I am a newbie!!

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chickerdoodle

chickerdoodle

Songster
10 Years
Aug 21, 2009
1,610
53
179
Oregon
I am also brand spanking new in this group so here is my story:

Hubby and I are going through a second childhood phase and we so decided on getting chicks next spring. I've been reading, reading, lurking and reading some more and now have eleven books in our private library about chickens! Our main goal is for a happy, friendly and hopefully somewhat productive backyard flock. We live in the burbs near Portland, Oregon and have a fenced backyard of about 45x70 feet. Our coop plans (at the moment) are stolen from one of the winners of your last coop contest!! We have made some modifications in the plans to hopefully keep it so easy we can care for them in our sleep (well you get the picture). It is the one for a covered 5x12 coop/run. We also have a nice area to extend the run even further or tractor the girls around.

My hubby is leaving the choice of chickens to me and Ive narrowed it down to:

Barnevelder
Australop
Easter Egger
Plymouth Rock (barred or buff)
Speckled Sussex
Welsummer

We don't want very broody hens--just friendly layers. I also don't want sex link hybrids. Any thoughts on these breeds? Will they mix OK? I can't just have one of each but I like qualities in all of them and need to narrow it further! We wish to start with only 4-5 hens.

All comments are welcome and encouraged.

Thank you, thank you, you're wonderful chicken folks!!
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Hello! and welcome to BYC!!!!
AS long as they are all close in age you should be OK!
I would suggest EE's for their chances of different colored eggs
welsummers for their terra cotta eggs
Barnevelder cause they are purdy
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so is the run 5x12? that will hold 12 standards. How big is the actual coop? The enclosed section for nesting................
4 sg ft per standard in coop ..............10 sqft in run
2sq ft for bantams in coop...................5sqft in run
12 birds i would do 8 boxes and several perches

best of luck~ i did pairs of each of my breed which include RIR, welsummers, barred rocks, delaware blue's, Ameraucana's and 2 mutts
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Hello and Welcome to BYC !

Your breeds of choice are nice ones.
We have had Australop,Easter Eggers and Barred Rock all running together and they had done just fine.


My experience with the Welsummers that we had , they were very mean to each other and other chicken breeds .

Fay
 
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I have had Australorps and EEs together and EEs with barred rocks.

EEs are sweet and friendly they lay pretty eggs, they are a bit loud with the egg song but they are a smaller breed so they eat less per egg (more economical) mine lay on average 5 eggs a week.

Australorps are the nicest in my opinion even the roos are sweet and docile!
they are larger and are for meat as well they also tend to get very hot so they are not that great for a very warm climate (such as south FL)

Barred Rocks are very much like australorps except they do better in the heat they lay about 5 eggs a week and are easier to sex because the roosters are colored differently.

I hope this helps you and Welcome to BYC!!


ETA: my pet chicken has a very good breed list http://www.mypetchicken.com/chickenBreeds.aspx
 
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You folks are too nice!! To answer some questions:

The hen house is going to be 5x4 = 20 sq. feet (although everything keeps getting bigger--by spring it may be the twice the size). That should be good for 4- 5 standard hens as the run will not only be covered on top but during the yucky, rainy winter we plan to cover the sides (clear so they can see out)
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up to 2 ft. high. This way they'll be cozy enough to get to walk around a bit even when it rains or gets colder.

Weather wise we are on the mild side--not usually too hot (at least for long) in summer and we don't normally have high humidity. Winter is rainy and usually stays above freezing but a few days below freezing pop up now and then (like last year!!).

We are only going to have 4-6 hens at the most so will have to get maybe two Barnevleders (love them!), an Australop, EE, and a BR--or one Barnevelder, a Welsummer, EE, Buff Rock, got to have a BR though, aghhh!! How do you choose!!
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