New to chickens and know nothing about breeds

[BSisco]

Please help!!!!! Our family has just decided to get into chickens, mostly for pest control and eggs, but I also want them for pets. Crazy I know, but that being said I know nothing about breeds. I have ordered some eggs off eBay, because I think the parent birds are pretty, but don't know what breed they are. Needless to say I need all the advice I can get. Also I saw some lavender birds on eBay that I fell in love with if anyone knows anything about them or where I can get some. Thanks in advance.

 

[AnimalLover99]

Do u have a coop? That's the first step. What are looking for? Prettiness, high egg production? Do u want them to be very docile? But a great breed in general are orpingtons. And they come in lavender. Also silkies are really nice. If u want high egg production, u could get Rhode Island reds. Easter Eggers are a great breed and they blue/green/ pink eggs.and u have a incubator right?

 

[AnimalLover99]

Also if take a picture of the parent birds on the site I might be able to tell u about the breed.

 

[BSisco]

My kids and I are building our incubator tomorrow after school and we will be building our coop over the next few weeks. We have a design in mind, and it will definitely be done before the chicks are ready to go in. I kinda wanted to see how many of my eggs hatched out so I knew how big to build it, I don't want it to be too small. I will post pics later this afternoon of the birds from the auctions that I bought the eggs. Thanks so much!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m not sure how to respond to your post. There are a tremendous number of breeds out there with different traits. If you know your goals and pay just a little attention, it’s hard to go wrong. A lot of people don’t even worry about breeds, just go for a mix that has the general traits they are looking for.

Here are a couple of links that might help you some on the different breeds. Good luck!

Henderson’s Breed Chart
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

Feathersite
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html

 

[Curly Beard]

Some of the English breeds ( Astralorps, Sussex and Orpingtons ) are pretty gentile breeds as well as some of the asiatic breeds ( Brahmas , Cochins ) Some of the better layers will be in the english breeds ( although light brahmas aren't bad either ) all of these birds lay a tinted or brown egg. Some of the American breeds are good layers as well but can be more agressive as well . To an extent how much you handle your birds when they are young will influence their attitudes for being pets . A lot of the white egg layers will avoid human contact and lay lots of white eggs , but there can be exceptions to this in white egg layers as pets , a lot depends on how you interact with your birds

 

[BSisco]

I cannot save the pics off eBay to my phone, but the descriptions are: Silkie, Ameraucana Easter Egger, and Lavender Splash Ameraucana. Of course all these are eggs that are on their way and will be hatched out together, as well as handled by my kids and I on a daily basis. So hopefully we will have some luck with friendly birds and decent egg yield. My youngest also wants a Donicker (sp).

 

[AnimalLover99]

What's a donicker? Also a few things about hatching shipped eggs. The day the arrive in the mail.
, don't immediately put them in the incubator. First u have to put them in an egg carton pointy side down to let the air sacks settle for 12-24 hours. Also be warned that on average about half of the shipped eggs hatch. And also can't u take screen shots?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

What's a donicker? Also a few things about hatching shipped eggs. The day the arrive in the mail.
, don't immediately put them in the incubator. First u have to put them in an egg carton pointy side down to let the air sacks settle for 12-24 hours. Also be warned that on average about half of the shipped eggs will hatch, if that. And also can't u take screen shots?

I would assume it is a dominique. Some people have great luck with shipped eggs; others do not. It is a gamble. Listing a percentage that will hatch is a true crap shoot. Could be 100%; could be 0 %; or anywhere in between.

 

[BSisco]

What's a donicker? Also a few things about hatching shipped eggs. The day the arrive in the mail.
, don't immediately put them in the incubator. First u have to put them in an egg carton pointy side down to let the air sacks settle for 12-24 hours. Also be warned that on average about half of the shipped eggs will hatch, if that. And also can't u take screen shots?

It's a domiquer (still not spelled correctly I'm sure) and I can take screen shots just didn't think about it. I'll do that tomorrow. Thanks for the tips on the eggs after shipping. I planned to get more eggs than I wanted in chicken count for that reason. If I have a high hatch count I have a friend who wants some so it will all work out.