City Girl needing all the help I can get!

I went into the cakle hatchery web site and read up on the best layers for the area I live in then ordered baby chicks to fit my needs. They are now 9 weeks young and very fun to watch. Not laying yet but coming soon. So guess all I can say is do your reading on all the diff. breeds out there before buying. Good luck
 
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All of these varieties (with the possible exception of the Turken) lay brown eggs. The hatcheries describe their Turkens as laying anything from a tinted to a brown egg (tinted meaning some shade of tan).

Adding this to my list, my internet was down while I was waiting to post this and 3 others replied so here's the others
Leghorn
RIR
EE
Wynadotte
Barred Rock
Marans

Leghorns lay white eggs. Marans lay dark brown eggs. Easter Eggers, depending on their heritage, lay anything from a white to a green egg depending on the color of the base shell and the color and thickness of the color layer. The other three lay brown eggs. If you want a wider choice of white-egg layers then consider the Production Black, the Hollands, or the Minorcas as well.

I am not in any position to advocate for these breeds, though; all I have at the moment are Red Stars and it looks like it'll be a while before I can add to them.

RSD​
 
I would go with black sex links. I have 8 hens and they are great. Their pretty friendly and calm. Im just waiting for them to start pulling their own weight. Should be anytime now.
 
We are very happy with our Red Stars. 6 girls=6 eggs 99.9 percent of the time. Most of them are too big for the large egg cartons. They are very friendly and get along with each other. They are generaly very quiet. My only advice is to read, read, and read some more about chickens before you get them. Buy a book or check one out from your library. Get addicted to this website and read blogs from every category. Good luck and have fun.
 
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While I don't have most of the breeds of listed, I do have EEs and Barred Rocks. My EEs don't lay in the winter (we don't supplement light either). My BRs do though. With 3 BRs, we would get about an egg a day in winter months. We live in the high desert of So. California, so we get HOT summers and freezing winters (and yes, we get snow). They did great! We did put in a ceramic heat lamp (the ones for lizard tanks) and it keep the coop about 40 degrees. My BRs are very tough birds! One thinks she is the boss of everyone...she chases the roosters if they try to get her and she bosses our dogs around (one is 60 lbs!). But, they are not aggressive. All of the breeds I have listed in my sig. line are very sweet birds, including my BRs.

Also, all my birds are hatchery stock. My BRs have never gone broody. (response to a previous post)

You could always get a mix of BRs, Delawares, etc. for a mixed flock (eye candy! ha ha). Just make sure they are winter layers since you want eggs year round.
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AS you can see we all have our favorites! Whichever ones you choose will be the right ones for you. It's great that you are so honest and are doing your research first before you get your chickens. Right now, your reason is for eggs, I predict that your chickens will become much more than that. Mark my words, you will come to love and enjoy them and be addicted to this website!
Good luck and you are on your way to a great adventure!
Mary
 
Rachel, if you can fall in love with a fish, I PROMISE you, you'll flip over chickens! They have such entertaining personalities, and are all very individual. Take the time to get to know them, by giving them treats, talking to them, and handling them, and you will end up with a bunch of devoted pets. I agree with all the suggestions for Barred Rocks. I have three, all great layers with totally different personalities. I wanted mine for eggs too. Now I would keep them even if they didn't give me eggs! Good Luck!!
 
As for coops and runs I would definately got through the coop designs here on backyardchickens. It has saved me from extra work and such great ideas. You picked the right site to get your information!! I am small scale and just got 2 RIR's froma feed store in May. They haven't layed yet...but I hope they do before winter cus they can just wait till next year otherwise!! Dern it!! I got a great book at Barnes and Nobles The encylopedia of country living. I think it is most thorough and interesting. Good luck and Welcome!!!
 
Rachel - I'm new to the whole chicken thing too and believe me, you'll get hooked quickly!

My sister and I both lost our jobs of 20 years (darned economy) and we had time on our hands. We have the luxury of both of us living on our family's 500 acre farm so we not only had time, but we had the room for chickens... so we thought what the heck.

We started out this past May with 12 chicks - they were all supposed to be pullets, but 4 ended up being roos. We bought 6 RIR and 6 red sex links.

We had a shed that we tweaked into a chicken condo! We've had people laugh and say that we could live in there. LOL We even have a baby monitor set up in the coop that I turn on in the house at night so I can hear if something is bothering them. Trust me, those roosters will let you know! But it's very cool to wake up at 6am to the roosters crowing and welcoming the new day.

Attached to that we put a 10x10 dog run that we made predator proof, complete with a roof and tarps on the side to protect them from weather. We lock that section off at night so they have the coop and that outdoor run during the night.

We added 3 more dog runs to that secure run and even added a large 20x40' section of chain link.

They say that chickens are to have 8sf each - ours have 56'sf each! And that's not counting when we let them completely free range.

The pullets started laying eggs at 4 1/2 months. We get 6-7 eggs per day from the 8 hens.

Last week we bought 20 more chicks! They're in massive tubs and growing by the day. We bought a mix of buff orpingtons and ISA Hubbard browns. Like you, we're only interested in the eggs - there's no way we could eat our pet! LOL

The chickens will grow on you quickly and you'll learn a lot from this board. We also bought a couple of books that have helped. To be honest though, we're learning more by trial and error. So far (knock on wood) we've not lost a single one - due to our stupidity or health reasons.

Best of luck in your endeavor, you'll find great joy in it.
 
LOL Yes I have no doubt that I will fall in love with my chickens! I was previously thinking of putting them on my sisters property (she only has 2 acres and its in the city too) so I'm thinking, why not just put them here at my house?? I dont want to miss out on this bonding time with my chickens!! LOL I have just under an acres including house so not much land at all but I am pretty sure its legal just as long as I do not have roosters because of noise violation. So I'm off to google that and going to look at coop designs here, I have no clue what I want but my brother is a carpenter so he can help I'm sure!
 

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