How many chicks should I order?

[ethingtonart]

We are going to order chicks next spring to start a breeder flock (pet quality) and I was curious how many birds I should order.

Our goal is to have a closed flock of pretty looking, hardy, layers. We do not intend to show, but we want to begin with enough chickens to be able to be selective about which ones we choose to breed. We have room to comfortably house about 15 more chickens. (About 30 chickens in all, we currently have easter eggers and we are thinking about getting hatchery faverolles.)

So how many males/females should we order?

 

[easttxchick]

100! Just kidding.

If you are just looking for 1 breed, I would order approx. 10 hens and 1 rooster of whatever breed you choose.

Just FYI, if you haven't chosen the breed yet, I would recommend Barred Rocks(I always do-I am totally partial

).

Good luck next spring!

 

[bargain]

Hi, you mentioned that you wanted tohave a breeder flock (pet quality) and were thinking of ordering from a hatchery....In general the hatcheries do not have show type quality that I think you might be looking for. If you are thinking about becoming a breeder yourself, you can buy from the hatchery and over the years improve your flock, but I would suggest that you try to find a breeder near you and/or order hatching eggs to get the highest quality type birds you can get.

There is a BYC breeder listing available on this board that you can look out. Should you be interested in hatching eggs, we've successfully sent hatching eggs throughout the country and would be glad to ship as well.

One of the breeds we offer and I've enjoyed so much is the speckled sussex.

Hope this was helpful and have a blessed day.

 

[ethingtonart]

100! Just kidding.

I wish I could!!

10 hens and 1 rooster of whatever breed you choose.

That's about the number I was thinking, but I think I heard somewhere that you should have a back up rooster? Should I have more than one rooster to choose from in case the coloring is wrong or something?


Right now we are wanting to breed for our own use. In the future (probably not the near future) we will be inheriting about 20 acres of land in Massachusetts, and at that time we want to breed from really good stock. But we thought that it would be best to practice with less valuable birds. I hope I'm right about that being the best coarse of action. I'm still really new to all of this!

Hope this was helpful and have a blessed day.

Every piece of new information in helpful!! Thanks!​

 

[easttxchick]

Gee, I tend to disagree with the backup rooster idea. Too many roosters cause issues. 1 rooster to 10 hens is a pretty good ratio. Roosters are VERY easy to come by for free, so if something should happen to your rooster you could get another one.