New Chicken Coop Owner from New Hampshire deciding on the actual Chickens

[sourland]

I would just make sure you can see them from the house. And that the coop is easy to get too.

Welcome to BYC.

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, Lily, and

! Great to have you here! Sounds like your questions have been addressed so I'll just best of luck and enjoy your chickens!

 

[lilyphoenix]

Voila! Used my gimp-y gimp skills to make a map. Square building is the barn, el-shaped building is the house. Green peppers are where the apple trees are more-or-less.

 

[kidcody]

from washington state glad you joined us!

 

[liz9910]

from California!

 

[sumi]

Hello and welcome to BYC

Glad you joined us!

 

[chicken pickin]

I would definitely place them in an area you can see from the house I know I like to look out the window and know all is ok. Make sure is is some where easy to get too youll be trudging through snow in no time to tend to them. I would do area 2 or 3. I like the idea of them being in the chinlink fence but if your concerned about them being where your family hangs out I would choose near the apple trees.

 

[bruceha2000]

Question on the chicken breed search tool. If I select cold weather and egg-layer, I get only two breeds, should I also be looking at dual-purpose?

Search for dual purpose and winter hardy. Pea or cushion comb a plus. My Anconas have large combs and wattles and are a bit of a frostbite threat.

I disagree with the other responses. I would put the coop in Area 1 by the corner of the barn.

First: You said INSIDE the barn is out because the cars are in there so:
1) It isn't very far
2) You are already out there twice a day anyway

Second: You don't need to be able to see the coop from the house. What are you going to see from the house? Nothing. You are at work all day 5 days a week and it is dark when you get home.

My coop IS in the barn, it is a converted horse stall. I can't even see the barn door, let alone the coop, from the house. When the girls are out, they may be behind the barns in the barn yard (haven't gone swimming in the pond yet

). They may be between the big barn where their coop is and the little barn 15' to the south, they may be in front of the barns behind the house or in the parking area, they may be in front of the house, they may be beside the house, they may be behind the house

They have decided to hang in the barn since we started getting serious snow, though they could go out if they wanted. They have not, as yet, decided they wanted to be more than about 100' from any of the structures though that might change in the spring. They came to us from Ideal Poultry as 2 day old chicks in June, maybe they get braver as they get older.

Let them out into the attached run when you are at work. Since you are north, I would invest in an automatic door so you aren't opening the coop until after daylight. They will naturally put themselves to bed as it gets dark. If you want them to have more outdoor space in the future, you can add a larger "day safe" run attached in some way to the existing run so they can go back to the coop to lay. When you are home (weekends/ vacation days), let the birds range wherever they want. It will include the area "south" of Area 1 and the barn. And the area "NE" of the barn. And Area 3.

BTW, they might eat your apples

I like all my girls (in my signature) though the Anconas, especially one of them, are being "Miss Bossy Pants", mounting the other girls to show who is the top of the order. I started with "winter hardy and good layer dual purpose" requirements but got intrigued by some of the other aspects. For instance, the body type of the Cubalaya. I just got a scale yesterday and their eggs aren't even making USA PeeWee. The Easter Eggers are laying just barely USA Large though I sometimes get whacking huge double yolk eggs (I call them the "two egg omelette" eggs

) from them and the Australorps and the Anconas whose usual eggs register USA Medium on the scale). I don't know if the eggs will get larger as they get older. They have individually only been laying for a month or two (and I think one of the Chanteclers hasn't started yet). So some of my girls should lay 5 or 6 a week and others maybe only 3 or 4. One of my EEs laid her first egg, took 2 days off, laid every other day for 6 days, laid 3 days, took one day off then laid 11 days straight followed by a day off then two in a row. The other laid first and had a 10 day and a 7 day streak. The bigger Australorp didn't start to lay until Jan 3rd, over a month after the first, laying 5 of the 6 days since she started. The smaller started on 11/26 and has laid 27 eggs since averaging 4.3/week. We've gotten 1 or 2 eggs (possibly 3 yesterday!) from them since the larger started laying.

That said, there are a lot of other breeds I would like to try. So many breeds, so little time

I actually stayed away from the "every body has them" breeds like the Rhode Island Red just because I wanted to have something different.

And you can't necessarily go by the description of the breeds. For instance, the Henderson guide says this about the Ancona:
"prefers free range; nervous & restless in confinement; flyer; active, flighty, marked wildness, avoids human contact"
None of my birds avoid human contact but only the Anconas fly to my shoulder and I am NOT encouraging them to do so at the time. They aren't flighty or wild but they are active and are good foragers.

I would find the individual breed threads here for those breeds that are of interest to you and see what people say about their birds. You have plenty of time to learn before you order if you are getting hatchery. And beware, if you order too early from the hatcherys, they will put extra "free" chicks in the box so they can maintain temps. The extras will almost surely be ALL boys even if you order pullets. So, if you want both and want to get them in the colder weather, order all pullets. If you order a dozen straight run, you might end up with 5 or 6 girls and 8 to 12 boys. If, by some miracle, you get all girls on a spring order, remember you can eat extra girls but extra boys lay no eggs.

One thing I did learn: A 4' wood rail fence with chicken wire will keep a chicken exactly where IT wants to be.

Bruce

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us.

 

[clrdogrl]

I'm in NH. We have had barred rocks, Rhode Island reds, and buff orpington's. They are all dual-purpose birds. Large birds that lay nice brown eggs. My favorite is the Barred Rock but my daughter loves the Buff Orpington's as they're the Golden Retrievers of the chicken world. They lay religiously and are super cold hardy as we don't use heat except on really cold nights.