I originally had 5 each of the following, but I sold one of each to make room fotr the new ones or the guineas...I have to think about who goes where (I only have 1/2 an acre and it is getting a bit crowded with pens and coops:
Silver Laced Wyandottes, Delawares, Light Brahmas, Buttercups, Araucanas, Dominiques, Black Australorps and Buff Orpintons.
When I picked my breeds, I wanted breeds that haven't changed (or been changed) since about 1925. So many of the birds you can get nowadays are hybrids for fast growing or extra large breasts or large quantities of eggs. I wanted old breeds that have stood the test of time. If you want to see pics and descriptions of any of these breeds that you might now be familiar with, got to
http://www.cacklehatchery.com They have a nice variety of heritage and rare breeds. THey are also very nice to work with. I got all pullets except one Light Brahma cockerel and the Butercups were St Runs. I didn't have a choice with them. I got lucky though. I only had 2 cockerels out of 6 chicks. They are beautiful birds if you like a more "wild bird look". They only get to be about 4.5 lbs though. I got breeds that are good layers and also lay well in the winter. I have to admit that I got birds that i thought looked neat too. Next year, I might try a few new breeds as I will be using some of these for meat birds (which some of them are dual purpose breeds)...not like the "modern" ones, but still, will give you nice eggs and when the time comes, nice meat too.
I just finished taking pics of the CBs, poults and keets. I will post them so you can see them. My poults are also heritage and are 5 Royal Palm and 1 Narragansette ( I don't know what happened to the whole batch of Narragansettes and peafowl , but only 1 Naragansette survived). My keets are 3 Pearl, 5 Lavender and 1 Royal Purple. The Royal Purple was a mistake by the breeder, but oh well...it was one I was sort of considering anyway. It is basically black with a vivid purple sheen in the sun and only slight spots on the flank. The other 2 are what I really wanted as well as White, but she is a small breeder and the White were not producing when the others were and we would have ended up waiting a long time (I think) to get all three to be available at the same time.
I wanted the guineas ever since I read an article in Mother Earth News called "Gardening With Guineas". I thought it was a totally neat idea to have them instead of using tons of insecticide to get rid of all of the bugs in and around you garden and you place. They also kill snakes which is a good thing if you have snakes that are killing your livestock. Se only have little Garter snakes here and they aren't any problem. I try not to bother them if I see them. My chickens just look at them when they slither across their pen. My only concern are skunks, raccoons and possums. They pretty much stay away since I have 3 dogs and a good fence with a hot wire on the top and 1/4" steel plates on the bottom put in by the previous owner.
You can see my Chicken coop at (down the page a bit):
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2724&p=3
My peafowl pen is at (pretty basic, but I built it in 6 hours and it seems to do quite well):
The turkey pen is an attached copy of the peafowl pen...I would just add a relatively small coop to that one since I have so few turkeys.
That's all but the Bob White Quail. I have 12 of those that a friend gave me. I built a small pen (6X8) for them. They are an experiment. If the experiment doesn't work out, they will be dinner for some special guests.
FRONT QUAIL PEN
REAR/SIDE QUAIL PEN
Now you have seen all of the pens and coops to date. I will post the new pics shortly so you can see the CBs progress and also the keets and the poults just for fun.
Take care,
Steven
