Building a Small Flock of 10; Breed Questions: Hardiness, Good Layers, Aggressiveness Towards Eachot

[MountainMeadows]

*EDITED* I went ahead and ordered 3 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Black Australorps, 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Golden Laced Wyandottes, and 2 "Araucanas" (probably actually Easter Eggers or Ameraucanas judging from what I've read that true Araucanas are so hard to come by)

Thanks for your input! They'll be coming in around the 29th of this month! I can't wait! Grr... One whole month!!! >_<

Hey they BYC Community! I am new here and have spent the past week surfing around the site learning about everything chicken! I have done some searching before posting this, but please forgive me if anything I say has been repeated before in another thread!

So I'm looking to get 10 chicks from the local feed and seed down the road from me. They order their chicks from somewhere (I'm guessing online) and are getting some breeds in on the 15th and some in on the 29th of this month. I'm planning on getting Barred Rocks, Black Australorps, Buff Orpingtons, and Golden Laced Wyandottes. They will also be getting Golden Polish, Rhode Island Reds, and Araucanas in.

I live in northern Colorado in the mountains and the winter lows can get down to the negative 30's some nights.

So here are my questions:

1. Should I get Rhode Island Reds too? I've read RIR can be aggressive towards other birds and good genetics are rare to come by, so I'm hesitant about this breed.. But I've also heard that they are great layers and do well in cold climate.

2. Anyone have any experience with Polish? How do they do with other breeds? My Hubby wants to get one or 2 Golden Polish because he loves the way they look, I read on the review page of them that they get picked on by other chickens a lot. I'm just really up on the fence about this breed.

3. Will all these breeds do okay in the winter out here? I'm okay with putting a heat lamp in the coop, but I'm worried how they will do during the day out in the snow if it is 10 degrees out or less.

4. Do you think I will have a problem with some of these breeds picking on the other ones? I don't want any of them killing each other, I've read that RIR can be very mean to the point of murderous to other chickens. Also, I've heard Barred Rocks can be aggressive at times, have you noticed this in your flocks or do you think they will be alright?

5. Anyone have a problem with getting as few as 2 of each breed? If I end up getting 5 different breeds, I'll probably get 2 of each breed. Is this okay to do? Is it bad to get more of one breed than of another? For example getting 4 Buff Orps and 2 each of the BR, BAs, and GLW.

6. Will these breeds be good layers? From what I'm reading Barred Rocks and Australorps are good layers, but it seems to be back and forth on whether or not the Buff Orps and Golden Laced Wyandottes are. If you have any experience with any of these breeds please comment!

Sorry for so many questions! Any experience or thoughts you can share with me is greatly appreciated! Sorry again if anything I asked is redundant in another forum!!!

 

[mshuntjump]

Any breed of chickens get along. They don't know that they are different breeds. I recommend every breed you've mentioned- especially the orpingtons. They are the best birds you could ever have. Very docile, cold hardy, and very good layers. All of the birds you've mentioned are very decent layers except the polish. Polish chickens are great birds, don't get me wrong. However, when having chickens for mainly eggs, I would not recommend. They do lay probably close to every other day, however, are more show purpose birds. I would stick with the ones you've picked out. Good luck with your new babies. They are fantastic to have.

 

[mstricer]

Here is a link you can look at many different breeds and it will give you all the information you will need to make a decision. I had to laugh when you said a small flock of 10. I'm sure you will have more.
Michele
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

 

[MountainMeadows]

@mshuntjump - Thanks for responding! I'm so happy to hear that the different breeds will get along! I want a mixed flock so that's very good news.

@mstricer - Thank you so much for that link! Very informative! I'm on an acre of land and am building a moveable paddock and converting a 6x10 room of the workshop into their night coop. I want to have as many as possible without sacrificing happy and healthy living conditions.

 

[mstricer]

I hope you find the breeds you like. For me it is the colored eggs. I love the Olive Eggers. I can mess with them and change the color of the egg just by breeding it is fun and a challenge to see what you get with each hatch. I love that chart.

 

[MountainMeadows]

I have a feeling that the local Feed and Seed orders theirs from Murray McMurray, they said that if there is any breed that I really want that they could get them in. I might ask about the Olive Eggers. How many chickens would you guestimate that I could comfortably raise in a moveable 12'x10' paddock and a 6'x10' coop? I'd get a few more if I thought they'd still be happy and not squished!

 

[mstricer]

I have a feeling that the local Feed and Seed orders theirs from Murray McMurray, they said that if there is any breed that I really want that they could get them in. I might ask about the Olive Eggers. How many chickens would you guestimate that I could comfortably raise in a moveable 12'x10' paddock and a 6'x10' coop? I'd get a few more if I thought they'd still be happy and not squished!

If you use the 3 sq ft method you could have 20 chickens in it if you free range, but the pad dock would be 120 sq ft and the birds would need 10 square ft per a bird, unless you free range, I have Olive Eggers. Murray McMurray would have EE's. If you are interested in Olive Eggers I sell the chicks for 5$ plus shipping. These are some of my eggs

 

[MountainMeadows]

Wow those blue ones and deep brown ones are incredible! I would love to have a couple but I can only imagine that shipping for just two or three birds would be outrageous.

I would let mine free range my property if it was fenced in, but I still live too close to the road and neighbors to allow them complete run of the property. I don't trust the neighbors dogs either.. So the moveable paddock will have to do. I figure if I move it once a week that will give the grass and bugs time to come back.

 

[CGinJCMO]

Polish chickens tend to be picked on more (in my experience) than others. I had bald polish chickens because the other girls plucked the fluffy white feathers off their heads. I'm afraid to get them again because I have 1 RIR (did have 2 but one disappeared without a trace 3 weeks back), 3 BR, 1 EE and 4 sex-links. (more EEs in the brooder along with 1 black Australorp and 2 Whites). This list is to show you can have as few as one chicken of each breed but they will act as one flock. The good thing about different breeds is that you can tell at a distance which bird is which. My one EE is white and I can easily pick her out from 50 feet, but I have to look closer to pick out my RIR from the red sex links and forget about deciding which BR is which (I put leg bands on them to tell them apart).
My reds aren't more aggressive than any other chicken to each other, but they were raised together. It might be a different story when I add the brooder chicks (in a couple of months).
EE's tend to be "less aggressive" than RIR or Rocks so you might be able to mix Polish with EEs.
Also something to think about, larger combs of RIR would be more likely to get frostbite than the pea combs of EEs. However, my chickens really didn't like going into the snow and cold...they'd go into one (snow or cold) but not both at the same time. It had to be warmer (snow would start to melt on the top layer) or else, they finally decided they had spent enough time inside and were going stir crazy and finally they'd come out. I have a raised coop so I'd clear an area around the door so they could come out and go under the coop to spread out but it took them a while (I wasn't in a hurry to go out into the snowstorms to open the coop doors so that might have also had something to do with it). I did have 2 d'uccle cockerels fight (one died) this winter and I'm assuming it was because they were tired of being cooped up (cabin fever?) with the snowstorms. If you only have one roo (or nothing but hens), I don't think you'll have any major fighting to worry about.
Even 95 percent sexing by a hatchery isn't perfect. The 6 I just got were all suppose to be pullets, but I suspect one of the Austra Whites is a cockerel because it's comb is growing a little bigger than it's "sister". Since they are a cross breed, I'm not sure if it's really a boy or girl. Fauna, might get renamed as Fricasee or Franco and eventually go "bye-bye" (LOL) because I have a rooster already and don't need another one (last year got 4 boys and 10 girls - only one was picked as a chick to be the boy and I changed my mind on who ended up staying).

Anyway, sorry to go on and on but just wanted to chime in with my 2 cents and to welcome you to BYC
CG

 

[MountainMeadows]

Thanks for your input CGinJCMO! I ended up ordering 3 Black Australorps, 3 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Golden Laced Wyandottes, and 2 "Araucanas" (though they're probably really EE's or Ameraucanas since apparently "true" Araucanas are very rare). Maybe next time I'll do an even more mixed flock! I'm excited! I'm going to look into banding them after reading your comment on being able to tell them apart. Probably a good idea in case one of them gets sick *knock on wood* and I need to know which one!