A few rookie questions...

[JessHall]

Lots of things helped me make the decision to start raising chickens... eggs, family bonding, hobby, etc. I KNEW I wanted a small flock of Australorps because that is what my mom got for us kids when I was younger... what a great breed of chicken!

Unfortunately, I couldn't find them anywhere (except online and in large quantities) and I am very spontaneous... I bought two Barred Rocks and one Rhode Island Red( I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the Barred Rocks is a Cockerel

. A week later I asked around, found a few interested friends, and ordered 25 Black Australorps to split between us. I KNOW there will be some cockerels in the bunch. I greatly respect all three breeds and I would rather have quality pure bred chickens than a million running around. I am having a custom coop built, and at the moment, the plan is to build the coop w/ a partition in it and have one run attached to each side. This is so I can keep chickens apart if i want. Does anyone have any ideas as to which chickens to keep apart? (separate by sex or by breed) I am so excited however I don't want to make ANY mistakes.
Also, I may want to show some chickens, do I need to keep the show stock in a different place than the laying stock? Or does it matter? Anyone know of any good resources so that I can learn more about showing? And where can I find a list of shows in California? For the most part, I am really interested in anything my family and I can do with my new little guys. I just need some guidance

Thanks so much!

 

[espressola]

Since you seem to like Australorps best, I'd separate those from the rest to make a breeding colony... BUT- you only need to separate them for the time when you are wanting to breed and produce fertile eggs... I don't know all the colors of the different eggs, but for example, if you had only Australorp roos running with your hens and if the RIR's and BR's had different colored eggs from the Australorp girls, you could select out those eggs only (Australorp) and you'd have your purebred eggs to either stick under a broody hen (of any kind) or to incubate...

I have two roo's- a Welsummer and a Blue Andalusian, and a diverse flock of hens. I plan to let each boy be in charge of the flock at different times... When the Welsummer boy is running the show I will collect only the terra cotta brown eggs for pure Welsummer eggs. When the Blue Andalusian boy is in charge, I will collect only the tinted whice eggs for pure Blue Andalusian stock. Of course, you have to allow two weeks or so after a switch of rooster to ensure the purity, so there is no crossover of sperm from the previous boy.

Patty N. ;-)