Looking to see which chickens produce the most and colorful eggs. How many is a good number to start with? Where does everyone get their chickens from?
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to our flock. The very best layers are White Leghorns (for white eggs) and Black and Red Sex Links (for brown eggs). These are the hens used by commercial laying houses as they are egg laying machines, consistently churning out more than 300 eggs per hen per year. The most colorful eggs are those of Easter Eggers (blue, olive, green, beige, and sometimes even pink or gold), Ameraucanas, Araucanas, and Cream legbars (blue), and Marans, Welsummers, Barnevelders, and Penedescencas, all of which lay chocolate (very dark brown) eggs. In my personal opinion, the chocolate eggs are the prettiest eggs in the chicken world. How many hens you will need depends on how many eggs per week you want. If you get White Leghorns or sex links, you will typically get 6-7 eggs per week. With the colored egg breeds I mentioned, only about 3-4 eggs per week. Most owners' chickens come from hatcheries (which is fine for egg production), but for those who want show quality stock that meets the APA standard of perfection, they purchase their birds from reputable breeders. Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Whatever breeds you decide to get, good luck with your flock.
Hello there and welcome to BYC! Michael sure has left you with some great info! Also, most feed stores carry the average hatchery chick in the spring time. Being in GA you may start to see them soon. Just be careful as some feed stores carry straight runs which will contain roosters. If you want pullets only, (hens) make sure you can trust your feed store when picking form a pullet only bin. You might also stop by our learning center for lots of good tips and hints on all the aspects of keeping your chickens...https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center Enjoy this new adventure you are on and welcome to our flock!
Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined. Michael O'Shay has answered your questions very well. I got some of my chicks from a hatchery, and some from local breeders. It all depends on what you want the chickens for.
Thank you for all the great info. Michael I am looking up many of the ones you mentioned. I will look around locally. I was alittle concern with ordering them but it seems alit do that. So far I have found great advice on this site. Thanks!