Bay Area BYCers!

[chiqita]

Hello fellow Bay Area chicken people! I'm hoping to be a urban chicken farmer here in Richmond/El Sobrante.
I'm in the process of building my very first chicken coop in hopes of having my very first chicken flock. Does anyone have any advice for a newbie? I'm converting a 6x6x4ft high chain link dog kennel into a chicken coop.

Anyone near me have some young pullet hens for sale? I'm looking for moderate to high egg production (medium eggs OK, larger preferred).

I was suggested Rhode Island reds by my grandfather but I'm open to suggestions. Ideally i would like to have 6-7 consistent, young egg layers, no roosters (cannot have them, not do i want one)
Egg color is irrelevant to me.

Also, i have an American bulldog, 3 yr/old who has never seen a chicken in his life. Should i be worried about introductions? Anyone have experience with leptosporosis issues between chickens and dogs?

All help is welcome!
Thanks in advance.

Welcome to BYC!
And welcome to chickens! They are addictive. A few things to think about when you pick out your first flock. Do you want variety? Or all one type? Lots of egg color? Heritage breeds, or the most important thing is no roosters?

If you get chicks from a local breeder, most (not all) of them will be straight run. So you will have to weed out your roosters at a few months old, and either re home or eat. That gives you more variety of chickens, if you want more unusual breeds ( iclandics, french black copper marans, amarcanauas, etc) . If you cant deal with boys, Id go for sex linked chicks or chickens old enough to be laying eggs. Because sexed chicks will still have accidental roosters! I Don't think feed stores around you have chicks anymore this year, that's your best bet for sexed chicks since they order from the hatchery. A few people in gilroy have hatchery sexed chicks all year, but I have gotten sick chicks from there. Its just harder to keep everyone healthy when there are a metric ton o chicks. But you can still check. Just have a plan for accidental roosters anyway, IMO.

There is someone in Sonoma who posts on CL that has Wellsummers that are sex linked. I have FCBM"s and Olive eggers that are large egg chickens, but they are straight run. I'll probably know who are pullets in a month or so, but they are not yet showing . There are a few great breeders in the Novato and Sonoma areas that have healthy and happy chickens that come from good laying stock. Keep an eye on craigslist, a fair few good people advertise there.

If you want some variety of egg color, I'd get a few Easter Eggers( easy to find sexed) , a Wellsummer, a FCBM, a variety of Orphington, and some thing you find that lays white eggs and is friendly. You will see all of those locally and they will give you a beautiful egg basket. If you most important is to get pullets close to lay, Id get... whatever you find, you don't see a lot of them around.

I'd be careful with your dog around chickens, they get excited and are VERY exciting to dogs. My dog is all of 7 lbs and all my chickens kick his behind, so I cant give you much advice on introducing the 2, except be careful.

Now, the next step is chicken math!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

You could also try the buy-sell-trade forum here on BYC. Maybe put in a wanted add for local pullets. My feed store is still selling pullets that are a couple months old. (Red sex-links last time I was there.) It would be over 2 hrs for you one way though, but call around near you to see if any feed stores have them. Also note that a 2 mo old pullet will be quite a bit more expensive than buying chicks. ($15 as opposed to $3.50 more or less)

Don't know anything about leptosporosis, but it's got to be mentioned on the site somewhere. Try a search. We had dogs and chickens intermingling for years and never had any disease issues. My current dogs are not trustworthy around chickens, and are always kept on the other side of the fence. Be cautious about leaving dogs and chickens unsupervised.

 

[wolftracks]

Hello fellow Bay Area chicken people! I'm hoping to be a urban chicken farmer here in Richmond/El Sobrante.
I'm in the process of building my very first chicken coop in hopes of having my very first chicken flock. Does anyone have any advice for a newbie? I'm converting a 6x6x4ft high chain link dog kennel into a chicken coop.

Anyone near me have some young pullet hens for sale? I'm looking for moderate to high egg production (medium eggs OK, larger preferred).

I was suggested Rhode Island reds by my grandfather but I'm open to suggestions. Ideally i would like to have 6-7 consistent, young egg layers, no roosters (cannot have them, not do i want one)
Egg color is irrelevant to me.

Also, i have an American bulldog, 3 yr/old who has never seen a chicken in his life. Should i be worried about introductions? Anyone have experience with leptosporosis issues between chickens and dogs?

All help is welcome!
Thanks in advance.

I also have some Olive Egger and EE pullets here. I have several breeds including FBCMs, AMs and Wellies. Just a few of my breeds.

As for your dog, the main question is how well trained and how much control you have. That's a strong breed, but a breed that can be very well trained, so the introductions are going to be up to you. I love the "leave it" command for helping people with making sure the dog doesn't bother the birds. If it is well trained you may be able to give it the job of "chicken protector" and teach him to guard them. I actually think that's the best course, because it means they don't have to leave them after a while, just take care of them like the rest of the family.

As for the dog run, there are some on this thread that have used them. Karen and her son have a nice setu and may be able to give some ideas.

As for rooster........OMG! Who in their right mind wouldn't want them??? Just kidding. Sort of. LOL I have roosters that think they're dogs and follow me everywhere, hens that don't want to be bothered. I'm partial to roosters. But if you aren't breeding and since you can't have them anyway, it really means personal preference as to your hens. Eye candy can lay just as good as anything. If you like a variety of egg color, then you can add several breeds. Whatever you decide on, you're going to love chickens. It's amazing how calming it is to watch them when you've had a bad day.

BTW

and the Bay Area thread. I'm Kim. Originally from the Bay, now living in Modesto.

 

[cherylcohen]

I'm thinning my flock and have some great layers!! Not to mention pullets!!

 

[KMilani]

I also have some Olive Egger and EE pullets here. I have several breeds including FBCMs, AMs and Wellies. Just a few of my breeds.

As for your dog, the main question is how well trained and how much control you have. That's a strong breed, but a breed that can be very well trained, so the introductions are going to be up to you. I love the "leave it" command for helping people with making sure the dog doesn't bother the birds. If it is well trained you may be able to give it the job of "chicken protector" and teach him to guard them. I actually think that's the best course, because it means they don't have to leave them after a while, just take care of them like the rest of the family.

As for the dog run, there are some on this thread that have used them. Karen and her son have a nice setu and may be able to give some ideas.

As for rooster........OMG! Who in their right mind wouldn't want them??? Just kidding. Sort of. LOL I have roosters that think they're dogs and follow me everywhere, hens that don't want to be bothered. I'm partial to roosters. But if you aren't breeding and since you can't have them anyway, it really means personal preference as to your hens. Eye candy can lay just as good as anything. If you like a variety of egg color, then you can add several breeds. Whatever you decide on, you're going to love chickens. It's amazing how calming it is to watch them when you've had a bad day.

BTW

and the Bay Area thread. I'm Kim. Originally from the Bay, now living in Modesto.

Kim thanks for the informative post. I greatly appreciate it!
Hopefully once i get my coop ready to go i can post some pictures as well as when i get my first flock

 

[jeremy]

Just thought I would pop in and say hello fellow Bay Area peeps!

This has been a busy summer, our efforts mostly concentrated on the gardens this year and we're reaping the benefits of all of our seed starting back in early March. We're harvesting tomatoes, zucchini and squash, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and all sorts of leafy greens nearly everyday now.

I haven't hatched anything out this year other than a few Orpingtons that were raised by a broody. Out of 5 chicks 4 of them were cockerels! I was able to sell a pair and a cockerel, but I still have 2 beautiful Blue Orp juvie boys if anyone is interested. I'm planning a big "end of the summer" hatch, mostly Orpingtons but I also hope to hatch a bantam breed or two. I've only ever tried LF so I figured why not?

My Dun Sumatras should also be laying by the end of summer/early fall so I'll probably start hatching from them too. I have 2 Dun cockerels, one is already a big guy and is absolutely gorgeous, 3 Dun pullets and 2 Platinum pullets to work with. I'm hoping for LOTS of Khaki babies! Kim, are you still interested in a Platinum cockerel?

Hope everyone is well! Are we ever going to plan for another Chickenstock this year?

 

[wolftracks]

Just thought I would pop in and say hello fellow Bay Area peeps!

This has been a busy summer, our efforts mostly concentrated on the gardens this year and we're reaping the benefits of all of our seed starting back in early March. We're harvesting tomatoes, zucchini and squash, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and all sorts of leafy greens nearly everyday now.

I haven't hatched anything out this year other than a few Orpingtons that were raised by a broody. Out of 5 chicks 4 of them were cockerels! I was able to sell a pair and a cockerel, but I still have 2 beautiful Blue Orp juvie boys if anyone is interested. I'm planning a big "end of the summer" hatch, mostly Orpingtons but I also hope to hatch a bantam breed or two. I've only ever tried LF so I figured why not?

My Dun Sumatras should also be laying by the end of summer/early fall so I'll probably start hatching from them too. I have 2 Dun cockerels, one is already a big guy and is absolutely gorgeous, 3 Dun pullets and 2 Platinum pullets to work with. I'm hoping for LOTS of Khaki babies! Kim, are you still interested in a Platinum cockerel?

Hope everyone is well! Are we ever going to plan for another Chickenstock this year?

Jeremy I am if I can afford it. pm me and let me know how much you want. Lots of things being done right now and I'm not the queen of cash. Plus I'm still in the process of creating space out in the yard, so I need a couple of weeks at least before I have a comfortable spot for him.

Glad you had a good croup. I finally grew some things this year, but other than a bowl full of cherry tomatoes at a time, the heat has wiped out almost everythig else.

 

[shanshan51]

We have some really nice pullets right now including:

2 x Bantam Buff Laced Brahmas
1x barred rock

 

[Country Chick at Heart]

Jeremy! Sounds like you and Carlos have been busy! Good to see you back on the thread. I'm with Kim, my garden is spotty this year but I did get a great crop of Blueberries and Boysenberries! YUM!

 

[cherylcohen]

Party this weekend...all are invited and if you haven't signed up yet,here is the link

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...ue&formkey=dHdLT3RRM2RYNVJuUjNBNlBpQmo5RHc6MQ