***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Carebearsmiles]

Been lurking for awhile. Just starting out. In Oklahoma City would tractor supply be the best place to find feed?

Atwoods, a local CoOp or the tractor supply. Just check the ingredients to make sure it's what your wanting.


Welcome to the thread!

 

[SgtKarl]

Hello Fellow Okies,

I am new to chickens, this site and forum. I have been gardening for a few years and my wife said why don't you get a few chickens like your grandfather had. Made sense to me, so I am going to get 4 in the spring. I am an engineer so I am having fun researching, designing, and building my coop through the winter. I have one question for you good people. Which type of chicken is best for basic egg laying here in central Oklahoma, 10 miles NW of OKC? My grandfather had white Leghorns in Kansas. I also want to get full grown birds..

Thanks.

Karl

 

[Imma Okie]

Hello Fellow Okies,
I am new to chickens, this site and forum. I have been gardening for a few years and my wife said why don't you get a few chickens like your grandfather had. Made sense to me, so I am going to get 4 in the spring. I am an engineer so I am having fun researching, designing, and building my coop through the winter. I have one question for you good people. Which type of chicken is best for basic egg laying here in central Oklahoma, 10 miles NW of OKC? My grandfather had white Leghorns in Kansas. I also want to get full grown birds..
Thanks.
Karl

Hi Karl!

I know you will get so many different answers as to what breed is best. I have many breeds, but the best layers I have are my Delawares. They are excellent layers of large to extra large eggs and they have a very friendly disposition. I love my Easter egger's eggs because the shell cracks nicely. I love my Dominiques for their hardiness and broodiness, and my Marans for the dark brown eggs. All of my chickens are free to roam and have fared the heat and the cold of Oklahoma just fine.

 

[Poco Pollo]

Hello Fellow Okies,
I am new to chickens, this site and forum. I have been gardening for a few years and my wife said why don't you get a few chickens like your grandfather had. Made sense to me, so I am going to get 4 in the spring. I am an engineer so I am having fun researching, designing, and building my coop through the winter. I have one question for you good people. Which type of chicken is best for basic egg laying here in central Oklahoma, 10 miles NW of OKC? My grandfather had white Leghorns in Kansas. I also want to get full grown birds..
Thanks.
Karl

Howdie, SgtKarl:

Are you wanting brown, blue, or white eggs? Is the number of eggs per year your only concern? If you identify your priorities, I'm sure folks on the thread can help you. For me, chickens have to be kid friendly, curious, good foragers, large enough to eat if they aren't nice to everyone, and lay a reasonable number of eggs each year. My grandkids like to play outside when they visit, so mean roosters don't get to stay here. Mean hens don't stay either. My Chanteclers lay best in cold weather, my Ameraucanas, Easter Eggers, Barred Rocks, Marans, and Naked Necks lay best in the spring and fall. We're just starting out with Cream Legbars, and they have been sporadic layers now that the weather is cooler. All my mutt hens lay when they feel like it, which is most of the time. Hatcheries claim Black Star, Red Star, and other hybrids lay best. I don't know if this is true. I've had a few white leghorn hens, and they were flighty and mean, so they were rehomed. I had Cinnamon Queens (like a red star), and they were excellent layers, but dogs got that group and I never replaced them. I've got standard Cornish hens that lay every day, regardless of the season. So many chickens... so little time. Tell us more about your preferences so that we can help : )

 

[SgtKarl]

Thanks Everyone,

Wow what great responses. Just looking for 4 hens to keep my wife and I, and maybe my son and his wife in eggs. As far as eggs, brown or white both taste good to me. I am building a chicken tractor with a large enclosed run due to dogs, coyotes, and hawks. Good tempered chickens would be good because 8 month old granddaughter will soon become interested in then.

Thanks again.

Karl

 

[jcatblum]

I vote the RIR is a roo, my ladies never develop color on their combs that early

So excited to hear Jack has RIR!!!! I would love a roo if he has a spare -- I need one to cross with my Rose comb RIR, since handsome rooster died. Just hope we can find a roo that is close to the personality of Handsome Roo. If he doesn't have a roo I will take chicks, or eggs. (I still have some of my heritage RIR, but none have the personality of my rose comb, one of them is still mothering the keets she hatched in July).

Here is a sample of eggs - can you see the ones that came from Jacks Marans? But in doing this I realized that we either no longer have a hen that lays blue eggs or she hasn't laid in 4-5 days. We won prettiest egg with the blue egg last yr at poops, guess that mean I need more ladies that lay blue eggs.

 

[mjgigax]

Hello Fellow Okies,
I am new to chickens, this site and forum. I have been gardening for a few years and my wife said why don't you get a few chickens like your grandfather had. Made sense to me, so I am going to get 4 in the spring. I am an engineer so I am having fun researching, designing, and building my coop through the winter. I have one question for you good people. Which type of chicken is best for basic egg laying here in central Oklahoma, 10 miles NW of OKC? My grandfather had white Leghorns in Kansas. I also want to get full grown birds..
Thanks.
Karl

Oh Boy, you came to the right place to find birds. Lots of folks on there that have great knowledge of birds and how to find them.
If I had a laying flock I would get Naked Neck and Ameraucanas - hardiness (NNs) and consisnent laying (Ameraucanas) in Oklahoma weather extremes.
Welcome to the thread and to chickens!

 

[NanaKat]

Here are some pictures taken today of the some of the breeding flocks and that broken egg experiment in the incubator...

Pen 1 and 2 Columbian Wyandotte Beau with his original girls and his daughters the Blue CW and the Blue Wyandotte
and a F1 black wyandotte




Pen 3 The F1 Birchen Wyandotte (CW over a Blue hen produced these offspring.) The group and a better picture of
the rooster and the birchen F1 hen as well as a F1 Black. The legs aren't yellow yet, but that will come.
The Blue hen is the mother of these and is being bred back to her son.






Pen 5 Cochins: A Black and two whites The black hatched from eggs from Bo Garrets Blues and the Whites are two of the girls he sold in NewCastle a while back.




There is another pen of Cochins that are all blue.

And the egg with the croken bubble end...so far several times a day, I lightly moisten the membrane and shine a light on the chick to make sure it is still moving....so far soo good.

 

[miohippus]

Here are some pictures taken today of the some of the breeding flocks and that broken egg experiment in the incubator...

Pen 1 and 2 Columbian Wyandotte Beau with his original girls and his daughters the Blue CW and the Blue Wyandotte
and a F1 black wyandotte




Pen 3 The F1 Birchen Wyandotte (CW over a Blue hen produced these offspring.) The group and a better picture of
the rooster and the birchen F1 hen as well as a F1 Black. The legs aren't yellow yet, but that will come.
The Blue hen is the mother of these and is being bred back to her son.






Pen 5 Cochins: A Black and two whites The black hatched from eggs from Bo Garrets Blues and the Whites are two of the girls he sold in NewCastle a while back.




There is another pen of Cochins that are all blue.

And the egg with the croken bubble end...so far several times a day, I lightly moisten the membrane and shine a light on the chick to make sure it is still moving....so far soo good.

wow that is neat let us know how the egg dose i wonder if you could put a piece of painters tape or some other low tack tape on the end to help keep in the moisture.

 

[1stxchknfrmr]

I am actually just looking for eggs to incubate.