I have been lurking for several weeks now trying to learn as much as I can before we take the plunge. 1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? No chickens yet, planning for spring (2) How many chickens do you have right now? see above (3) What breeds do you have? Love the look of Cochins, but have not decided what we will get. Want friendly, docile and good egg layers. I am open to any suggestions or recommendations you might have. (4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com? Internet search (5) What are some of your other hobbies? Gardening, biking, working out (yep, I actually enjoy it) (6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. We are city folk. Moved to Winchester, VA four years ago after retiring from the Government in Washington, DC. We only have about an acre and a half and we live on a lake. We love this life and believe adding a small flock of chickens will add to that enjoyment. Just finished reading "A guide to raising chickens". We are now looking at building a coop. We are NOT DIYers, although since moving out of the city our skills are slowly improving. That said, I would like to know if you believe purchasing coop plans on line would be helpful in the design and construction of our coop? Well, I think that is about it for now. I look forward to hearing from you and continuing to learn as much as I can from this wonderful website. Mary
from Oklahoma. Do a search for coop plans, I think we have some on this board somewhere. I like the bantam Bochins, they are really pretty. They lay a fair number of eggs and are good broodies. I myself have Silkies.............. and I absolutely love them. They lay an average of 100 eggs a year, some may lay more. I have Australorps also, still waiting on them to start laying. The best egg layers are Leghorns, Australorps and RIR. I think the Barred Rock are good layers. The Red Sex-links are prolific layers. Other members can tell you what breeds they have and how well they lay. Glad to have you here.
Mary, welcome to BYC and the world of chicken-loving! You are doing the right thing by researching it all before leaping in.
