for chickens. For housing, I was thinking about a Mayan style building. Thatched roof and open on all sides so the breeze can blow right through. Openings covered with hardware cloth.

junebuggena said:
They need a safe place to spend the night. Chickens have terrible night vision. They are pretty helpless during the night time hours, and must be protected. That means a sturdy coop with lots of hardware cloth secured with screws and washers. An electric fence perimeter might be needed to keep some of the larger predators out.
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Important stuff. Electric is a good idea.
 
I will be looking at a small property of about 4 acres this weekend. I have no idea yet if there is plenty of shade but i hope so. And i like the thatched roof idea for the coops. Im guessing ill have to use dried palm leaves which there is plenty of here. And ill consider the electric fence idea as well.
 

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