My husband and I had chickens 50 years ago and then went into more lucrative ventures as a vegetable grower with farm stand. Now I am going to have a few fun chickens together in a separate side of the coop with quails. We have 6chickens who will start laying in about a month and want to introduce bout 12-5 more. Want fun looking ones and large eggs and would like to know how different ages meld together. Would love input.
Hi there, and welcome to BYC! You can mix in new birds, as long as they are old enough and about the same size as the adult birds. Introduce new birds slowly. Keep the new birds on the other side of a fence or in a cage within the flock so everybody sees, but no body touches. This allows the pecking order to be established slowly. Dumping them all in together will cause this order to be upset and fighting and blood can ensue. Leave the new birds separate, but within the old flock for several weeks. This also gives them quarantine time in case one of them has a disease. After a few weeks, everybody has gotten used to each other and mixing day will go easier. There will still be some jostling, but it shouldn't get too aggressive. However, always watch closely for a week or so, and if the fighting turns bloody, always intervene. Good luck with your new flock and enjoy BYC!
Hello and Welcome To BYC! For breeds, check out the BYC Breeds section for member reviews on a lot of breeds, and the Henderson chicken breed chart compares a lot of popular breeds... http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html for straight big egg layers White Leghorns and Red Sex Links are probably the best number wise ... some other breeds that lay nice big eggs are Delawares, Minorcas, Jersey Giants and colored leghorns, also Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes and Orpingtons lay big eggs and come in a lot of pretty feather colors, for dark eggs Welsummers and Marans lay big ones. For some interesting looking ones Naked Necks and White Faced Spanish are good big egg layers.
