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I haven't looked into breeds--still figuring out if my dirt floor coop with 3 walls and the 4th just screen will work. If I dive into the "chicken thing", I'd like a friendly breed (can you believe I'm scared of birds!) that lays eggs and is not keen on flying since I'd like to just have a 5' fence around their daytime space. Any suggestions?
 
Kris64 said:
I haven't looked into breeds--still figuring out if my dirt floor coop with 3 walls and the 4th just screen will work. If I dive into the "chicken thing", I'd like a friendly breed (can you believe I'm scared of birds!) that lays eggs and is not keen on flying since I'd like to just have a 5' fence around their daytime space. Any suggestions?
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I don't know of any standard breeds that are good layers that can be guaranteed not to go over a five foot fence. Your best bet would probably be Buff Orpingtons, but even they might fly over a five foot fence. I suppose you could clip their wings. You only need to clip one wing as it throws them off balance.
 
Yep. The garden is about 30 x 40 and my plan is to split it in half. Chickens get half one year and the veggies the other. Then once a year swap them. Not sure if it can be that simple, some say yes and others say no. Great idea on letting the chickens help clean the garden at the end of the growing season, but what if the veggies have a disease? For example, the tomatoes that the previous owners planted ended up with black spots on them. Would that hurt the chickens or are they tougher than that?
 
Michael OShay said:
I don't know of any standard breeds that are good layers that can be guaranteed not to go over a five foot fence. Your best bet would probably be Buff Orpingtons, but even they might fly over a five foot fence. I suppose you could clip their wings. You only need to clip one wing as it throws them off balance.
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P.S. Buff Orpingtons are extremely friendly and gentle. I never had an aggressive one, and my children, and now my granddaughter, made lap pets of them.
 
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Love it! Definitely will look into the Buff Orpingtons. Any suggestions on mail order vs looking locally for chicks?
 
Kris64 said:
Love it! Definitely will look into the Buff Orpingtons. Any suggestions on mail order vs looking locally for chicks?
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Locally is always the best as it saves the stress of shipping on the chicks. However, locally is often not an option (that's almost always been the case for me) and then shipping by mail is your only option. Unless you are wanting to spend the money for show quality chicks, there are some good hatcheries you can use. I've ordered chicks on multiple occasions from four different hatcheries; Dunlap Hatchery (dunlaphatchery.net/), Murray McMurray Hatchery (https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html), Ideal Poultry (http://www.idealpoultry.com/), and Cackle Hatchery (cacklehatchery.com/). Dunlap is my favorite of the four, however due to their distance from you, I would suggest you go with one of the others. I've been happy with the service and birds (including the Buff Orpingtons) of the other three. I've never lost more than 1 or 2 chicks in shipping (none ever from Dunlap), and since they all place 2 or 3 extra in the box, I've always gotten what I've paid for. I've always ordered 25 pullets at a time as they ship better than smaller numbers, even if I didn't need 25. Since I've always had the sales slip showing I ordered pullets, I've never had any problem selling off the extras and recouping my money. Even with all pullet orders, I always end up with a cockerel or two (except with sex link orders).
 

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