SouthEastern MN, Hello new to BYC :)

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Sarahuw02

Sarahuw02

Hatching
7 Years
Oct 28, 2012
2
0
7
South Eastern Minnesota
Hello,

We are a family of three and new to BYC. We reside in the beautiful Mississippi Bluff Country of South Eastern Minnesota.

We are currently researching and planning to raise a small flock of hens :) We are BRAND NEW and just getting started!

And help from this forum would be great. Right now I am researching chicken breeds. I would like to raise 3-5 hens that are cold hardy breeds and lay a variety of colored eggs.

How do I get started? I have been researching sites to purchase chicks, and have also been browsing the "for sale" section of this site where folks are selling older hens. How do I search for hens for sale in my area?

Thanks for any advice :) My family and I are very excited!

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Welcome to The BYC. We've been keeping poultry for years and love them! Have fun here and if I can help you find your way around the Forum, let me know. We farm full time so I'm not on here all the time, although often the computer is left up and running.

Regarding your question, you could type in your state in the BST area and that will pull up poultry for you in your area. I would also encourage you to read the forum regarding preparing housing for your birds and basics regarding poultry care before you get your poultry, be it chicks and/or adults or even hatching eggs and an incubator!

Personal ideas - I have many friends in cooler climates and they have had great success with orpingtons, marans, delawares, sussex. We love the various shades of our different marans and our ameraucanas and our easter eggers as well and the welsummers shades as well. Just love a pretty egg basket (or farm logo)
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Good luck and have fun!
 
Thanks for the info :)

I have been researching the basics for getting prepared as well. My hubby is a carpenter and is planning on building the coop in our backyard area. He is researching plans. And I think that the garage would be a good place to have the chicks if we decide to purchase chicks. We live on a 250 acre farm in the bluffs. We just moved to the country from the La Crosse WI area, and were researching backyard chickens there as well. La Crosse WI just passed their ordinance allowing back yard chickens and many people are creating places to raise their own chickens for eggs and pets.

Now that we have the space, we are VERY interested to get started. Our 10 year old daughter is excited to help as well.

Like I said, we are very new to this and are open to all the help we can get as we research. Thanks for the breed advice!

I love the idea of a colorful egg basket, and definitely am interested in the "easter egger" breed the Americauna. I also would like though a hen that lays nice brown eggs as well. I have noticed on the website to purchase chicks they require a minimum number of chicks purchased for a single type.

Is there a certain hatchery or farm that you know of that is good to purchase from? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again!
 
Greetings from Kansas, Sarahuw02, and
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! Great to have you aboard. It is good that you are researching the types of birds that do well in your area. I live in Kansas so I worry about our hot summer more than our winters. I have heard that cochins and orpintons do well in the cold. Usually breeds with smaller combs are suggested to avoid frostbite. I think I've read that in Canada a popular breed is the Chantacler (sp?). Perhaps type in a search on BYC for "cold weather breeds" and see what pops up. Or look on the Minnesota thread under the Where Am I? Where Are You? forum and see what some of your fellow Minnesotans are raising. I wish all the best!!
 

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