What do you think of these breeds for a newbie?

[chrissy855]

Our family just bought an acreage and we will hopefully have chickens by June! What have your experiences been with these breeds? Would you reccomend them to new chicken owners? Also, we are just looking to have egg/pet chickens (don't want them for meat).

Easter Egger-would like them because they lay blue/green eggs and are supposed to be overall friendly and good natured. Also, if you have EE's, how often do you tend to get an egg? Every 2nd or 3rd day?

Plymouth Rock-would like them because I like how they look and they are supposed to be good egg layers, and have a good disposition

Australops-have heard they lay LOTS of eggs which would be great-temperment wise they are supposed to be good but a bit shy? Have you noticed that with your chickens?

Speckled Sussex I love their markings

Wyandotte- love the silver and golden laced chickens and they produce a medium amount of eggs (from what I have read)

Buff Orpington-They are nice looking and heard they lay well in winter. Do you find them much better winter layers then other breeds or is it not that noticable?

Salmon Favorelle-Would love pinkish eggs and I like the color of them

Silkies-Just love how fluffy they are

Sorry the list is so long. We are starting out with 10 chickens maximum, but I am finding it hard to choose! And one last question, if they are from the same breeder, can you have a few (3-4) breeds living together?

Thanks so much, I really appreciate the input.

 

[Illia]

Wyandottes - Man are you up for some fun. . . Ours, among others I've heard, are such sassy, groupie girls who think they're all that. . . And that they must not be inside any confinement, even if it is 3 acres big. . .

But they lay EVERY day, which is nice.

Easter Eggers - A must for anyone. They're quiet, friendly, and come in so many colors and lay just about any color of egg. (but our only girl has light brown eggs. . .

) But regardless, I do love her! Very good for beginners, and I certainly would recommend them!

The rest of the breeds I have aren't on your list, but I hear they're good for beginners.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

GREAT CHOICES! I have a EE hen that just started laying and she lays maybe 3 to 4 eggs a week!
I also have Buff Orpingtons, they are a GREAT chickens and kid - friendly!
Silkies are just lil' sweeties!!!

 

[houndit]

Excellent choices! Sussex are wonderful! Easter-eggers are fun. They lay such pretty eggs. Silkies are friendly. Sounds like you figured it out nicely.

 

[chicmom]

Well hello!

From what I've read--I do alot of studying, those are excellent choices for a beginner. Now, from personal experience, I have Easter Eggers, and everything you listed about them was correct. They are so friendly and loveable! By far my favorite chickens. And my little pullets, who aren't quite a year old, rarely skip a day laying. They are very faithful layers. The eggs are medium sized.

I have a speckled sussex, three golden laced wyandottes, and two buff orps, but they are 1 day old chicks that I just purchased today, so I can't say much except they sure are adoreable!

Now, one breed you didn't list that I think you should totally get is the golden sex link, or golden buff hybrid.....they are a mix of two breeds especially picked to be excellent egglayers, and by golly they are! They were my first three chicks I ever ordered, and to this day they faithfully lay a large brown egg every day! Awesome little hens, and very very friendly!

Good luck with your new chickens!

Sharon

 

[tnchickenut]

I'd go with all of them

Why not?

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

What I have-

Easter Egger- I have four. Three lay green eggs and one lays a brown egg. They are all inquisitive, personable chickens. One is substantially friendlier than the others, but she got hurt and lived in the house for a while. I think they all would be friendlier if I had done more hands on as chicks. Two are them are awesome layers (one has been popping out an egg every other day all winter). The other two are so so in the laying department.

Wyandotte- I have both a gold laced and a silver laced. They are gorgeous, but not terribly friendly. They are champion layers though and both lay huge eggs!

Buff Orps- I have two. They are mellow, good-natured chickens for the most part. They are also pretty consistant layers. Both knocked off for winter this year, but I expect them to start back up shortly. They seem to have handled winter just fine. You do have to worry about frostbitten combs if you live in frigid regions.

Silkiez- Oh, I do love silkies! I started with two and promptly added more to the flock. I have 9 of them now and hope to breed more. They are sweet as can be and great fun to boot! Mine are champion layers of large banty eggs. I get more eggs out of the silkies than anybody else out there. Now they do like to go broody on you, but that can be fun too. I totally recommend having at least a couple.



When I ordered chicks for the first time, I got two of everything. It worked out fine. It gave me a way to check out a bunch of different types to figure out which ones I liked best. They were all raised together and got along with no problems. I did end up splitting my banties and large fowl once it was apparent that I had gotten two roosters. The LF rooster was really rough on the banty girls.

Good luck! Having a mixed flock is loads of fun!

 

[chrissy855]

Thank you so much for your replies! They are so valuble and helpful! I think I have figured out my list (though I will probably end up revising it). I am trying to figure out approximately how many eggs I may get per day (so then I can determine per week and figure out who would be intrested in having them).
I have put half an egg for someofthem, just because 3 doesn't divide by 2. Also, since I live in quite a cold climate, I figure the chickens would lay less eggs.



Breeds Number of Eggs

Easter Eggers- 3 1.5 eggs/day
Australops- 2 1 egg/day of
Salmon Favorelle- 2 1 egg/day
Silkies- 1 0.5 egg/day
Buff Orpinton- 2 1 egg/day
------------------------------
10 chickens 5 eggs per day X 7 days= 35 eggs so 35 eggs approx and with a dozen for us, that leaves almost 2 extra dozens.

For the breeds and number of eggs does this sound about right?

I have a few more questions. For a group of laying hens like this, should I have a rooster? I know they don't need one to lay but would it be it their best intrest or will the rooster create problems? I was planning to give them a large fenced run (with all of the other nessecities) so would they need a rooster to alert them of predators? Or would the rooster just fight with them?

Also, we will not have chicken facilities ready until June 1st. All of the breeders around me have chicks before that. Do you think any would be willing to keep them for me if we covered the cost to care for them at the time? What about chickens that are older but raised from the same breeder, would they be able to sucessfully intergrate?
Sorry, I know I asked way to many questions but I really, really appreciate the help.

 

[patandchickens]

Another vote for the Sussexes here - they are wonderful birds, mine are very friendly and calm and decent layers. Also purty

But all of your other breed seem like reasonable choices too, although remember that silkies will not be able to roost with the other birds and some people have had injury problems mixing silkies and LF so if you are going to omit one breed I think that's probably the one to lose.

Quote:
Your estimates are reasonable for some times of the year, but some times you will probably get more eggs than that, and for part of the year you will definitely get fewer (and you will get fewer as the chickens get older).

For a group of laying hens like this, should I have a rooster? I know they don't need one to lay but would it be it their best intrest or will the rooster create problems? I was planning to give them a large fenced run (with all of the other nessecities) so would they need a rooster to alert them of predators? Or would the rooster just fight with them?

A rooster won't fight with the hens (uh, normally) but he will mate with them and some may get kind of barebacked from it. With a roo, there is also the chance of getting one who is poorly behaved towards humans, which can sometimes be fixed but not always. However, they do help alert the hens to hawks and other predators, and are just a lot of fun to watch, so I am not going to try to discourage you from getting a roo, plus which then you can build an incubator and try hatching some of your own eggs

Also, we will not have chicken facilities ready until June 1st. All of the breeders around me have chicks before that. Do you think any would be willing to keep them for me if we covered the cost to care for them at the time? What about chickens that are older but raised from the same breeder, would they be able to sucessfully intergrate?

You don't want to do that. Honest. Day-old chicks are generally fairly disease-free, but if yo have them grown up elsewhere, chances are much higher that they will come with various parasites or diseases that you will have to deal with, either immediately or sometime down the line (there are various things that chickens can be seemingly-healthy carriers of).

It does not take much space to brood chicks. Just a box, more or less -- a BIG box, once they get larger. You can rig something up I bet

Plus which it is fun and you will get on friendlier terms with them.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[chrissy855]

But all of your other breed seem like reasonable choices too, although remember that silkies will not be able to roost with the other birds and some people have had injury problems mixing silkies and LF so if you are going to omit one breed I think that's probably the one to lose.

From Patandchickens (sorry, I am not sure how to quote properly yet)
Why wouldn't silkies be able to roost with the other birds? Is it that they are too small, and the other ones would bully them? I'm not sure what you mean.​