Hello from Hilo side

[poakahi]

Aloha!
My name is Maia and I'm on the Hilo side of the Big Island. I havent had chickens since I was a teenager and we only had them for eggs...

Come December I will be living just north of Hilo and will be getting my little farm started.

I plan to buy one rooster and six hens or so each of Rhodeisland Reds, Black Austrolops, Barred Rocks, and Buff Orpingtons... The last in hopes Ill get a few broodies... My idea is to keep all breeds seperate so that I can hatch pure chicks with my broodies. I am thinking of alternating them as far as letting them free range although it would be nice if they could all free range...

Ive read about seperating breeds a month before breeding season to guarantee pures but from what ive seen breeding season seems to be whenever since i always see chicks around and the weather is nice and warm year round...

Should I just ditch my desire for variety and get just ome breed to make things easier?

I picked these breeds not only for looks or sentimental r reasons (i had a sweet ri red growing up, ALWAYS gave double yolks!) but also because their good egg AND meat producers...

Mahalo in adance for any input

And thanks redsoxs!

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, Maia, and ! Glad you made it official and joined our flock. I think you will have to separate the breeds if you want purity which will mean a lot of extra work...4x the waterers, feeders, etc. Maybe start with one or two breeds to see how it all goes. That way you wouldn't have all the maintenance required with 4 pure strains. Whatever you decide, best wishes and thanks for joining BYC!

 

[QueenMisha]

Welcome to BYC! It's great to have you.

If you're looking to breed, then I would suggest starting with ONE or TWO breeds. 20 chickens in the same pen is one quarter of the work of four pens with five birds each. Invariably much easier.

Personally I wouldn't recommend "Rhode Island Reds." Largely because they aren't Rhode Island Reds. Real Rhode Island Reds are nearly extinct. The birds people like to sell as RIRs are Production Reds. They share very little in characteristics or genetics with true Rhode Islands. And they're nasty, picky birds. I've watched 25 Production Reds pick the feathers off 300 various other birds they were housed with. I've seen this happen multiple times, with multiple batches of different birds from different hatcheries. Most folks you will find are HAPPY to get rid of their Production Reds if given the chance, because they do nothing but pick at and attack their other birds.

Second thing. The birds you're getting are almost certainly hatchery stock. Hatchery stock are egg producers only and essentially useless for meat. They've been bred down and outcrossed to be a fraction of the size of a true representative of that breed. What are we gonna do? There aren't any chicken breed police. People see words like "dual purpose" or "ten pound cockerels" online and say oh, this must be a good breed for meat and eggs! Nope. Not unless you find a real breeder. Hatcheries sell watered down egg laying hybrids. That 8 pound-hen, 10 pound-cock dual purpose breed is now a 4 pound-hen, 6.5 pound-cock laying breed.

Now I'm not saying they're bad birds. They should be great egg layers and most should be good tempered and make good pets. But do not expect to get any sort of good meat yield from them, and do not expect them to be particularly accurate representations of the breed.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi Maia

Glad you could join us here! You have some great advice above so I will wish you the very best of luck with your new chicken adventures.

Enjoy your time here on BYC and all the chicken chat

 

[CuzChickens]

Hello there, and welcome to Backyard chickens!! I do not know a ton about breeding chickens, but I do know what Queen Misha said about the RIRs is true. I own the Black Australorps and Buff Orpingtons, I personally think they are great breeds and would be a lot of fun to breed! I hope you enjoy BYC!

 

[drumstick diva]

Thank you for joining us at Backyard chickens. It's great to have you here.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Hello and welcome to BYC!