Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. Black Australorps are my favorite standard breed; extremely hardy, calm and gentle (my children, and now my granddaughter, made lap pets of ours), and excellent layers of large, brown eggs. Make sure that your coop/run is predator proof. That means using hardware cloth instead of chicken wire as too many predators can either tear through chicken wire, or squeeze through the openings in the mesh. Also, be careful of your hen to rooster ratio. The recommended ratio is 10 hens for every 1 rooster as too many rooster will (as they mature) become very hard on your hens physically; over-breeding them, biting and plucking the feathers from their necks and head, battering them, and potentially, seriously injuring them. The only reason that you need a rooster is to fertilize eggs for hatching, and one rooster can easily handle ten hens in this regard. When hens become stressed by roosters, their lay rate drops off. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your flock.
Greeter
Friend
Spirit
and Welcome To BYC! You might like to check out your state thread for advice from your chicken keeping neighbors about dealing with your weather. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/717207/washingtonians-come-together-washington-peeps/22660
) You can probably get by okay with 4 roosters for 35 hens, particularly if your roosters are docile breeds (like Black Australorps). Otherwise, I would reduce the number down to 3 roosters, which is still plenty to fertilize your eggs.
Educator
