FIRST THINGS FIRST

[eileen meyer]

Hi Members,

It's nice to meet people with the same interest, from whom I can learn to raise backyard chickens. I am starting from scratch, (no pun intended). As we live on Long Island, NY, my first question is which breed would be hardy enough to withstand our winter weather conditions and still be good layers with sweet temperments. Our county allows homeowners to own up to 6 hens, no roosters. What time of year do you think would be wise to get the chicks and can the sex of the chick be determined early on.

Thanks for any advice you guys can offer me. I really appreciate a group like this. - Eileen

 

[mickey328]

Hi Eileen and welcome!

I'm fairly new to the "chicken game" as well. This is just my two cents' worth and I'm sure you'll get lots of other advice as well We're in pretty much the same situation, I think. We're also allowed 6 hens, no rooster. I was looking for good layers of large brown eggs, birds that weren't real flighty or broody, fairly calm and quiet (cranky neighbors would complain) and were hardy enough to handle our sometimes cold winters and usually hot summers.

What I decided on were the sexlinks. They're also called "stars" or "comets"...they're a hybrid, not a breed, that are colored according to gender...the roos are white with a bit of other color, and the females are totally colored so it's easy to tell right away what sex they are. There are black ones, red ones, gold ones...tho IMO the red and gold are very similar in coloring.

I considered getting chicks, but was a bit leery about raising them, since I'd never even touched a live chicken before, LOL. We really lucked out, however...just happened to check Craig's List one day and a lady about 10 miles away was selling 6 of them...they were 8 months old and had already been laying regularly for 3 months!

Putting the chicks before the coop, we fetched them home. She lent us a good sized cage until we could get the coop built and even after all the moving and new surroundings, we got 2 eggs the very next day. Since then we average between 2 and 6 eggs every day, large to extra large extremely tasty brown eggs! The average has been about 4.5 a day.

They moved into their newly built coop about a week ago and are doing really, really well. I never knew they could be so much FUN! The eggs are great, but watching "chicken TV" is wonderful. They're extremely curious and will come running as anyone approaches the run, hoping for treats They don't really like being handled but will calmly stand very near and once you do have them picked up, they calm down immediately.

So all in all I would highly recommend the red stars, comet, sexlinks...whatever name they go by locally We've been extremely pleased with both their behavior and their production.

HTH
Mickey

 

[JeffOeuf]

I'll second the recommendation of red sex-links (gold star, red star, gold comet, or any other name they may be called). My two have been wonderful fun to raise from chicks. I also have a hatchery Wyandotte and an Easter Egger, both took longer to start laying and are not quite as consistent, but still wonderful for their variety. The blue eggs are quite a hit with the friends and neighbors.

 

[sumi]

Hello and welcome to BYC

You got some good suggestions here. Enjoy your chickens!

 

[Kevin565]

 

[Red Barn Farms]

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan

My preference is for purebred birds, especially some of the dual-purpose breeds. Visit the Henderson chicken chart for good info on cold hardiness, temperament, laying charactoristics, and other good stuff.

 

[weimarmama]

& from Alabama. Glad you joined us. Great advice given - Good luck

 

[CayugaLover]

welcome!

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, Eileen, and

! Happy you joined us! I would concur with pervious posts about breeds. Hard to go wrong with Black or Red Stars. I personally raise a variety - spices things up. I also think climate shouldn't be an issue provided they have adequate shelter - they are a resilient bird! I don't think I would get them much later than early fall so they are fully feathered when the real cold hits (if you get them as day-old chicks). Good luck to you!!