So much info so overwhelmed! - New to BYC and looking for help

[Shawn350]

I have been reading and reading and the more I read the less I feel I know!

I we have a 50'x12' area we would like to raise chickens to lay eggs for my large family 15 people

I live in Burbank, CA so we have weather from 40F to 100F Most days just being a perfect 60-80 degrees.

Our laws forbid roosters and no more than 25 hens. So I would like 25 Hens.

I was thinking of building 5 small 5 bird coops along the 50 foot expanse. (Is that good idea?)

I think the biggest question is What Chickens to get and where.

I would like the best layers and it would be nice if they couldn't fly over a 6 foot wall.

thanks!

 

[KayleighW]

I'll give you my personal opinion, but you can take it or leave it. If it were me, I think I'd just build one larger coop for the birds, instead of 5 smaller ones. Which chickens you buy is totally up to you. I'd do some looking around and find out what you like. I think you should look into the black or red sexlinks, as you are pretty much guaranteed to get pullets, and they are suppose to be fairly good egg layers. I have some black sex links, but they are still chicks, so I have no real personal experience with them, as far as laying goes.

 

[BrendaJ]

Hello from Oregon & welcome to BYC. I would build a larger coop/run as well rather than several small ones. That's a whole lot of predator proofing you would have to do with the several smaller ones Lots of great egg layers out there. Great info in the learning center tabs above. Good luck with your future flock
A couple are good layers are:

• Leghorns
• Rhode Island Reds
• Sexlinks

 

[nbenevento]

There is a lot of information on here and it can be overwhelming. Here are a couple thoughts from me. First, I don't see a point in having 5 pens either, but that's up to you. You will need 5 feeders, 5 waterers...5 of everything. For good layers, there are several great choices. Rhode Island Reds, Leghorns, australorps and more. As far as flying over a 6 foot wall, your run should have some sort of wire above it. If there are hawks in your area, they love chicken! If you can't put wire up, you should have a few places that they can run for cover if under attack. There is a lot more that could be posted but that's kind of the point of just reading the site. Good luck!
PS. Are you sure you want to start out with 25 chickens with no experience at all? Lol...go for it!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Hello! Welcome to chickens. I am just over the hill from you in midtown Los Angeles. I am also not sure why you would need separate pins. Generally that would only be done if you were doing breeding pins and with no rooster there is really no point in separating. Chickens are very social and love a flock so one long run would be best. Plan on needing about 4 square ft per bird inside the coop and 10 square ft per bird in the run.

White leghorns are the very best egg layers. They lay white eggs. They are light birds and really good flyers and could get over a 6 ft fence if they really wanted to. Chances are they won't want to but it's a possibility. You can always clip one wing and prevent that. You may want to consider covering your run -- we do get hawks around here and I recently lost a bird to one. It was pretty brutal.

If you want brown eggs I have been pretty happy with Rhode Island Reds and Delawares. Delawares are a much heavier bird and could not get over 6ft. RIR are in the middle weight wise. For green and blue eggs you could look into getting an Easter Egger.

Good luck! Feel free to ask lots of questions. Glad you joined us.

 

[Shawn350]

I would have a common run just smaller coops inside of it. I never thought of hawks looks like wire will be going up.

Where do you buy your chickens ChickensRDinos

 

[Lorien]

Is there a reason you want smaller coops inside? I am just picturing all of your birds trying to cram into one of the little coops and leaving the other four empty. They do stuff like that...

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I have gotten all of my birds off of craigslist from different sellers. There are a number of people in the Norco/Temecula area and more north of Ventura. There is also a guy who lives in Lompoc who does regular deliveries to the LA area and will drop birds off at your house. I got one of my legohorns and a cochin from him and they are lovely birds. I have 6 birds and 5 different breeds at the moment so they came from all over. I will only buy from people will to let me come see where the birds are raised.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

This is a local meet-up group if you want to find more people in the area. They also do classes on different things from time to time like processing birds or growing fodder, etc.

http://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Urban-Chicken-Enthusiasts/