Finally! We're getting chickens!

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from Missouri
 
Chris,

Since you seem to want a small flock, you should definitely focus on production breeds. Commonly available good layers are barred rocks, rhode island reds, sex-links, australorps and buff orps. All good layers.

Cochins are said to be slow to mature and mediocre layers. Lemme tell ya: my year-old banty cochin has NEVER laid a single egg. She doesn't display the bright red comb or wattles yet, in fact her headgear is still rather stunted. Who knows if that dumb bird will ever go from "lawn ornament" to "layer".
 
Suburban farmer ~ Hi!! I am excited for you
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We have three year old Cochin hens, and they each lay every 2-3 days. We have a bunch of EEs that lay like mad, most of them daily. Also, since you had chickens before, you probably know that Aracaunas have a 'lethal gene', and Ameracaunas are sort of a spin-off (yet are a recognized breed by poultry association), without the lethal gene. Aracaunas have tufts and are tail-less, and Ameracaunas have sweet, cute, fluffy muffs and beards!!! Can ya tell I'm partial? Our EEs were sold as Ameracaunas, but sadly they are mutts. We still get blue/green eggs and adore our girls, anyway. Good luck and hope to see you on here often
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Okay - here's what we ended up with !

My youngest daughter said that while she may do the poultry project with 4H next year, she has no intentions of showing them as we're very involved with showing rabbits.

So, we headed on down to the feed store and brought home three baby chickies! An Americauna, a black sex-link and a Rhode Island Red (courtesy of my husband).

The guy at the feed store said he didn't know if they were araucaunas or Americaunas, but I was checking around online for pictures of chicks and it looks like they are Americaunas..not 100% positive of course. I can see the fluffy cheeks...but the kid at the feed store says both breeds can have this (the ones I had years ago didn't have the fluffy cheeks, however).

Either way, looks like we'll have some Easter eggs.
 

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