Hello from Oregon

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oregonn8v

oregonn8v

In the Brooder
9 Years
Feb 28, 2010
14
0
22
Portland, OR
Good evening. I have just joined BackYardChickens and look forward to lots of input and advice from all of you veterans. My wife and I have been tossing around the idea of having some chickens for about a year and she was at a location where she fell in love with some Silkies this weekend. Needless to say the three kids are also excited about the idea. In Portland we are allowed three hens. We (meaning I) am planning on doing some thorough research before we get too far down this road and I am looking for advice on breeds, coop construction, and anything else that I don't even know I don't know yet.
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Please ask all the question you may have so I can provide details to do the best job I can of building a coop and selecting the best breed for our area, climate and needs.

Cheers,

Eric
 
Hi back from Oregon. I'm about an hour away from you.
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Good luck with the new hobby. Beware, chickens are addictive. (But since I live in the country, i'm legally allowed to have as many as I want.
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Heh, neighbor, I'm not so far from you. I live near Lake Merwin in SW WA state, about 45 minutes or so from you. Portland is a very chicken friendly town and even has their own chicken discussion group. I was a member for awhile but they focus on the issues of urban chickens and I'm up here in the country, and BYC is really a nicer group of people overall and a much larger group of people.

We need to think about birds that are good in a colder climate here. You can just go to the feed store in spring and don't have to order chicks online or anything like that. The store will have birds that are good for our climate. I believe you can have three hens where you are, no roosters. But people sell their roosters off or give them away on the Portland's Craig's list. Or process them. Your call.

You will like having chickens more than you thought! We loved starting with chicks because they were just so darn cute.

If I could only have three I would maybe think about egg color. We like our Buff Orpingtons best so I'll recommend them, they are calm and lay pinkish brown eggs. We also have rhode island reds and they have very good egg production and a nice brown color to the eggs that everyone seems to like. And I'd get something that laid green or blue eggs too because that would be so fun to have tri-colored eggs.

You can easily make a small coop from recycled materials, especially for just three hens. There is a lot of advice on here how to do that. You would not need much space for just three.

We also like using sand in and around the coop because of all our rain. The chickens will stay in the coop much more time when it is raining so plan your coop large enough for them to be comfy even if they were stuck hanging out. Put your stuff in different areas, water away from food, food away from roosts, roosts away from nests. With three birds I'd maybe just have one large nest. We have six nests and 17 hens. They usually will have a favorite and six or seven eggs will be in one nest. They kind of like to lay where other eggs are.

If you look on Craigs list there are some real cute coops that people make, if you don't feel like constructing something yourself. We fence our chickens in because of where we live and I'd make sure no neighbor dogs could get to my chickens if I lived in Portland.
Welcome!
 
savingdogs:

You mentioned something that I was curious about. Is it recommended that all the hens be the same breed or can you mix and match? If you do mix breeds, are there some that should never be put together because one will be agressive towards the others? Thanks for the welcomes from both you and melody123.

Eric
 
Hello!
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We're in Central Oregon now (Madras) but moving to Sweethome this summer.

I would go with heavier, very friendly breeds for kids. I've heard Cochins are nice, Barred Rocks, etc. You should put an add out on CL or similar (or even here) if someone in PDX is ordering chicks they can include yours in the order, so they don't have to have the 25 minimum required by most hatcheries.

Or, just find someone hatching eggs of the breeds you choose!
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Hope some more people can give you good input and that soon you will proudly have some new hens!!!
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Hi Oregonn8v. I'm in the Metzger area by WA SQ Mall. I have 7 hens & all are different breeds & sizes along with a couple of mixes. My girls get along very well so don't think breed matters at all. You can find real aggressive hens but not sure the breed matters much. Someone more experienced can answer that. Will tell you I highly recommend the black austrolorp as being very gentle. They do a squat which makes them easy to catch plus they have such a sweet nature that your kids will love being able to handle them. Two of my other younger hens squat just like her (Americana banty & mixed black & white speckle). Think I read on here that it was also a sign of submission like to a rooster but I haven't had roos when the little buggars decided to show themselves by crowing. They were adolescents & just starting to feel their oats so they got a new home real quick.
Sure hope you do your homework if you are inside city limits. I'm in the county & only have one neighbor that objects & is nasty but she's that way to everyone. Nothing she can do about me having chickens either:lol: A nasty neighbor isn't nice to deal with though & will cause you lots of concern where your animals & children are concerned. Best to you.



Proud momma of 7 hens, 2 dogs, 3 cats & 1 betta.
 

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