Hello from Los Angeles

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feather13 said:
Welcome to BYC from a fellow SoCal suburbanite!

I am so envious of everyone on here who lives in rural areas on big acreages with roosters, but there are wonderful things about backyard chicken-keeping, too. There are many positives and the only negatives I can think of are: no roosters in most cases and trying to find quieter breeds that don't want to roam all over the neighborhood.

We've had good luck with sexed day-old female chickens (Murray McMurray), but less luck with noisy breeds. Imho, Egyptian Fayoumis, Buff Minorcas, and Black Stars aren't great choices for densely populated areas (although they do great with scorching heat). Our EEs, Phoenixes, OEGB, Crevecoeurs, Sussex, Silkies, and Buff Orpingtons have been on the quieter side. Feather-footed breeds like Faverolles die pretty easily in the heat and Silkies seem more susceptible to Mareks (which we have in our flock).

Would love to hear which breeds you decide to go with!
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I've been looking at what breeds to get. I have to choose wisely since I'm only getting so few. Orpingtons are on my list, for sure. We used to have some Buffs and they were the sweetest. I just saw tonight that Murray McMurray has Chocolate Orpingtons! I also saw Bielfelders, which I've never heard of. Black Australorps, Wyandottes, Americaunas and Welsummers are on my list as well but I haven't done enough research to see which ones are on the quieter side and less flighty.

Is your yard a typical back yard size or bigger? We're SO limited to where we can put the coop!
 
kellyokelly said:
I've been looking at what breeds to get. I have to choose wisely since I'm only getting so few. Orpingtons are on my list, for sure. We used to have some Buffs and they were the sweetest. I just saw tonight that Murray McMurray has Chocolate Orpingtons! I also saw Bielfelders, which I've never heard of. Black Australorps, Wyandottes, Americaunas and Welsummers are on my list as well but I haven't done enough research to see which ones are on the quieter side and less flighty.

Is your yard a typical back yard size or bigger? We're SO limited to where we can put the coop!
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The breeds you list are all great. We really like our Easter Eggers (Murray McMurray sells them as Amercaunas) and had a wonderful Welsummer. There's no guarantee, but going with quieter birds is best for small yards (unless you have neighbors who love chickens or at least tolerant like we're fortunate to have). If you're thinking of letting your flock free range, definitely look for chickens that aren't known for wanderlust.

In our experience, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Easter Eggers, and any of the larger sized breeds stick close to home. Bantams/smaller breeds (except for Silkies and Crevecoeurs) are more flighty and Rhode Island Reds and Black Stars/Sex Links are prone to peer pressure. If they see other jump the wall, they'll do the same LOL.

We have a small yard with a small orchard behind/below it where the coop is, so we're lucky to have space to free range with shade and some protection from hawks. We have friends though with very small yards and they do fine by mostly keeping their flock cooped up. How many chickens are you planning to get? It's so much fun setting up a coop and getting birds!
 
feather13 said:
The breeds you list are all great. We really like our Easter Eggers (Murray McMurray sells them as Amercaunas) and had a wonderful Welsummer. There's no guarantee, but going with quieter birds is best for small yards (unless you have neighbors who love chickens or at least tolerant like we're fortunate to have). If you're thinking of letting your flock free range, definitely look for chickens that aren't known for wanderlust.

In our experience, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Easter Eggers, and any of the larger sized breeds stick close to home. Bantams/smaller breeds (except for Silkies and Crevecoeurs) are more flighty and Rhode Island Reds and Black Stars/Sex Links are prone to peer pressure. If they see other jump the wall, they'll do the same LOL.

We have a small yard with a small orchard behind/below it where the coop is, so we're lucky to have space to free range with shade and some protection from hawks. We have friends though with very small yards and they do fine by mostly keeping their flock cooped up. How many chickens are you planning to get? It's so much fun setting up a coop and getting birds!
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Thanks for all your advice! We’re only getting 4 or 5 since we don’t want to crowd them.
 
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kellyokelly said:
Thanks for all your advice! We’re only getting 4 or 5 since we don’t want to crowd them.
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You have some fun and exciting decisions ahead of you 😊 ! It's always so exciting choosing which breeds to get. By the time you get everything set up, McMurray's should have plenty of sexed chicks available. They have a minimum order number (25 Jan-March and 15 April-Oct), so you might want to arrange to split a batch with any chicken keeping friends you have or plan in advance to sell your surplus chicks. I found they were 100% accurate in sexing our chicks, but be aware that many on BYC report that their "free mystery chick" is male. If you can't have roosters, you may want to skip the freebie.

When I was doing research on heat-tolerant chickens, I found the following to be good for our hot southern California climate (I'm leaving off many bantam breeds, Egyptian Fayoumis, and Minorcas for their flightiness, wanderlust, and/or loudness), although our Orpingtons, Australorps, RIRs, Barred Rocks, Black Stars, etc. have also done well, even last summer with the extreme heat and wildfire smoke: American Bresse, Buttercup, Crevecoeur, Houdan, Cuckoo Marans, Welsummers, Sumatras, Silkies, and Phoenixes. It seems like most chickens that lay white eggs and those that are smaller are on the heat tolerant side, as well. We love, love, love our Phoenixes (see my profile pic). They are sweet, curious, funny little backyard buddies that tolerate being picked up all the time by my teenagers, although they do sometimes love to jump into the neighbor's yard.

Let us know what you decide to get and what your backyard coop set up looks like!
 
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drumstick diva said:
WELCOME TO BYC, IT'S SO NICE YOU JOINED THE FLOCK. :wee :yesss:

Fayomi's are said to have a lot of natural resistence to Merricks. Seramas & Silkies do NOT!!
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Good point. Our five Silkies all died of Mareks. We currently have a vaccinated Fayoumi... so far, so good. Just not sure I'd recommend them if folks need quiet birds lol.
 
Welcome to BYC! I’m so excited to see you joined! This wonderful community of poultry keepers and experts will be very happy to answer whatever questions you may have ☺️
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