What kind of chicken for a newbie?

[rtroxel]

It seems to me like you haven't defined your search much. You haven't really stated why you want chickens or what your goals are with them. There are sooooooo many breeds and almost all of them serve a semi-unique purpose. Some questions to help you:

Do you want eggs, meat, dual-purpose?
Are you planning to show? (not all chickens are show quality)
Do you want to hatch and raise your own chicks in the future? (with or without an incubator?)
Do you like big or small?
Do you want calm or more energetic chickens?
Are you interested in rare breeds/preservation?
How much space do you have?
How many birds do you want?


While having a handful of chickens is really not that difficult, it also is only just scratching the surface of what can be (and is for many us) an engrossing and fulfilling hobby! If you start off without really thinking about it, you are more likely to get yourself in trouble and then you'll be out of chickens due to the frustration of not getting into them the right way. I know lots of people that got this and then that and never did any of it really well. They eventually got out because they never decided what they were doing or where they wanted to go. In the end, what they had kept getting in the way of what they wanted.

My advice (whether you want it or not

) is to figure out exactly what you want and then do that! You're in the right place to get lots of advice, but sometimes what you really need is to just get a good book about chickens and kind of decide what you are capable of (with your facility, situation, money, etc) and then decide what you want to try. Remember: it's a fun hobby and if you're not having fun, you might not be doing it right

 

[bigtime400]

Ok.... My mother in law said that dark feathered chickens have really small pin feathers that are really hard to get out. Is that true? Should I just lean twoards lighter colors if I want to butcher?

 

[bigtime400]

I do know what I want...... but maybe I haven't illustrated it to well.

In order of importance.

1) Calm, Friendly, quiet, so I can get my 2 younger girls involved and not make the neighbors too angry. They already gave me the go ahead but I dont want to press my luck.

2) A non flighty chicken Get where I am going here?

3) Good egg layer (primary purpose being eggs and pet)

4) Possibly birds for meat probably not now but maybe in the future.

At this point Im not going to show

I dont have anything against rare breeds and would think about having one of those but I imagine they are rare because they arent the best and most desireable.

I am going to try to hatch the eggs. Mainly as a family thing for my girls. My incubator is already built.

Big or small don't make much of a diffrence... although I hear the smaller ones are flighty and the eggs are small so probably not......

I have a couple options on space. Technically chickens arent allowed yet in my town. Although my moms neighbors had goats for years untill they moved a year or 2 ago. No one ever complained and the area is kinda secluded. Thats about an acre. Other option is at my grandpas in the country with 20 acres....He still has a chicken coop from when my grandma had chickens. My yard is fairly small all fenced in though. I thought about transporting a chicken over to snack on bugs at my house occasionally. (One of the reasons I want to get the city ordinance changed) I'm working on getting the ordainace changed here but I more or less just wanted to get my feet wet to see if this is something I want to go after.

Right now I only plan on keeping a few hens. I will probably give away any extras or roosters. Speaking of which.... How many eggs do you think I should order? Say I want 4 hens and this is my first time hatching. What would be a reasonable hatch rate? and I suppose you have a 50/50 chance on sex.

You are right. Maybe I will decide this is not for me. I have been doing alot of reading over the last few weeks. But being green at this there are questions that I probably don't know yet and will probably have them after I have some chickens. My wife has more experience then I do growning up on a farm. She wants to try it. My mother wants to try it, And my grandpa is always bringing me local brown eggs and he likes the idea.

 

[Truevalentine]

I am very new to the chicken world. Re-homed four laying hens from someone I knew. Can't really give you advise about breeds, but I have been told that moving the chickens around can put them into a molt from a more experienced chicken person, so you may want to rethink the occasional visit thing.
The happy surprise with the chickens I adopted (after they all started laying again) is that each lays a different colored egg! I don't even know what breeds I have (haven't posted pics and asked around yet), but I love that I can tell who is laying how often and I enjoy having the different colors in my fridge/in the egg cartons when I gift eggs!

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
I would start with at least a dozen eggs to try to hatch. Minimum. You may end up with more than you need - or not.

But it is the absolutely most wonderful thing in the world, to take some eggs which might just have been something you could have cracked open, cooked and eaten for breakfast, put them in an incubator, and somewhere around 21 days later, watch small living creatures emerge from them.

And then, raising the chicks! Oh MY! Fuzzybutts! Little cheepers! And they grow so fast!

And every chicken has its own personality. Amazing.

 

[petchickenlover]

Quote:
or reds. they lay HUUGE eggs lol.

I also like Orpingtons & Cochins. All are fairly quiet birds. if you're looking for friendly i'd go with the orpingtons..i used to have one that came right up to you and waited for love

 

[bigtime400]

Ok..... I had my wife look over some stuff. And what we have come up with so far is.....

Buff Orphingtons
Barred Rock
easter eggers

I have room in the incubator for 25...... I am thinking of getting 6 or so of each.

Also....what do you all think about purchasing eggs on ebay? And why do they seem so expensive in the buy section on the forum?

I have to say thanks again for all the response. If I am looking for info on an issue being it fixing a car, or collectors forums I always look for a forum on the subject. This has to be the best response I have ever recieved to a question. Thanks again.

 

[newgoosegirl]

I ordered pilgrim goose eggs off ebay, for 4 eggs it was about $30. Then the seller gave me two free because they had extra.

If I wanted hatching eggs again, I would definitely look on ebay. 2 years ago at least, I remember it definitely seemed like the best and cheapest option.

With a homemade Styrofoam cooler made incubator I ended up with just one goose even trying to hatch. That was fine because all I really wanted was one goose as a pet, and she turned out fine, but I wonder if a bought incubator with less variables would have had a better hatch rate. That said, that incubator was built last-minute when we had collected a bunch of duck eggs and wanted to get them in it as fast as possible and I'm sure it would be possible to build a much more reliable one.