Newbie , Please help...........Best breed for my family

[zookeypr12]

Hi everyone,

I am getting so very excited!! The fair is less than a week away : ) we started converting the shed yesterday and we are ordering the stock for the run this weekend : )

I have decided on 2 breeds so far....I am going to look for Buff Orpingtons, Black Astralorps, and get 2 of each

I am still trying to decide on the 3rd breed......here are the 2 I am trying to decide on

Barred Rock

Sex Link


If you had to choose between the 2 for being the calmest, gentlest easiest to handle?? (i am only looking for pullets)

thanks so much, you have all been very helpful : )

~k

 

[LMEggs]

Barred rocks and my Orpingtons are the quietest and gentlest here! I just love them. Silkies i've found are squeaky and noisey and cochins are also very quiet and my houdan and SSH are quiet flighty if something scares them and the houdan makes a ton of noise ( sings all the time 24/7) my NHRs are very very gentle puppy dogs even the rooster and are very big and quiet grown up but are very loud as babies LOL My ee's have always pecked me every last one of them and the roos fight and flog but laid big eggs and my coustomers always loved them the most for eating eggs. and the araucana i've had ( always loved the rumpless) were all quiet but a tiny bit flighty at times) and my black sex link hen always has been the best broody I got and she isn't mean broody either and quiet and pretty big too shes always been A fave.

LOL just rambling on my chickens.... I have to many...

 

[zookeypr12]

Ok I am going to throw in Sussex also. I dont know how available this breed is but they sound nice : )

Anyone with experience with this breed? how do they compare to a BR?


thanks again for all the help in sorting this out

 

[orcasislandchickens]

Your choices sound like nice ones. You will want to pick from what is available since getting them all at the same time and having them very close in age and size will make things so much easier.

I think you should make your final choice from among your short list at the fair choosing the heathiest nicest ones from a combination of your preferred varieties and the selection available. If you are planning to get chicks rather than point of lay pullets remember to have the brooder already set up, with light for heat and feeders with chick starter and water, so you can just pop them in when you get home.

Best of luck. Have fun at the fair.

 

[zookeypr12]

orcasislandchickens,

Thanks for the input. I have been giving a lot of thought to whether to get chicks or pullets.

I have never taken care of chicks before, is it difficult? do you keep them in the house? and for how long? are they tamer when raised from chicks? is it expensive to set up for them?

sorry for so many ?'s at once but I have so many

being a
newbie.

~k

 

[orcasislandchickens]

I am not all that experienced, opinions are all over the place as to whether to get pullets or chicks.

Chicks will have to be kept warm. 95 degrees to start, reducing the temperature by 5 degrees a week untill they are 8 weeks old. So they will have to be kept in a warm draft free place for a couple of months. In the spring and summer, and in Florida, you can cheat a little, but not in the winter where you live. Many people do make it work however.

Many people start the chicks in a large rubbermaid type tub in the house with a heat lamp or light bulb suspended above it for heat. You move the lamp farther away or reduce the wattage of the bulb to reduce the temperature. Position the heat lamp tword one end so the chicks have a choice of cooler to warmer within their little box. Use a thermometer to check the temperature. Feed medicated chick starter in a chick feeder and water in a chick waterer. Use PINE shavings for bedding. Cackle hatchery where I got my chicks had a care sheet on their website (most of the big hatcheries do). They tell you what to do when you have new chicks, how to set up a brooder, feed them etc. Read a couple of the hatchery how to's for starters. It realy isn't too hard to care for chicks.

This is the hard part...
At about four weeks they will start to need more room they will be driving you crazy-but they will still need MINIMUM teperatures of 75+ degrees. Not your outside temps. Depending on your coop you may be able to hang one or two heat lamps in a corner and give them a spot where it is that warm, or you may be able to put them with a heat lamp in a bigger box in the garage, laundry room or whatever until they are 8, 10, 12 weeks old whatever it takes to have them hardened off. I kept mine clean, changed the shavings once a week and there realy wasn't a problem with smell or anything. I did feel bad moving mine eventually outside to their unheated coop.

You will of course be handling them all the time, and they will have grown up with only each other and you so they should be pretty darn tame.

IF You get chicks at the fair FIND OUT HOW OLD THEY ARE and what kind of care you will need to provide. 2-4 month old ones (fully feathered ones) can go to the coop right away.

Try to get all 6 about the same age. Don't get 2- full grown, 2- 6weeks, and 2-day olds.
You'll have a nightmare on your hands trying to integrate them.

Started pullets will be able to go home to the coop. How tame they are will depend on their temperment and how they were raised. If you are lucky they might already be tame. Sometimes they are just tame by nature. You should be able to tame down a basicly gentle group if you spend the daily time with them to do so. I have seen battery hens that were real sweeties.

A point of lay hen is going to cost more.

Here chicks are 3-5 dollars, so 4 chicks is like 20 bucks. point of lay hens though are 25 dollars apeice. 100 smackers. Hard for me to do with DH standing there. Probably still a bargain in comparison to the chicks though when you figure feed, heat lamps, brooder box,etc., etc., etc.

You'll just have to go and see whats available. Shop around so to speak. Picking up something locally is probably best if you can find what you want. A lot of the big hatcheries ship year round, and usually have started pullets (sex links mostly) as well as chicks (all types).

Sorry this turned out to be a book. MY FIRST BOOK!!!
Signed copies available

 

[orcasislandchickens]

Forgot to say regarding cost to raise chicks I think I spent about 50 dollars on supplies like shavings, feed and feeders, thermometer, and a shoplight fixture. I had a 100 watt bulb which I only used a week and then switched to one of my ordinary lamp ones (75? can't remember).

The chicks were about 35 dollars with shipping.

So about 85 dollars or so that I remember. Six weeks of care for a savings of 15 dollars.

But I got what I wanted.

I'm sure prices are very different between the PNW where I am and where you are, but there is no cheaper, easier, or right way. I strongly advise you to choose what seems best to you and what you want most. If it doesn't work quite right or costs you more than you planned at least you didn't make your choice because you thought you were choosing the the easiest or cheapest chickens (instead of getting the ones you realy wanted).

 

[Mahonri]

You can't go wrong with a black sex link. Mine is beautiful, was the first of the flock to lay an egg and loves to be held.

 

[Promiselandfarm]

Our Bar Rock hens are far quieter than our Sex-link hens. We now only have Blackstars and they lay huge eggs, had reds but sold them. But by far out of all the breeds we have our Cochins I have yet to hear anything from or our BJGs . I did not think our silkies know how to crow or cackle even at the show they were quiet and sweet. Our brown leghorn is loud or Game Bird is loud our BB Bantam is loud well the rooster not hen. The RIRs are not real loud but are not quiet either. I would go with the Bar Rocks but sexlinks are good if you are wanting just eggs as they do not breed true. Another thing to think about is if you want to raise chicks what is popular around your area. If it is RIRs or Buffs or what have you it will be easier for you to sell the chicks. I know we sell a ton of RIRs because that is popular around here.