nice coop. is that vynil? chickens are addicting little creatures. surprisingly entertaining to watch. you’ll never want to eat store bought eggs again. grow some kale just for them. its good for them and even better if it gets full of worms. they love them too!
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Ray,
I think you picked a good year to start raising chickens. You might really be glad you did before long!
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Thanks Clark. I only wish I’d done this years ago. Decided on getting
friendly gentle birds and no roos. Can’t have them where I live. Have
ordered, Buff Orpington, Black Astrolorps, RIR, Domonique, Barred
Rock, Golden Laced Wyandotte. Thought about an EE, but afraid I’ll
get one with a crossed break. Any thoughts from anyone.
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I’m surprised they didn’t come out with these earlier. they’ve had vinyl sheds for over 25 yrs. now. nice thing about them is you can hose them out and they never rot. pretty pricey for plastic but if you never need to replace it i guess its a bargain.
I’ve had most of them except EE and they are very winter hardy and good layers. R.I.R are my fav. big brown eggs. they also have a decent sized carcass if you want to eat them after they slow down on laying. usually about 4 yrs. i get new chicks.
My Pet Chicken sells it for $699, free shipping and no sales tax.
That’s where I got mine.
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Easter eggers IMO are overrated and under performers. I’d rather have a good grade of Ameraucana.
If you are going to have chickens, take time to learn about the quirks of the breed(s) you are getting. Straight combs are susceptible to freezing. Breeds that are good egg layers are rarely good meat chickens. Large breeds tend to be better in cold climates. https://www.typesofchicken.com/9-types-of-combs-in-chickens/ I don’t like to keep leghorns as they are exceptionally flighty and very loud but make up for it with very high egg production. Wyandottes and Jersey Giants tend to have very good attitude and are easy keepers.
Buff Orpington - A general purpose fowl for eggs and meat. Hens are good setters and mothers. Orpingtons originated in the 1880’s in England. Skin color is white. They all have single combs with five points and lay a light brown egg.
Black Astralorps - developed in Great Britain and have the characteristic white skin and usually white legs with a pinkish streak. Most of them tend to lay what would be considered a tinted egg (off-white) to pale brown. These tend to lay an egg with embedded blood spots in my experience.
Rhode Island Red - Deep red in color with rich yellow legs. They lay a brown egg and have a single comb. Generally a good egg producing breed and can be used for meat.
Dominique - barred pattern, small to medium rose comb. They do well on foraging and are pretty good about being a free ranger that comes home at night to roost. They are medium size brown egg layers. Rose comb is good for cold weather areas.
Barred Rock - Single comb, barred black and white pattern, good layers of brown eggs. These are good general purpose homestead birds that produce decent numbers of eggs and can also be used for meat.
Golden Laced Wyandotte - Golden laced pattern, gold/orange and black, used to be called Winnebagos. They are one of the oldest of the Wyandotte breeds. Excellent early season layers that slow down in the heat of summer. Wyandottes are a large rose comb breed that can also be used for meat.
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it cost about that to make a wood, one not counting your own labor.
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We’ve been raising a mixed breed chicken flock for nearly 20 years. Crossed beak has been an infrequent problem and only when we’ve hatched out our own chicks. I don’t remember it being characteristic of any one breed. You say you are not in it for the eggs, but we sell at a farmers market, and the assortment of egg colors, white, cream, light to dark brown, olive green to aqua gives us our niche. We can count on selling out almost every week, even those we charge a bit more. You will have some variation in shades of brown, so you should be able to guess which hens laid which eggs — and who the slackers are.
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I’m slowly replacing the slackers with more of the hybrids like isa browns, golden comets. not as pretty but these birds are capable of 300 eggs a year. right now my 5 white leghorn are nearly giving me that but i want a more cold hardy breed. i have people hounding me for eggs right now because of the shortage. one lady in town offered me $50 for 2 of my hens! if i was heartless i could have taken her offer and got 2 better laying hybrids.
I’m 73 and recently had quadruple bypass surgery, and can’t
do that kind of work any more. This was a one and done
purchase, so I didn’t mind the cost. Besides, this coup will outlast me,
and will require no maintenance.
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a good choice!
Tractor Supply is overloaded with those two varieties right now.
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Cackle Hatcheries has this warning about EE’s on their website.
NOTE: It should be noted that this breed has an inherent genetic beak issue. 1 out of 100 chicks as they grow may have some variance in severity of scissor beak/cross beak.
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Thanks. I’ve never ordered from Cackle.
for good reason. 
Some strains of Leghorn have a genetic problem that leads to crooked toes. It can be bred out with enough generations of selection. Some crosses produce massive combs that block a rooster’s vision. It is easy to avoid those crosses.
i also have some brown leghorns. they are more nervous that the white and don’t lay as well or as big of an egg . one good thing about leghorns is they eat a lot less than other breeds for the amount of eggs they give. i guess thats why the commercial egg industry still uses them. they also can fly quite well for a chicken. mine like sitting on top of the coop when i let them out. if scared they will fly up into my big pines.
Cream Legbar lays a stunning blue egg.
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