Introduction and Call for Advice :)

AllMarthas

Hatching
6 Years
Sep 6, 2013
6
0
7
Hello everyone! My name is A and my husband and I have city chickens in the Pacific Northwest.

(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
*Yes, we are fairly new to chickens. We got our first little chicks in spring of 2013, moved them out to their coop in August, and have just started getting eggs these past two weeks. We are flying by the seat of our pants, with input from frantic Google searches.

(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
*With a tear in my eye, I have to report we have three chickens, down from four. We lost one yesterday!

(3) What breeds do you have?
*Russian Orloffs. BUT I need help picking a new breed....see the end of the post and please chime in.

(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
*Google. See question 1, haha.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
*We are in the process of renovating our house. We love our first pets, our dogs. We are active outdoors people...hunting, fishing, hiking, skiing, etc. I also play the fiddle and the mister brews delicious beer.

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
*Errr. Well we keep "city chickens" in our front yard and have neighbors. I'm looking for the prefect chicken breed right now. Here's what we want:

-Not able to fly
-Dual purpose (ideally, but eggs are more important)
-NOT noisy
-Not aggressive towards each other, other breeds, or humans.

Right now we do love our Russian Orloffs (All of them are named Martha) but we cannot keep them contained due to their ability to fly even with clipped wings. They get out and then the neighbor dogs get them, apparently.

Thanks everyone!
 
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Glad you joined us!

Sorry about the loss of your hen.
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Dogs can be rather ruthless killers, even if they aren't bred to hunt--they think its fun.

As for breeds of chicken that fit your criteria, I have a few suggestions:

First of all, the Wyandotte is a nice breed. A few hens may be aggressive, but fights never get bloody or result in loss of feathers. They're good sized, and lay plenty of large brown eggs (230-300 eggs per year). Also, Wyandottes are cold and heat hardy, as long as they are provided with shade in the summer and a secure coop in the winter. They don't fly well (at all!), are intelligent and people-loving, and come in many pretty color varieties.

Another choice would be the Easter Egger. EE's are cold and heat hardy, lay beautiful blue, green, or pink eggs, and are extremely docile. They can fly somewhat well, but usually choose not to. As a cross-breed, EE's come in unlimited color varieties, and can have many different features.

Australorps and Orpingtons are other options. Both are dual-purpose layers of large brown eggs, are sweet, rarely fight with eachother, and are hardy in hot weather. They fly very poorly due to their weight. The only disadvantage of the Orpington in particular is that hens tend to go broody as they get older.
 
We just clip one but they still are roosting in the trees where the lower branch is 7 feet up. Every night we have to put two of them in the coop because they go to sleep on the roof.

Thank you for all of the breed advice. It is really overwhelming to try and read every thread about quiet chickens when everyone says conflicting things. :)
 

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