Need advice on building my flock

[cyberwuzzle]

We have five RIR chicks, three of which turned out to be roosters. Of the two pullets, one is not maturing and I think we might lose her. Seeing as how we only had two hens, we went ahead and got three four month pullets, two wyandottes and one brahma. We have a brand new hen house that will comfortably fit twelve chickens.

My plan is to integrate the two RIR pullets and one of the roosters, ( rehome the other two roosters), but I know we'll need more hens...for the whole rooster to hen ratio thing. Thing is, I just ordered a poultry fence today and suddenly I'm worried the chickens are going to able to fly over it.

So...I need more pullets, but I'm going to need a breed that's heavy ( can't fly), is a good layer and can be sexed easily by the hatcheries......because we don't want ANY more Roos.

Anyone know what breed that might be?

 

[buttercup95]

You could always go with cochins. They're beautiful, lay eggs regularly, and they look good in any flock.

 

[cyberwuzzle]

Was just thinking...maybe Brahmas are the answer. Are they hard to sex as chicks?

 

[donrae]

You might just need to cover the top of the poultry fence with netting or something similar, or consider wing clipping. Your criteria of good layers and easy to sex are well met by red or black sex links, but they're not especially heavy bodied.

 

[buttercup95]

I don't know much about brahmas but I do see a lot of them on here for people asking which gender they are. So maybe they are hard to sex?

 

[aart]

Do you want to breed chicks to be sex linked(easy to tell roosters from hen at hatch)?

You need to get a different breed of rooster from your hens

Read this thread, at least the first few posts.

Good Luck!

 

[lazy gardener]

How high is your poultry fence? If you're looking for efficiency with feed to egg ratio, a lighter breed would be better. PP mentioned sex linked birds. If you got some Barred Rocks or other Barred pullets, your RIR roo would produce a black sex linked bird with them. You might want to google sex-linked combinations that would work with your RIR roo. Personally, I'd prefer to clip wings instead of choosing heavy birds, but that's my personal preference.

 

[cyberwuzzle]

Thanks for the feedback. In the end I decided on two Cochin, two Brahma and two Speckled Sussex. I know these breeds only lay 2-3 eggs a week, but with ten or eleven hens i guess that will be plenty enough, even if they lay less than that. I chose My Pet Chicken for the chicks, hoping it's true they're accurate at sexing.

We don't plan to let the hens hatch any chicks...at least not any time soon. I'm too new to even think what a RIR papa with these breeds would produce. Mostly I just wanted to make sure we have a good hen-to-rooster ratio and that the birds won't stray over the fence and be killed. We may have to clip some wings.

 

[buttercup95]

Thanks for the feedback. In the end I decided on two Cochin, two Brahma and two Speckled Sussex. I know these breeds only lay 2-3 eggs a week, but with ten or eleven hens i guess that will be plenty enough, even if they lay less than that. I chose My Pet Chicken for the chicks, hoping it's true they're accurate at sexing.

We don't plan to let the hens hatch any chicks...at least not any time soon. I'm too new to even think what a RIR papa with these breeds would produce. Mostly I just wanted to make sure we have a good hen-to-rooster ratio and that the birds won't stray over the fence and be killed. We may have to clip some wings

I'm glad you got more though! Be careful buying chickens and hatching them is addictive!

 

[Chicks Galore3]

Quote: No kidding...! Started out getting 6...then 10....then 12....then I gave up on ever stopping, bought 5 more hens and a rooster so I can hatch my own.