Choosing chickens?

I would love to get all EE's, but my mom wants to get good egg layers, so i'll go with a sex link, a white leghorn(although a bit flighty) and an EE or Ameracauna.


Ameraucanas, which are usually Easter Eggers, are pretty good egg-layers. They lay about 250 eggs a year.

The hybrids do lay a lot of eggs. From what I have read the Gold Sex Link/Golden Comet from a Rhode Island Red rooster and Rhode Island White hen is the best laying hybrid.

Here is some information to help you.

Which chicken breed is the best for you?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...chickens-resource-for-selecting-your-chickens


Here are some breed suggestions.

  • Australorp – excellent production of medium sized brown eggs, adaptable to confinement or free range, quiet, docile, easily handled. Good brooder, good mother, early maturing and very cold hardy. Developed in Australia from black orpingtons for egg laying .
  • Buckeye – medium producer of medium sized brown eggs, very cold hardy, can be broody, adaptable to confinement and a very good forager, calm and friendly.
  • Chantecler – good producer of large brown eggs and is a dual purpose bird that is extremely cold hardy. Bears confinement well but can be skittish around people.
  • Cochin – very popular as a show bird, medium producer of brown tinted eggs, excellent brooder, good mother and excellent foster mother, robust and cold hardy, adaptable to confinement or free range, peaceful, friendly and easily handled.
  • Jersey Giant – dual purpose (formerly meat),good producers of medium to large brown eggs, good brooder, protective mother, robust and cold hardy. Large birds that eat a lot, adaptable to confinement or free range, calm, gentle and easily handled.
  • Leghorn – layer, extremely heavy producer of medium to large white eggs, a non-setter that is hardy, heat tolerant (especially the white variety) that is early maturing. Enjoys free range although will adapt to confinement and is flighty, spritely and noisy.
  • Orpington – originally developed as an excellent meat bird, this dual purpose chicken is also a good producer of medium to large brown eggs, good brooder and excellent mother, hardy and early maturing, adaptable to free range, very adaptable to confinement, docile, affectionate, easily handled.
  • Plymouth Rock – dual purpose, good producer of large brown eggs, a good mother but broods infrequently, robust and cold hardy, well adaptable to confinement or free range, docile, friendly, easily handled. Once common on the homestead, still popular in the backyard. Developed in America and popularity spread very rapidly due to its qualities as an outstanding farm chicken.
  • Rhode Island Red – dual purpose, excellent, heavy producer of rich, large brown eggs, broods infrequently but can be a dutiful mother, robust, hardy in the heat and cold, adaptable to free range or confinement, active, calm and fairly docile but cocks can be aggressive. One of the best breeds for producing brown eggs.
  • Wyandotte – Coming in a variety of colors and patterns, these are a good bird for a small family flock in rugged conditions. Cold hardy and good mothers, they have a good disposition and their color patterns make them a good choice for fanciers as well as farmers. A dual purpose bird with brown eggs, robust and very cold hardy. Well adaptable to confinement or foraging they are calm, industrious and usually docile birds.
  • Java -- Hens lay a respectable amount of large, brown eggs and will go broody. Javas are particularly known as good foragers, needing less supplementary feed than many breeds when allowed to free range. Like many large breeds, they are known to be docile in temperament, and hardy in inclement weather. In general, Javas are particularly suitable for keepers of smaller flocks who require a good dual-purpose chicken.
 
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I've found that my rhode island red hens are not aggressive (in fact they're very friendly,) but I'm not sure about the australorp thing. I do know that australorps are great layers, but I guess you can't get eggs without a hen, and if inly fifty percent are female, maybe you could consider getting chickens old enough to sex.
 
I've found that my rhode island red hens are not aggressive (in fact they're very friendly,) but I'm not sure about the australorp thing. I do know that australorps are great layers, but I guess you can't get eggs without a hen, and if inly fifty percent are female, maybe you could consider getting chickens old enough to sex.

Am I missing something here? Hatcheries sell pullets and guarantee a 90% accuracy with any breed.

Just order pullets from a hatchery.
 
Well, apparently, heritage hens are nice, but non heritage hens can be aggressive, and that's what hatcheries sell...? Merp. I don't know much about chickens.
 
Well, apparently, heritage hens are nice, but non heritage hens can be aggressive, and that's what hatcheries sell...? Merp. I don't know much about chickens.


No. Hatcheries sell heritage breeds of chickens also, such as Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, Leghorn, etc.

Some people talk about heritage strains of chickens. That is just referring to a particular strain of a heritage breed that is bred to the standard for the breed. I know it can be confusing.

If you just want a few laying hens in your backyard, any of the breeds on the list I posted would be fine for you. You can buy chicks from a hatchery or at a feed store, or you might look on Craigslist and buy fully grown hens. Then you wouldn't have to wait for them to start laying eggs. But when you buy chicks you know you are not getting old hens that may not lay well.
 
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I'll just get some chicks from a feed store ^^ thanks!

You are welcome.

You can be more confident that you are getting female chicks if you select sex-link chicks. You can tell males and females apart because they are different colors.

You can see pictures here. There are Black Sex Link, Red Sex Link, Golden Comet, and Cinnamon Queen shown here.

http://www.cacklehatchery.com/page2.html#brown
 
I'd add Dominiques to the list. Active, great foragers, hilarious, very busy on important hen business, and quiet and calm despite being very active. We refer to ours as the Unite Clown here at the Cirque des Poulets because they are so funny and adorable. Eggs are a little on the small side compared to Barred Rocks or Black Star hybrids, but they make up for this with their curious personalities.

If you have close neighbors - like on a city or suburban lot - you probably want one of the quieter breeds. A friend of mine has some rather quiet birds and still has a neighbor that constantly complains about her flock.

The American class dual purpose breeds and some of the British breeds are very adapted to living around people in small flocks and small chicken yards; the classic advice has always been that if you don't know what you want, select a utility strain of Barred Rocks. Different breeds were developed under different conditions; some of the British breeds descend from cottager stock that was traditionally brought inside at night to sit by the fireplace and aggressive birds went promptly into the stewpot as the cottagers did not tolerate birds that attacked the chicken. California Grays, Barred Rocks, Dominiques, Buckeyes, old style dark Rhode Island Reds, and some other American dual purpose breeds were kept both on large scale chicken farms and in farm family flocks and in backyards - back in the 1910s and perhaps later there was an annual contest in Portland, Oregon for children's flocks that was judged on income or family food provided by the flock, condition of the birds, neatness of the poultry yard, etc. The prizes were large; Clarence Hogan, age 13, received the $100 first prize one year, while Miss Ruth Hayes won the second prize of $50 - at a time when the average annual salary was about $750.

Other breeds were wilder and had less contact with people and this can be seen in their descendants.
 

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