What Breed & How Many for a Newbie?

[chicken boy sam]

Even though leghorns are scrawny, I guess if you feed them meat chicken food, they'll be good fryers. They're also great egg layers. 6 sounds like a good number.

 

[Matoe]

6 is not even close to enought for the simple reason loss, dogs, coons and others. I ordered 34 last year have only 10 left. due to varmints we did not get to eat one hen. we tryed to eat 2 roo's but they were to old. But I have ordered 40 more coming in this week.We are going to eat some this year. so if you plan on eatting some birds buy some more. don't buy from feed store but find a good hatchery near you. matoe

 

[12GAGirl]

I was raised with chickens along with cows, swine, and a horse but when I went to start my very own flock I went with ten(1 rir rooster, 5 rir hens, 2 easter eggers, and 2 wyandotte) and well I have nine in my flock. One wyandotte was doa at the post office but everyone else is approaching 6 months old and are laying 5-7 eggs a day! I don't think I will be able to but any in the freezer but rir are dual purpose birds, good for meat and eggs. But I really don't think I can kill any of them.

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

Quote:
The trick is which do you prefer meat,eggs,or both cause to start with go with the breed you fell you want to start with but do only 6-10 most feed stores will allow you to add onto their order and they tend to have a way you can choose which breed you would like now if you would like to order from a Hatchery then I suggest you find a friend to split the order with it is cheaper if you only want a certain number of birds.
Now with that being said you must also ask yourself do you want the one time meat birds or would you like to keep having meat birds, cause if you want to keep having meat birds but don't want to buy from a hatchery everytime then you would also need to get a rooster or two depending on how many birds you would like to have then you must save some eggs when a hen goes broody and for that you need the breed who are great setters then you need to gether the eggs for her to sit on but you also need a breeding pen for them.

So you see it isn't all about aww look how cute I want those it is work but your best bet is to get a breed that is right for what you want then figure out how many you want to start with I am a noob myself and II have decide to go with 10-15 this way if they yeah for me I can get more but if they die I need to figure out where I went wrong and try to fix it before I get anymore in.
Me and my DW chose to go with BR and BO the Bo's are if the BR live the reason for the BR is thet are dual purpose birds the BO's are the same but also great winter layers and setters.

Which ever you choose good luck to you.

 

[Domestic_goddess]

Sounds like you have a great set up for quit a few chickens. I've only been raising chickens for about 3 years, I started out with 6 barred rocks. We have slowly added to the flock and I've lost a few, we had to get rid of my rooster-too noisy for the nieghbors and then 1 hen got hit by a car, darn it! So this year I'm getting 10. Which now will make 20, although I think I'm getting rid of my 2 brown leghorns. I don't recommend leghorns if your getting your feet wet. They have been the hardest so far for me, flighty and skiddish. My orpingtons are docile and so much fun. That would be my recommendation for a beginner, good layers too...they haven't stopped even in the bitter cold winter months. Getting your feet wet and easing into is probably the best idea, Good luck and as you have heard they are fun and addicting!

 

[Esteri]

What great responses! Thanks so much for all the advice. I think I'll continue with the original plan then - six chicks on Thursday in some combination of Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, and perhaps Black Star. Hopefully, we'll get there before the feed store sells out. Chicks go pretty fast around here.

Then, if everything goes well after a few months - we can just make an order from a hatchery for 25 - a mix of meat and layers.

What thoughts on getting cockerels of Heavy / Dual Purpose breeds for meat? These seem less expensive, and from what I'm reading on the Meat forum are tastier because you process at an older age. Thoughts? Yes? Or way too noisy?

 

[tammyd57]

Some breeds of cockerels are very aggressive towards each other when they get mostly grown. My BO roos are all housed separately so they don't fight (I don't have enough hens to go around). But they are about a year old now, so if you process before they mature they can be kept together. Mine are pretty noisy, but I think we kind of encourage that by laughing at them and mimicking their crowing because it is so funny. I don't have any neighbors to bother with the noise.
Now that I think about it, all of my animals make a lot of noise, even my cat...........

 

[dako'ng itlog]

McMurray Hatchery has a meat-n-eggs combo special that is 25 pullets (10 various good egg layers & 15 meat birds) for about $52. Shipping is probably about $10. That way you get both meat and egg layers for a good deal and don't have to bother with trying to figure out what breeds to get.

 

[Esteri]

We've got chicks!! The feed store got 200 in this morning. Apparently they were too noisy and the post office called asking them to come pick them up. So they got in early, and since my husband called to see if they were in - we got first pick.

We got 5 Black Sex-link, 3 Buff Orpington, and 2 Barred Rock. Yeah, I know - I said six. But all our friends and co-workers want eggs. What could I do? I had to get more.

They're happily ensconced in a plastic bin in the garage. We know they're happy because they're QUIET. It's a lot like newborn puppies actually - just no momma dog hangin' out taking care of feeding and clean up. It's amazing how quickly they can move pine shavings into their food and water. Sheez. I have the feeling they're going to out grow this box pretty quickly. Fortunately - we've got another that's bigger.

Let's see if I can figure out how to add a picture...

 

[crosbygroup]

Quote:
It's chicken math. I'm sure that 6 = 10 when doing chicken math. sometimes 6 = 20+ I think you showed great restraint.

Very cute chicks, Enjoy!

If you are going to try meat birds you might want to try Cornish X's. From what I've read they are almost impossible to fall in love with.