Best chickens for Eggs?

[pinter]

Hi all,

I am new here....1st post. I am planning on buying 4-5 chickens strictly for eggs. I live in Connecticut. Any thoughts on what the best type of chicken is to get? Also, any tips would be appreciated. This is all new for me so I am going into this VERY green !!

Thanks !!

 

[gumpsgirl]

First of all, I want to congratulate you for coming to the right place! There are so many wonderful and smart people here that can give you all sorts of advice!

I am somewhat of a newby too and have learned a ton here.

The breed of chickens, all depends on what type of eggs you want. For instance, I wanted the big brown eggs, so I went with the Rhode Island Red chickens. I have since learned that the Red Sex Link is also a great brown egg layer along with many others! I have just placed an order to get 20 Red Sex Link pullets (hens) from Cackle Hatchery. Their website is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to trying to decide which breed to get. You might want to just look at their site just to get an idea of what you might want. Click on the egg layers box on the left side of the screen of their site and it will show you all the different good egg laying breeds and what their strengths are. The Sex Link breeds are great because you can tell the pullets from the roosters when they hatch so it take the guess work out of making sure you get pullets! Here's a link to Cackle's website. http://www.cacklehatchery.com/

My next suggestion would be to just dive in! I will warn you, however. These little chicks can be VERY addicting!

With that in mind, have fun and get some chicks!

 

[wynedot55]

black australopes are good layers.as well as production reds.an white leghorns for white eggs.

 

[chicktasticvt]

Welcome to BYC

, you will find sooo much info on this site, just becarefull though, it is very addicting. You might find yourself glued to the screen of the computer, hitting the refresh button every 5 sec to make sure you havent missed anything.

Barred rocks are very good layers and hardy enough for our nasty new england weather, good luck!

 

[pinter]

Thank you all for the info. May sound dumb, but are the chickens going to be targets of Racoons and or squirrels? I have them both in my yard. I will obviously make the coop and run as secure as possible, but those racoons are petty resourceful little predators.

Thanks !!

 

[chickachickawhat]

rhode island reds are amazing at egg laying. where do you live in ct. any where near simsbury?

 

[pinter]

I am in Milford. Agway in Monroe has chickens, They are taking orders for June now.

I want to get grown chickens who can lay eggs now so it may be tougher for me to find them, from what I hear.

 

[luvmychicknkids]

My absolute best egg layer is my White Leghorn. She hasn't missed a single day since she started laying. However, with the eggs white, they LOOK store bought (at least to me) but they still have those wonderful, dark, rich, yolks, just like the brown ones.

 

[Justino]

my black Ausie lays a giant tan egg everday! its ginormous!

 

[professor-yellow]

My fav is the RIR, no doubt, but last November I was given some 1.5 yo Black Austrolorps and outperformed the reds in the cold winter times.

So i am getting 20 BA's and compare them with white rocks and the RIR's all hatched this year.

They are also a very mellow trio. leghorns are too high strung for me.