Hey y'all, I'm lookin to gain more insight on chicken and duck raising. I want to purchase some new ones for my parents. But I personally don't know much about what breeds are good egg layers for this Texas heat. We don't use our chickens or ducks for meat purposes, mainly for eggs and pet purposes. My parents love chickens and ducks and all our animals are WELL loved and pretty spoiled. Lol But last summer we had a pretty bad dealings with local coyotes and sadly all but three of our roosters are gone. I recently rebuild our entire pen and now want to find some friends for these three guys. Lol I'm hoping someone WAY more experienced then me can give me some advice or tell me where I can get some chickens/ ducks/ both. otherwise I'll end up going to efowl.com to get em . Thanks for readin, hope y'all have a good one! ~ A.C.
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help. You've definitely come to the right place in terms of learning about poultry raising. As far as which breeds to pick, I can't offer any insight on duck breeds. But, chickens are another story. What are you and your parents looking for in the flock? Do you want lots of eggs? Meat? Companionship? This all helps you determine which breeds to get. I, personally, would recommend Buff Orpingtons, Easter Eggers, Black Australorps, Wyandottes and Sex Links. These birds all have friendly dispositions, good reputations for egg laying capabilities and are known to be meaty. Here are a couple links further explaining breeds and how to choose them. https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/category/chicken-breeds https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-pick-the-right-chicken-breeds-for-you https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...cken-guide-to-picking-backyard-chicken-breeds Here's a link to our duck section as well. https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/42/ducks BYC also has tons of info on building coops and preventing predators. Here's a couple good places to check out regarding this issues. https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/2/Coops https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/9/coop-run-design-construction-maintenance https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-predators-pests-how-to-protect-treat-your-flock Good luck picking some birds for your parents! I hope all goes smoothly! Feel free to ask any other questions; we are here to help.
Well a rooster can handle 10 hens, any less and they get physically damaged and overbred. If you keep 3 roosters, you would need at least 30 hens. Do you want flocks that large? Please put Texas in the search box, so your state thread will pop up. It would be good to ask what breed of chickens, or ducks can tolerate the climate you live in. Most chickens can handle cold much better than heat. I would suspect the same about ducks, who don't mind swimming in ice water. You can also ask specific duck questions at the "Duck thread," Roosters really aren't good at protecting flocks from predators.
Welcome to BYC All I can add to the above is check out the BST sectio for poultry and hatching eggs for sale: https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/67/buy-sell-trade Enjoy the site!
