Can anyone give me any pointers about these breeds?

[ElfenLied89]

Oh. And the ones in the post all died. Murdered by my next street neighbor's dogs who kept getting loose. I do have a bunch of new babies purchased October and hatched November.

First thing is that expect your Rhode Island Reds to come to the top of the pecking order with your birds as they get older - ours are always picking on our other birds. The other thing to keep in mind is your climate. We had our birds inside until at least 8 weeks - but we live in the PNW and our last frost date is in May and with the first set I didn't finish building the coop until early June (it took me about two months which was longer than I anticipated). When you do move them outside they should stay in their coop for 7-14 days to make them realize this is home (and block off the egg boxes so they don't sleep in them - they won't need them til 18-20 weeks old). We call our birds back by putting out grubs - at first it was a crazy round up but now they all come and follow me anytime I'm out in the yard because they think I have grubs - feel like the pied piper sometimes.