Good luck!
We are 1 year into chicken keeping. Youngest is a tween aged kid in 4-H and this chicken raising has been a good experience.
We have now experienced 13 breeds, but currently only have 7 breeds in our flock of 12, which includes 1 male. However, some of the breeds we only had for 5 months, before we sold them. Once you have the chickens for awhile, you’ll find out what you like, so try a few breeds, and when next year rolls around, try another couple of breeds, and cycle out the ones you are not going to keep.
I’ve placed an order for more breeds for later this spring. All are straight run, so will sell off around half in the fall. But, this way we will experience even more breeds. We’ll start to narrow our focus by 2020, I think.
Oh, and I’m picking up 8 chicks today (2 breeds we already have and like) bc tween needs young layers for 4-H and the fair. Breeds picking up today are EE and Barred Rock.
We really enjoy our EE (quirky personalities + green eggs), Black Australorp (very friendly, but one goes broody), and Black Jersey Giant (very docile). Our Silver Laced Wyandotte is a bit sassy, but nice. The barred Rocks are good general chickens -one will literally jump like a dog, straight up in the air, to pluck treats out of tween’s fingers.
It takes more chickens than you think to keep you in eggs. Dual purpose won’t lay as well as birds bred for production. If you have 8 chickens you may only get 4-5 eggs per day. Our neighbor has production birds (breed? They are all white, trim build, yellow legs, white eggs) and he proudly states that all lay every day -all by 12:30 pm. Of course, every once in awhile he gets one or two less.
Kids: not sure how old yours are, not how rough they are, but kids are kids. Chicks are cute and kids want to hold chicks, and sometimes squeeze too hard, sometimes drop them onto the concrete barn floor by accident while standing (not naming any names), or make less than great decisions. So, keep watch when chicks and humans are young.
Good luck with your new adventure!
