Your Ideal Flock....of only 4 birds!

[3riverschick]

well all hens since you would be in this for the eggs. Then 4 hens which lay 4 different color eggs.
A Welsummer or a Marans for the dark brown egg. Both do well in your heat ( I lived for years in West Covina)
An Easter Egger or Olive Egger for a nice green egg.
An Araucana for blue eggs.
A Light or Speckled Sussex for a pale tinted brown egg
All these breeds will do well in your temperatures variances and are known as friendly breeds.
Best,
Karen in western PA, USA

 

[Raenh]

@3riverschick - what part of Pittsburgh do you live near?

 

[Nats Chickens]

You should keep an Australorp, a Barnvelder, an Araucana and Brahma. Just my thoughts...

 

[CannedMonster]

Ideal flock of 4?
I’d keep my 4 Naked Necks lol!
But that would actually be a disaster since two of them are cockerels.
I got my Naked Necks at Tractor Supply and they source their chicks from Hoover.
I love my NN because they’re very different and definitely a conversation piece.
Mine are 4 months old and they have feathered out with some beautiful colors.
I have 2 pullets and 2 cockerels.
My understanding of the breed is that they are known to be good layers and surprisingly cold hardy (I live in Idaho).
They’re doing excellent in the 100 degree weather we’re having (we have lots of shade trees).

 

[Chelsa'sChicks]

Easter egger, Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red, and Australorp.

Beautiful mix of colors and all greatly laying birds with personality they are great breeds in heat and cold.

 

[HenniesInMyHeart]

Silkies (I love paints!), Cochins (blues are gorgeous!), Sussex (Coronation, so pretty) and Orpingtons (Jubilees are gorgeous)! But I'm not biased or anything.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

I'm so, so excited because I've never been able to keep chickens before! (Not possible in an apartment with 3 cats.)

weellllll... from my point of view, technically it's possible... but those cats were taking up restate... so they might have to find new digs

Anyway, congrats on moving to a chicken friendly place in the mountains... my wife wants to come visit ... i know ...even though she doesn't read BYC

Your post is fundamental in a way that every chicken person relates to, because it can be 4, 14, 24, 34, 44, ..... 104... it makes "no never mind" as we say around here, there is always another breed, another color, maybe a bantam of what i already have, maybe some meat birds, or maybe some show birds in a separate pen...or ducks, what about ducks, we haven't even thought about those silly quackers, and so on....

This is what the crazy chicken people ( i'm guessing that is 93.6312478659421% of BYC people ) call "chicken math".

So what I'm trying to say, is basically whether you intended to or not, you've basically posed the chicken equivalent of Fermat's Last Theorem.... which is a big deal among non-chicken related math nerds.

And so your question is just a lot of fun for the chicken obsessed mind to kick around...

But if I might be so bold as to suggest that I "know" the answer to your question, then Ii would say that even with all of the outstanding suggestions from these crazy chicken people ( not me of course) ... you will still have to try at least a few, and maybe many more, breeds, types, colors, and lay types, to figure out your own chicken math.

But nonetheless:

• thanks for asking a great question
• and please let us know what you decide on
• and keep us posted on your slice of paradise up there in the mountains

 

[child_of_air]

weellllll... from my point of view, technically it's possible... but those cats were taking up restate... so they might have to find new digs

Anyway, congrats on moving to a chicken friendly place in the mountains... my wife wants to come visit ... i know ...even though she doesn't read BYC

Your post is fundamental in a way that every chicken person relates to, because it can be 4, 14, 24, 34, 44, ..... 104... it makes "no never mind" as we say around here, there is always another breed, another color, maybe a bantam of what i already have, maybe some meat birds, or maybe some show birds in a separate pen...or ducks, what about ducks, we haven't even thought about those silly quackers, and so on....

This is what the crazy chicken people ( i'm guessing 93% of BTC people ) call "chicken math".

So what I'm trying to say, is basically whether you intended to or not, you've basically posed the chicken equivalent of Fermat's Last Theorem.... which is a big deal among non-chicken related math nerds.

And so your question is just a lot of fun for the chicken obsessed mind to kick around...

But if I might be so bold as to suggest that I "know" the answer to your question, then i would say that even will all of the outstanding suggestions from these crazy chicken people ( not me of course) ... you will still have to try at least a few, and maybe many more, breeds, types, colors, and lay types, to figure out your own chicken math.

But nonetheless:

• thanks for asking a great question
• and please let us know what you decide on
• and keep us posted on your slice of paradise up there in mountains

I will! I wish I could have more....but I don't want to piss off my neighbors....until I at least meet them.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

I will! I wish I could have more....but I don't want to piss off my neighbors....until I at least meet them.

4 hens or 12 hens probably wont bother the neighbors much different... but good on you for thinking of the folks that live there before you.

But I really think there is something to the "minimalist" approach to having or at least starting out with just 4 hens that meet your climate, egg expectations,, temperament, etc.

 

[DetAlwaysWrite]

Buff Orpington, Easter Egger, Brahma, Salmon Faverolle