Help choosing a flock to manage..

[Red Mangrove]

Purchase considerations:
1) Always get birds vaccinated for Marek's Disease, unless you are in a place where Marek's is not seen (it is seen a LOT in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US). For a deeper dive into this, read the page I made: http://welbars.com/index.php/mareks/

80% of the chicken population is estimated to carry the Marek's virus. The vaccine doesn't stop infection or transmission, it only stops the immune system from reacting to the virus. As a result they'll appear completely healthy for a year or two until they suddenly drop from paralysis one day and die. I've watched time and time again my unvaccinated chickens live perfectly healthy lives but the few vaccinated chickens I've gotten from other places drop dead randomly. As a result I refuse to bring vaccinated chickens here and I haven't had a random paralysis and death in ages now

The Marek's vaccine is the kiss of death to a chicken

 

[Alagirl]

Re Eggs:
do examine carefully how many eggs you consume. I cannot stress that enough.
I am glad that fate intervened (doggo murdered my first 6 chicks, she was ever so proud of herself. Good thing she is cute!)
I had 6 ISA Brown. Laying hybrids. I would have to deal with nearly 300 eggs per bird for the year!
I am happy that the assortment after that was less intensive.
even the breeds not pointed out as layers are prolific enough to keep me in surplus.

And as I understand the production layers are more prone to reproductive issues, and shorter lifespans.

Also, Re Rooster.
I would love to have that classic picture book rooster, with the green tail feathers, brown chest, etc. But I am living in a suburban setting, and my girls make enough of a racket doing their egg song. I like my neighbors, I am not going to subject them to a rooster crowing in the middle of the night.
Somebody down the road has roosters, I can hear them in the mornings, but they are far enough away making them ambient noise.

ETA
I collected my thoughts a while back.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/first-year-summary.1577969/#post-26809823

 

[fluffycrow]

I don't agree with this at all. I know of hundreds of backyard flocks with varied breeds that co-exist fine. In fact, I can't think of any first time chicken owner who bought a flock of all one kind of chicken from me. EVERYONE gets a mixture of breeds and it works out fine. There are very few breeds that are genetically mean (gamefowl and Leige Fighters - maybe), the vast majority do fine together, especially if they are raised as a group. We tend to project human qualities onto our pets and look for behaviors that support our theories and ignore those that don't. They are birds, not people. They can't look in a mirror, then at another chicken and think "that hen looks different from me - I hate her". Humans are peculiarly prone do doing things like that, birds have no inborn prejudice and they don't even learn them easily.

Chickens are tribal birds. As such, they stick together with the birds that look like them, or the ones they have familial connections with. In over a decade, many breeds (mostly consisting of heavy production breeds) have gone through my coops, and the behavior I've witnessed is the same. Each breed has formed close bonds with the birds they resemble the most. The leghorns stick with the leghorns, the ISA brown with the ISA brown, and so on. I had a single black bird, at one point. She was picked on constantly, and was driven almost to the edge of their territory. Same thing happened with the Blue hazes I periodically got. More recent examples, at one point, there was only one normally feathered female, and a pair of silkied bantams, who always stuck together. The silkied male passed, and after a few months I introduced a normally feathered male. The loner became the silkied female, even though she'd gotten to know the second male for longer. In my only batch of Tsouloufates, the male came out more stocky. Apart from the young pullets that follow him, he's gained the following of the most stocky adult female, who had been loyal to his father for almost two years. His father is not as stocky as him. In addition, the hen doesn't have a crest. The cockerel has a small crest, while his father has a bigger one. Slight differences like these are enough to cause group splits. One does not notice them, if one does not free range, since the splits are not visible, but they are present. I had an ISA brown get sick almost three years ago. She got picked on by everyone, but her ISA brown sister. And I can assure you, there is nothing more relentless than an ISA brown hen (except for actual gamefowl). It matters to me that in case a bird is poorly, I will not have a case of extreme aggression and shunning caused by the breed difference. That sick ISA brown was never able to be re-accepted back into the flock, since the only bird who accepted her after she was treated, was her ISA brown sister. I'm positive @Shadrach has had similar experiences, and @fuzzi has a great photo of their speckled Sussex bantams roosting at the other edge of the perch from their Dominique bantams (if I'm not mistaken on breeds). Of course, if one has a flock consisting of completely unrelated birds, with every bird being a different breed, or looking nothing alike, then it does become too mismatched to group off, but that is another thing entirely, and something I do not have experience with

 

[fluffycrow]

Thank you. I'm not against dual purpose. It seems a lot of breeds at the box stores are dual. I cannot remember why but I recall someone saying not to get dual purpose if all you want is eggs... Maybe get too big or not as many eggs?

Probably because they lay less, but I've found they lay for many more years. Currently the only true dual purpose breed I have are the brahma. It's a complete hault from them, whereas I do get one or two eggs from my other pens. The former leads to a more sustainable reproductive life, but it does mean less eggs for the first few years. In addition, a lot of dual purpose breeds take longer to mature. Again, better for reproductive health, but not egg production

 

[fuzzi]

Chickens are tribal birds. As such, they stick together with the birds that look like them, or the ones they have familial connections with. In over a decade, many breeds (mostly consisting of heavy production breeds) have gone through my coops, and the behavior I've witnessed is the same. Each breed has formed close bonds with the birds they resemble the most. The leghorns stick with the leghorns, the ISA brown with the ISA brown, and so on. I had a single black bird, at one point. She was picked on constantly, and was driven almost to the edge of their territory. Same thing happened with the Blue hazes I periodically got. More recent examples, at one point, there was only one normally feathered female, and a pair of silkied bantams, who always stuck together. The silkied male passed, and after a few months I introduced a normally feathered male. The loner became the silkied female, even though she'd gotten to know the second male for longer. In my only batch of Tsouloufates, the male came out more stocky. Apart from the young pullets that follow him, he's gained the following of the most stocky adult female, who had been loyal to his father for almost two years. His father is not as stocky as him. In addition, the hen doesn't have a crest. The cockerel has a small crest, while his father has a bigger one. Slight differences like these are enough to cause group splits. One does not notice them, if one does not free range, since the splits are not visible, but they are present. I had an ISA brown get sick almost three years ago. She got picked on by everyone, but her ISA brown sister. And I can assure you, there is nothing more relentless than an ISA brown hen (except for actual gamefowl). It matters to me that in case a bird is poorly, I will not have a case of extreme aggression and shunning caused by the breed difference. That sick ISA brown was never able to be re-accepted back into the flock, since the only bird who accepted her after she was treated, was her ISA brown sister. I'm positive @Shadrach has had similar experiences, and @fuzzi has a great photo of their speckled Sussex bantams roosting at the other edge of the perch from their Dominique bantams (if I'm not mistaken on breeds). Of course, if one has a flock consisting of completely unrelated birds, with every bird being a different breed, or looking nothing alike, then it does become too mismatched to group off, but that is another thing entirely, and something I do not have experience with

Yep, they generally roost segregated by breed.

 

[Galaxy_rules]

Yes.. thanks!

No problem!

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Fortunately, PA is far nicer in the winter, especially in the southern part of the state. Any breed of chicken prospers here, no need to worry about frostbite on combs except for roosters with large combs. Since the poster is getting only pullets and lives in south central PA, I think any breed will be fine in the cold and heat. Heat is actually a bigger problem than the cold here. I build coops for summer conditions, then add tarps as needed for the winters. I suspect if I were living in CT, I might do the opposite, or not have chickens at all because I wouldn't want to leave the warm house in the winter.

I become adjusted to the cold the same way the hens do, slowly....lol

 

[tsgarvey]

Probably because they lay less, but I've found they lay for many more years. Currently the only true dual purpose breed I have are the brahma. It's a complete hault from them, whereas I do get one or two eggs from my other pens. The former leads to a more sustainable reproductive life, but it does mean less eggs for the first few years. In addition, a lot of dual purpose breeds take longer to mature. Again, better for reproductive health, but not egg production

Okay.. if im understanding you correctly.. a good dual purpose breed will take longer to produce and not as many.. but will produce over a longer period of years? And are healthier in general? This sounds perfectly good to me. Can you name a few for me to choose from please. Thanks

 

[Acre4Me]

We have raised hundreds of chicks. Dual purpose, heritage, APA, and mixed. A couple of years ago. After a particularly egg-less winter, we got in some high production layers (Golden Buff Cross) that keep us in eggs year round. We get new chicks in the spring, sell the 18+ month old ones at auction. They are quiet, great layers, nice size and color. Of course, I have no idea what is sold in your area. The GBC are sold by an Ohio hatchery we can drive to for the chicks. But, for eggs, a high production layer is great!

We have many chicks bc kid shows in 4-H, and we need APA breeds for this. These get sold sometime after fair, with some held over for the next year or bc we like them. We also have 3 remaining from our first flock, age nearly 6 yo. They get to stay till death. We also have 1-3 cockerels/roosters at any given time. Roosters are noisy…some being downright annoying, some just crow a couple times a day (our BJG were minimal crowers). But, some pullets/hens just don’t shut up. We’ve had a couple that would almost go trance-like singing the egg-song over and over. In order to stop them, we’d have to enter the coop and startle them…although they would sometimes go back into song, so you could get a noisy one in a batch of hens, but these really talkative/singsong ones are the exception.

Good luck on your chicken adventure!

 

[fluffycrow]

Okay.. if im understanding you correctly.. a good dual purpose breed will take longer to produce and not as many.. but will produce over a longer period of years? And are healthier in general? This sounds perfectly good to me. Can you name a few for me to choose from please. Thanks

Basically. There's a definite exception for well bred Mediterranean breeds, but they can be harder to find, and slightly more expensive. Just some dual purpose breeds you can consider. Brahma, Chanteclers, Sussex, Orpingtons, Buckeyes