Well we are looking for all hens, they don't have to be show worthy. It will be a few months until we order chicks so we have the time to find a good deal.
But these are the breeds we are looking at getting:
2 Silkies - 1 white (who will be named Shmoo), 1 whatever color. I would like a black one to contrast the white but any color works
1 Golden Sebright, because my BF likes the way they look.
1 Light Brahma
1 Easter Egger. Can be an Ameraucana but my BF isn't inclined to get an Araucana as he doesn't want a whole flock of "goofy looking" birds.
1 Welsumer, simply because it's the Kelloggs chicken.
I have looked at possibly getting a Campine, a Plymouth or a Leghorn in place of any breeds we cannot find, or that are too difficult to raise in the cold. The Sebright worries me as I have seen many say they are a difficult breed to raise and are delicate birds.
My BF wasn't too thrilled with getting chickens but he has warmed up to it and thinks its a good thing we can do together, build some nice memories on. He's kinda finicky about where we get the chickens and we both want to get the breeds all at once if possible. That is why we were looking at MPC, because all the breeds we want have a hatch date of May 17, a few days after I move in to his place.
I did check out the page for Destiny Farms in Brighton and they have most of the breeds we want and they are close by so we could hand pick our chicks. My BF is a bit leery of that and feels more comfortable ordering them online.
I just clicked the banner ad for Meyer hatchery and their page has a straight run of White Silkies listed as $0.00. With a deal like that, perhaps I should have a whole flock of Silkies!
A lot of our focus is currently on how to build a coop and if the area will allow it, which current information says yes, we can have chickens. The coop "issue" we have hit it that I am near obsessive about the design and how its built (I made a cardboard scale model of the latest design) and he is worried he will over build it. I told him I would rather have a coop that will last forever than one that will fall apart in 6 weeks and he agrees. We are still figuring out the best ventilation for our design and the best lay out for roosts and nests. We don't want to just buy one because it won't really be "ours" and we both have some drafting skills and he is a mechanic so building a coop shouldn't be too hard of a task.
We might just build one that could withstand a nuclear bomb blast while keeping the chickens safe inside.