Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. The best layers are White Leghorns and Sex Links. These are the hens used by commercial laying houses for producing their white eggs (White Leghorns) and their brown eggs (Sex Links). A caged White Leghorn holds the laying record with 371 eggs in 365 days, however this is under ideal conditions; good lighting and warm temperatures. In really cold winter weather, the Sex Links will actually outlay them. In addition, White Leghorns are high strung and flighty. Mine screamed bloody murder whenever I handled them (which is why I don't keep them anymore). Sex Links which come in two varieties (Black and Red) are much calmer and gentler than Leghorns and are egg laying machines. I've raised them for years and they have been my best layers, consistently churning out more than 300 eggs per hen per year. I slightly prefer the Black Sex Links (Black Stars) to the Red Sex Links (Red Stars) as my Blacks have been a little friendlier and slightly better layers in really cold winter weather, but you can't go wrong with either sex link variety. For meat, Cornish cross is the way to go. Their growth rate is fantastic and they are ready to butcher at 8 weeks. In fact, if you wait much past that time, they begin to develop all kinds of health problems due to their abnormal growth rates. X2 on drumstick diva's 10 to 1, hen to rooster ratio. Too many roosters will be very hard physically on your hens; over-breeding them, biting and plucking the feathers from their necks and backs, battering them, and potentially, seriously injuring them. In fact the only reason you might even need a rooster is to fertilize eggs for hatching. I currently have 25 hens and no roosters, and I get loads of eggs without all the aggression, fights, biting and feather plucking, non-productive mouths to feed, crowing in the middle of the night, and over-breeding and battering of hens that typically goes along with having roosters (especially too many). My hens are stress free, and enjoying life without any roosters around. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck in getting your flock.
and Welcome To BYC!
