Aloha from the Big Island of Hawaii.

[redsoxs]

Aloha!
My name is Maia and I'm on the Hilo side of the Big Island. I havent had chickens since I was a teenager and we only had them for eggs...

Come December I will be living just north of Hilo and will be getting my little farm started.

I plan to buy one rooster and six hens or so each of Rhodeisland Reds, Black Austrolops, Barred Rocks, and Buff Orpingtons... The last in hopes Ill get a few broodies... My idea is to keep all breeds seperate so that I can hatch pure chicks with my broodies. I am thinking of alternating them as far as letting them free range although it would be nice if they could all free range...

Ive read about seperating breeds a month before breeding season to guarantee pures but from what ive seen breeding season seems to be whenever since i always see chicks around and the weather is nice and warm year round...

Should I just ditch my desire for variety and get just ome breed to make things easier?

I picked these breeds not only for looks or sentimental r reasons (i had a sweet ri red growing up, ALWAYS gave double yolks!) but also because their good egg AND meat producers...

Mahalo in adance for any input

Greetings and welcome to BYC! I noticed you introduced yourself at the tail end of another members welcome. So we can give you a proper BYC welcome, copy what you wrote and then at the top of this page select the Start a New Thread button. Then paste in you wrote. I just don't want you to think you're not welcome here if very few people welcome you!

 

[QueenMisha]

Welcome to BYC! It's great to have you.

Barnevelders are great birds. Mine are pretty decent layers of gorgeous eggs, and I love their plumage. Though I wouldn't call them good dual purpose birds - they are pretty strictly egg production birds when sourced from a hatchery.

 

[bednbone]

Thanks for input. I ended up ordering from Ideal Hatchery for a mix of breeds to get an idea of several breeds idiosyncrasies. I now have SLW, GLW, EE, Barnies and Wellies. Bad idea. I like them all for different reasons. But the Wellies and Barnies are my faves. I know they are hatchery stock, but it will be expensive and time consuming to get better blood so I want to be a little more focused before then.