Newbie to backyard chicken

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
How large of a coop did you build? What type of chicken are you interested in? High production, normal production, friendly, flighty, large, small, etc?

 

[sourland]

Good morning, and welcome to BYC. Try posting in the Ca. threads. Perhaps someone there can help in your search for a flock.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

 

[Boppo]

Glad to meet you. Congratulations on that coop! Pictures would be exciting.

Callender Girl gives you some excellent guidelines for deciding on chicken breeds, and a note on at least one alternative way to find chickens. It's very exciting and fun to shop and choose - that's why so many of us joke about "chicken math" which is a shorthand for how we end up getting more chickens than we meant to, and more than we have room for!

You need to have a good idea how many chickens you do have room for * and if your area has any limits on how many chickens you can keep! You might want to check with your town hall or HOA to find that answer quickly. Room is important because if you crowd chickens they will start picking on each other. You can fit more bantams into a space than standard sized chickens, but the eggs and chickens are smaller. Some breeds do better in "confinement" than others. That is something to watch for in the breed descriptions. Here is an article about space for chickens. There are others you can look at by using the SEARCH bar.

Back Yard Chickens has lists of breeds, but I am not very fond of the layout here, and find the descriptions to be both inconsistent and very eccentric because people who are fans of each breed are writing the descriptions. It's a nice thing to check, but not very efficient. Try THIS instead. It's consistent from listing to listing. They are selling chickens, but they do a pretty good job describing the breed pretty carefully. I am not sure I would advise you to buy chickens from them, but, read their descriptions and look at their explanations of egg layers compared to meat breeds.

You may want to see if anybody on Back Yard Chickens in your area is selling (or giving!) chickens that you want. Use the Where Am I/Where Are You thread to talk to other Californians, and specify your region. It will also help you talk to folks who know the climate and pest/predator issues for your area.