chickens

[metcat]

Hello ev1

I want to keep 2 or 3 chickens in my back garden but i dont know which are the easiest to start off with. Any suggestions? Any advice would be greatly recieved.

Metcat

[Bramble-Poultry]

ooo - the 10 million dollar question - everyone has their own personal favorites and only those are the chickens to have.

The qustions i would ask are - do you want "normal sized" chickens or bantams, 3 the same or a variety,

I suppose the actual question is what do you want to achieve:-

A constant supply of eggs, 3 a day from 3 hens - then you are looking for an ex battery hen, or a hybrid, a sussex or a rhode island red.

Marans lay a nice dark brown egg and legbars and silver dorkings lay a greeny blue egg.

If you want a bird that will do a little less damage to your garden try a cochin or other featehr footed breed, cochins also do not fly either and are very placid and friendly.

If you want them to look pretty then that is personal opinion - I love gold laced and cuckoo coloured birds but my daughter its all about mille fleur. But soem of teh prettier breed will not give you as many eggs as a utility breed.

Vauge answer but it really is personal choice - look at breeds, research their characteristics, look at photos and choose the one that you like the look of!

[Glutton4...]

Hi, and welcome to the madhouse!

Personally, I started with ex-Batts back in November of last year, and added some ex-Free Rangers at Christmas. Then, totally addicted, I added some 'posh birds' earlier this year. Then Geese! I love them all, but, I have to say, my first little brown ex-Batt 'Laydees' will always have a special place in my affections.

If and when I am in a position to add to the flock, I will rescue some more ex-Batts from BHWT. Just go to their website to find your local co-ordinator, and send him/her an email.

Good luck, you won't regret it!

[frias]

Hello Metcat, welcome to the vine. I too started with ex-batts and love them to bits. Not sure if they are the ideal chicken to start with though as some do seem to have more health problems. Having said that I don't know what health problems posh birds have and watching ex-batts learning to be proper chickens is wonderful. Must have 3 though and build a coop for at least 6 because you will get addicted.

[RedThorn]

Hi and welcome the the mad house. Be very careful as it is an addictive hobby I too started with ex-batts. but there's lots to think of as Bramble said. Are there kids around? do you have a large garden? are they going to free range? etc etc

[Flummery]

I wanted to start off, as a complete beginner, which a chicken that didn't come with the sort of 'baggage' that an ex-batt does. What I mean is that I realize they can have health problems that I didn't feel up to diagnosing and tackling. I went for 4 Rangers - like Warrans, the battery type hen. They are a hybrid and I get 4 eggs a day usually. Once a fortnight or so, I get 3. They have so far been very friendly and trouble free. My main bit of advice though, is to do a lot of research - I joined 4 forums for 6 months before I got the girls. Also go to a decent dealer, check his/her premises and don't buy a dodgy hen becasue you feel sorry for it.

Good luck - you'll love them!

[tlck9]

HI there

My ranger hybrid is certainly one of the easiest and calmest of the bunch, although as her confidence has grown she is quite bossy and gives me a good peck if im not doing as Im told, next is my little red hybrid, a sussex/red island cross is a smaller bird and is the next easiest....

However my leghorn, by nature is skittish, however she was poorly last week, so gave her a bath and she is now my best friend, she sits on me, climbs on my shoulders and genuinally likes to be around me

my plymouth/babcock is not as friendly as they others, but she has been a good layer since day one

[bluemoon]

We have Marans and Rhode Island Reds. Both are great, but I have to admit I'm developing an increasing preference for the Rhodies. Don't know if this is because the Rhodies came to us at 9 weeks old and we've raised them ourselves since, or if they really do have a much friendlier personality, but they are lovely easygoing birds (which is not what the books will tell you) and although my Marans are great, I doubt I will replace them or hatch any eggs from them. Whereas I can't see myself ever being without a few Rhodies.

[pdblake]

We went for ISA Browns, the same breed you'd get if you got an ex-batt, but before someone bunged it in a cage

They're nice birds, good with kids, friendly and easy to handle. They don't eat much and they lay well too.

It's worth looking around too. We got ours from a local breeder for £5.50 each but have seen then advertised for anywhere up to £20 a bird! I think some breeders, especially on-line, have realised that chicken keeping is catching on.

[chickadee]

Hi,
We also went for 3 isa browns, friendly and placid and so much fun!
We also have 1 white silkie, although she is lovely to look at, she is broody a lot of the time, not a great egg layer and very skittish, meaning you can't pick her up easily becasue she trots off and is a nervy bird which isn't that brill if you wanted a pet for kids!

[Hilary B]

As a calm placid breed, the Cochins I had were so laid back they were horizontal. One of them got beaten up by the banty cockerel (fortunately the size difference and all those fluffy feathers seemed to be adequate protection) and no sooner had little sod been removed than Mr Cochin was at my feet asking for tidbits.
The other Cochin cockerel was called Cuddles, with reason!
If you want eggs, hybrids lay the most, but there are older, dual-purpose, breeds that are pretty good (Rhodies are high on the list) and most of them are pretty good.

[Bephlam]

Welcome to the Vine!

I keep Faverolles, Marans & Araucanas. All lovely birds....

Faverolles: large, very docile (the teddy bear of the bird world)...good egg layer (almost 1 per day per bird - white eggs), good winter layers and very pretty. Only downside to this bird would be their size - they really are big, therefore if you're limited with space possibly not the best breed for you.

Marans: medium, very friendly (although in my experience flighty until they learn to trust you...and can always get high enough to escape if needs must), good egg layers (with lovely chocolate coloured eggs). Only downside to MY Marans is that they're soooo greedy (well, in fairness...mainly Bertha!)!!

Araucanas: medium to small, friendly, lay small blue eggs. I can't tell you much more than this at present because my lot are only 4 and 6 weeks at present!

This may not help at all, but like everyone else said...we all have our own 'special' breeds...so it's hard to give you a definite answer!

No matter what...be prepared to fall in love with them, and be prepared for the 'hobby' to take over your life!

[Bramble-Poultry]

Hillary I agree - I love cochins - we now have 4 colours here black, partridge, buff and gold laced, the latter two being very new arrivals last week (must updat e the website!) planning colour number 5 but I better let mike get over the marathon run building exercise he had at the weekend before I inform him that I need more.

They don;t fly, really friendly, less inclined to scratch due to feathered feet, lovely to look at in my opinion, not too bad egg layers for a fancy breed i get around 4 to 5 a week each although they are not a massive egg.

Although saying that I don't think that theres a chicken I don't love, they are all so lovely with their own little characters!

[Hilary B]

My Mr Cochin was a buff (yes we had buff Mrs Cochin as well). Cuddles was bred from blue parents, but he was white with a few blue and black splotches. He had 2 wives (same colouring) but they were a bit 'anonymous' among the mass of poultry I had just then. Cuddles was a character. He would scramble up to a waist-high perch if I stood near it, waiting to be picked up and cuddled! If you didn't notice him standing at cuddling height behind you, he 'commented', a quiet chuuuurk, to remind you what he wanted.
Most of my chooks, I liked them, but they were not 'special pets' like the dog or the goats. Cuddles was the only chook I ever really fell in love with.
Before we lost him (aged about 5 I think), he had 'caught' a black bantam hen (actually belonging to next door, but she moved in with us for the duration) and she hatched 2 fluffy-footed medium sized hens, which we called Smoky and Sooty (that tells you their colouring). We had those 2 for about 7 years in total, and they were good broodies, as well as 'not-bad' layers.

[HayleyB]

Well I followed the same footsteps as Glutton except instead of 4 geese I ended up with 4 ducks.

40 laydees comprising 2-cream legbars, 2-wheaten marans, 1-French cuckoo Maran, 1-Magpie, 1-White Star leghorn, 2- bluebelles, 1 - red rock, 1 buff sussex banty, 1- black rosecomb banty the rest are all Ex-batt Warrens/Amber Links.