Will this work?

If eggs are important, even though you don't like the look of white chickens, Leghorns are the way to go. HUGE eggs every day, and they hardly eat much. Another choice could be Australorps. Beautiful Black birds that are really friendly and easy going. They have been known as prolific egg layers but their eggs won't be as large as the Leghorns.
Good luck what ever you choose.
Wow! That is awesome information. I think the Leghorns and the Australorp are beautiful birds. Great egg layers too. Are any of the Leghorns known to be docile-friendly birds? Those really do sound like the type of birds we would really like.
 
The egg layers are pretty important. I want to be able to supply my household of three and my SIL, who owns the farm as well.

We do need the egg layers to be friendly enough so our four year old can help feed, care, and collect eggs from them. It would be awesome if we could have a couple of them hitting pet status. But, maybe it depends hugely on how they are raised and cared for. So far, every one of our animals have hot pet status, except for a batch of four week old piglets. They haven’t left mommas side or stall just yet. She’s an amazing sow, but quite protective of her babies. We don’t dare go into her pen and mess with HER babies. We still don’t know the exact number of girls and boys we have yet. But, having very friendly animals is important to our farm, especially since our little girl is so hands on with their care as we are. It is usually our daughter that manages to turn our less than friendly animals into animals that will follow us around and seek attention. She’s done it to farm cats, baby goats, piglets, and rabbits. She’s a huge asset to our little farm.

So what would be your suggestion for friendly and prolific hens? I’m hoping they are not pure white ones. Egg color doesn’t matter to us. But we would like to have larger eggs. We also plan on trying to sell eggs as well. People in this area usually ask for $3.50-4.00 for a dozen eggs. So if we end up having enough eggs to sell on a regular basis, even if it’s to only 4-6 families on a weekly basis would be ideal. Our goal isn’t necessarily to make a profit. It’s more to provide our family with many different food sources on our own. To not rely on our local grocery store for our meats, eggs, possibly cheeses.

These are great goals. I highly recommend the book Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens. It has a great section that discusses various breeds including a very good chart that compares them by the key points that most people find important, including the criteria you have mentioned for your laying flock. Even a quick google search on breeds and you will get an average number of eggs laid annually. I think there are some good breeds that are a happy medium, not a production bird per se, but pretty good layers and perhaps a bit calmer/more personable than birds bred strictly for egg production. For example a brahma lays approx 150 egg/year, cochin 160, leghorn 280, wyandotte 200. That is a huge difference from one breed to the next and could make or break whether you have enough eggs.

A few things to keep in mind are that chickens may not lay much in winter, and young birds lay more than old birds. When your birds become less productive, will they become dinner? To keep yourself in eggs you may need to come up with a flock rotation, whether you are adding a few new birds each spring, or culling a few of the worst layers and replacing them. Just something to think about going forward.

I'd recommend keeping track of how many eggs your family goes through in a week now and this will give you a more realistic picture of how many chickens you will need to sustain this. If you sell your extra eggs in summer instead of stockpiling them, will you have enough for your family to get through winter? If you are selling a dozen eggs each to 5 families a week which you mentioned, that is likely more than 10 chickens will lay in a week, even at peak production, with breeds that are prolific layers and would leave no eggs for you and your family. If selling is important you need to do some number crunching... if just supplying your family is the important factor then you need to figure out how many eggs your family eats. I have had a total of 10 layers the past year and we ran out of eggs this winter even though we are only supplying 2 adults with eggs.

Good luck! It will be a great experience. Keep doing your reading and research and you will figure out what is best for your family and your flock.
 
my husband wants to get 50 meat chicks and then butcher them all at a certain weight. Does building a chicken tractor for these sound appropriate?

Then I want 10 egg layers. Would making them a separate chicken coop with run make sense for these?

Or do we really only need one setup for the both of them?

You are in Wisconsin, thanks for including that. Time of year could have an effect on how best for you to do this. By the way, I don't especially like a solid white chicken only myself. I much prefer a rainbow or feather colors and patterns. One solid white and one solid black would be OK, but just saying.

Not sure how much experience you or your husband have. 50 Cornish Rock at one time is a lot. How big is your freezer? They need to be butchered in a fairly tight window since they grow so fast they can have heart attacks or their skeleton can break down if you let them go too long. Butchering 50 at a time is a lot. You might consider trying less your first time to gain the experience. It typically takes about 6 to 8 weeks to grow them to butcher size so if you are happy with the experience you can raise another batch. Just something to think about.

The two different types of chickens have different requirements. I assume you are getting baby chicks for the layers? The Cornish X will eat, drink, and poop a lot. They can get really messy since they poop so much. Your layers not so much. Your layers will eventually need nests and roosts, the Cornish Rocks will not. I would plan on keeping them separate.

Are you planning on repeating the Cornish Rocks on a regular basis or is this just a one time thing? That might affect how much you are willing to invest. A tractor doesn't make much sense when the ground is covered with snow so you may be limited to certain times of the year. Again, 50 is a lot, you would need a huge tractor if you are trying to house that many and they approach butcher age and keep them contained. You might want to build a shelter than can be moved and surround it with electric netting to contain them and manage predators. Two things might dictate how often you need to move the shelter/netting. They could deplete the grass available but more likely the poop will build up so much you'll need to re-position them to keep the stink down. They do poop a lot.

With ten egg layers in your winters I'd suggest a walk-in coop instead of one of those elevated ones. They will be stuck inside for periods in winter due to weather. I'd certainly go bigger than the minimum size (4 square feet per chicken) that you often read about on here. Since most new building materials come in standard 4' and 8' dimensions I'd consider using those to minimize cutting and waste. A six feet width isn't horrible, especially if your roof will have overhang which might use 8' lengths. The cut-offs are often handy to build nests.

Good luck, it will be a great adventure.
 
my husband wants to get 50 meat chicks and then butcher them all at a certain weight. Does building a chicken tractor for these sound appropriate?

Then I want 10 egg layers. Would making them a separate chicken coop with run make sense for these?

Or do we really only need one setup for the both of them?
I would swap. 10 layers in a tractor and 50 meats in a run. 50 meats will need more room than a tractor unless your feel like having several tractors. The layers would benefit from the fresh ground and access to insects and fresh fodder (grass and plants) via tractor movement.
 
I don't like a plain white bird either. The dirt shows. :) I have barred rocks & Australorps. They get along with each other & are docile & people friendly. They lay well & I get about 20 eggs a week from 5 hens ~ sometimes more. My rocks lay a good sized egg nearly every day. The Aussies generally lay every 2nd day but bigger eggs. My only complaint is my rocks have a tendency to go broody. They don't lay when broody. :(
 
The egg layers are pretty important. I want to be able to supply my household of three and my SIL, who owns the farm as well.

We do need the egg layers to be friendly enough so our four year old can help feed, care, and collect eggs from them. It would be awesome if we could have a couple of them hitting pet status. But, maybe it depends hugely on how they are raised and cared for. So far, every one of our animals have hot pet status, except for a batch of four week old piglets. They haven’t left mommas side or stall just yet. She’s an amazing sow, but quite protective of her babies. We don’t dare go into her pen and mess with HER babies. We still don’t know the exact number of girls and boys we have yet. But, having very friendly animals is important to our farm, especially since our little girl is so hands on with their care as we are. It is usually our daughter that manages to turn our less than friendly animals into animals that will follow us around and seek attention. She’s done it to farm cats, baby goats, piglets, and rabbits. She’s a huge asset to our little farm.

So what would be your suggestion for friendly and prolific hens? I’m hoping they are not pure white ones. Egg color doesn’t matter to us. But we would like to have larger eggs. We also plan on trying to sell eggs as well. People in this area usually ask for $3.50-4.00 for a dozen eggs. So if we end up having enough eggs to sell on a regular basis, even if it’s to only 4-6 families on a weekly basis would be ideal. Our goal isn’t necessarily to make a profit. It’s more to provide our family with many different food sources on our own. To not rely on our local grocery store for our meats, eggs, possibly cheeses.
A couple of things. Egg production can be spotty. 10 hens are not gonna give you 10 eggs everyday. I think some people are disappointed. Like my BO she lays 65-68 gram eggs most every day. Nice medium brown eggs. So you want about 8 eggs a day just for yourself. Some days you won't get that many and then you won't even have enough to sell. In the winter some hens lay off laying. If a hen lays 200 eggs a year than means 165 days in the year she doesn't lay an egg.

One question why does your husband want 50 meat birds. Selling them too.
 
I'll do a separate post for this. We all have our favorite breeds and sometimes that can influence our suggestions. Another really big problem is that not every hen of the same breed lays the same so there are differences in individuals. You need to have enough of a breed for breed averages to mean much. You could get really lucky or unlucky in your individuals when you only have a few.

Even worse different flocks of the same breed can have different traits. If the person selecting which birds get to breed selects based on egg laying ability then in a few generations that flock can lay above breed averages. If they do not select for egg laying ability, in a few generations they can lay less. Hatchery birds tend to lay equal or above breed averages because they are in the business of hatching eggs so they want the hens to lay well.

Still, breeds do have traits. That's about the best you can go by and hope they match up. You might try going through these breed selectors and see which ones they think might be good for you.

Breed Selectors

http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/which-breed-is-right-for-me.aspx

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/chick_selector.html

Another approach would be to go through Henderson's Breed Chart and see what traits they think the breed tends to have, then go to Feathersite to see what the chickens look like. This can be addicting, I may not be doing you any favors. One problem with this chart is that it is a breed chart. There are several crosses not on here that might work well for you, like Comets. Those are sex-linked chickens made by crossing colors or patterns so you can tell which are male or female at hatch. That can be really handy if you don't want any males. Of course if you accidentally get males you can eat those mistakes.

Henderson’s Breed Chart

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

Feathersite

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html#Chickens
 
Another thing to look at is what breeds your local feed store normally carries... there is a reason they carry these breeds, there is a reason they are popular, and they are likely well suited to your specific climate! It's a good starting point when narrowing down your breed selection, even if you choose not to purchase from the feed store.
 
A couple of things. Egg production can be spotty. 10 hens are not gonna give you 10 eggs everyday. I think some people are disappointed. Like my BO she lays 65-68 gram eggs most every day. Nice medium brown eggs. So you want about 8 eggs a day just for yourself. Some days you won't get that many and then you won't even have enough to sell. In the winter some hens lay off laying. If a hen lays 200 eggs a year than means 165 days in the year she doesn't lay an egg.

One question why does your husband want 50 meat birds. Selling them too.
There’s a couple of reasons. 1. There is a pretty good deal on units of 25 on Welp. 25 birds won’t be enough. 2. We would like to sell some meat. To family and friends. I think he want to do 2-3 batches each year.

As far as 10 egg layers go. We do want to be overwhelmed our first season. Ten almost sounds like too many birds for me and our daughter to take care of. I didn’t thin 5 egg layers would be quite enough for our own personal use. I’m learning we might be lucky if 10 birds provide us with enough for our household much less my SIL too. We may not have enough space at our current location to have enough production birds to sell any. Selling was only an option to possibly make a little spending money or to buy more chicks with. We really only have access to 2 acres at most for the types of critters we want to raise. My primary objective is to raise enough goats, pigs, chickens, and rabbits to provide our family with better food. Our house lives on frozen pizzas as our favorite food item. Meat and eggs just cost way too much to buy any amount of at the grocery store. But along with providing food for our family we want to find animals and breeds that we can use or make at least a little money to invest into new stock as we need it. Eggs, goats milk, pelts, compost, and their meat offers us a few opportunities to become have and provide some diverse products. I doubt we will ever make much if any profit from such a small farm. This is as much a hobby, something to do, and a learning tool for our little girl as it is to stock our fridge and freezers. My hubby works full time and I’m on SSDI. We would like to buy 10 or more acres so we can expand our farm and potentially make some extra spending money to renovate our property/cabin, supplement a few of our hobbies, or create a financial cushion in case of an emergency. As a general rule we don’t have much in the lines of a “rainy day fund or an emergency fund”. I would love it if the only thing we needed to go the store for was paper products, frozen pizzas, and possibly some fruit that can’t be grown in Wisconsin. If we could do that, we’d be eating better, healthier, more variety, better quality, and less expensively than we currently do. We could even start a worm farm. We love to fish as a family. Fishing is also pretty popular in this area. This would allow us to tap into that as well. The possibilities are endless. The future of our world is questionable at best. Inflation, decreased farm production, and other things are things to keep in the back of our heads. If we can be self sufficient that would be an awesome thing. I’m even willing to go off the grid. Technology is ruining today’s people. Most kids these days don’t have a clue what a cow is or where eggs come from. 40 years ago. Bigger and/or family farms was a pretty standard way of living for many. Farms are shrinking or dissolving. Kids have no clue what responsibilities, chores, and respect for others much less animals are. We are destroying our world, becoming lazy, cold, and antisocial in today’s world. People are going to need to be able to provide for their own family wants and needs really soon.
 

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