From experience, I would suggest only working with one breed first and limit your colors. I kind of went crazy with two breeds and nearly every color in them, plus a few project colors. You'll realize very fast that you're overwhelmed, usually at the worst time, like when a giant freak winter storm is about to hit.
I'm also one of those super anal documentarians, so the spreadsheets and notes took on a life of their own....
If you haven't done a lot of hatching yet, use your flock and get that dialed in first. Hatching and caring for large batches of chicks every 2 weeks is very crazy making!
This sounds like wise advice tailor made for me.
But I'm already halfway up the ladder to crazy... so I'm going to keep climbing.
Is there a program you liked best for your notes and spreadsheets?
Is there any chance you might be willing to show me a page or two from how you wound up organizing things after you had some experience? I'm OCD and worried my notes aren't going to work right and stay organized down the line.
I made a thread asking about this last week, if you have any thoughts...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/software-to-organize-breeding.1552151/
