What’s best for a newbie to start - chicks or pullets?

[rosemarythyme]

I only know and have one type of chicken and I don't know a lot about other breeds.

Isn't there a breed that you can sex by looking at the feather colors of the chick? I thought there was one breed that the chicks were black meant one sex and the other color was a different color. If so, these breed may be a better choice to start with.

Sex linked hybrids work this way. There's a few breeds that also show different markings or feather growth based on sex, but not all of those are 100% as not all breeders breed for those traits to hold true.

 

[CluckerFamily]

Sex linked hybrids work this way. There's a few breeds that also show different markings or feather growth based on sex, but not all of those are 100% as not all breeders breed for those traits to hold true.

Thank You!
I would recommend these to start with so that you don't have to worry about getting a cockerel and then having to find him a new home... that can be stressful.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Thank You!
I would recommend these to start with so that you don't have to worry about getting a cockerel and then having to find him a new home... that can be stressful.

True, but my worry about sex linked birds, for example, is they're built for production, and not necessarily long lives. I worried about this too when I started out, so we ended up deciding that production birds weren't for us. I'd rather take the risk of getting a boy.

If looking for breeds that aren't production birds but have some sex based differences, then there's auto sexing breeds like Cream Legbars (where males have a cream spot on the head) and barred birds such as Dominiques and Barred Rocks (where gender can be guessed at based on leg color, head spots) as possibilities.

 

[21hens-incharge]

True, but my worry about sex linked birds, for example, is they're built for production, and not necessarily long lives. I worried about this too when I started out, so we ended up deciding that production birds weren't for us. I'd rather take the risk of getting a boy.

If looking for breeds that aren't production birds but have some sex based differences, then there's auto sexing breeds like Cream Legbars (where males have a cream spot on the head) and barred birds such as Dominiques and Barred Rocks (where gender can be guessed at based on leg color, head spots) as possibilities.

True about some being able to be guessed at by the down color.

I would also advise anyone picking from a bin to know what chicks of a specific breed should look l like.

 

[mcdze]

its probably just the way i do things personally, but for me chicks need to be handled and put on my way of doing things from the first week anyway .. after a week they get very aware and have an uncanny memory, ive gotten birds that were ~5 weeks+ before, almost never works out 'great' ... getting a good flock together for me also takes time, its never been a one shot deal and its constantly changing .. the breeds im familiar with i can tell what they are from the time they dry off out of the egg with a high degree of accuracy, so can bigger outfits ... but getting them from the local farm yeah theres going to be birds you want to change out sometimes, comes with the territory, so, you have to be able to handle that part ..