Homestead forum diaspora

We are moving in a month and the new place has a place that could work for chickens. Would anyone like to share breed preferences? This year, I am looking to start a small flock of layers as I have a hubby who is completely against butchering chickens at home (and I have never done it) so will save those for a year or two away.

Fresh eggs and fertilizer are the goals for this next year. Thoughts?

Hands down, Black Australorps. Calm, easy keepers and very reliable layers. They will also set if you want more chickens. Those are our brown egg layers, and we also like the Brown Leghorns for white eggs and the Aracaunas for green eggs, although neither of those are good setters. 

Black Australorps. How do they do with dogs?

They're a very calm chicken- Alec had one he named Smoothfeather who went to show and tell in nursery school and got passed around 30 four year olds.

The better question is how are your dogs around chickens? The neighbor's beagle fatally wounded Smoothfeather

We have been pretty happy with Orpingtons - buff or black.  Pretty laid back, good egg producers. Easy keepers, seems like.

For roosters, Gold and Silver Laced Wyandottes are very pretty but temperment can be anywhere from sweetie to sociopath.

Are any of those bantam breeds also? I am thinking about guineas as well.

We keep a mixed flock, had some pure years ago, but we hatch our own and the pure breeds got mixed in as well.  We keep calm productive birds, all others get culled.  I do not like hatchery birds, seams their homesteading traits are bred out of them, a good home flock will give you a better bird every time.  It is easy to dress 1 chicken at home when you need it, we keep our roosters and when we want a chicken, dress one out, takes a few minutes and requires no refrigeration.  It is when yuou decide to do 20 chickens all at once it becomes an overwhelming task and the fun is gone.  We also own a butcher shop and routinely do 100 chickens at a time so I do know both sides of that coin. 

Thanks for the information. How do I keep the rooster from being a nuisance to the neighbors? I like the idea of a mixed flock and removing trouble makers.

By bothering neighbors, I am guessing you mean crowing? Forget it, they crow whenever they want, you cannot train them not to. If crowing is an issue, don't keep a roo at all. You won't have fertile eggs to hatch, but they lay just as well whether there's a roo or not.

If you decide to butcher at some point, look up the Ployface Farms (Joel Salatin) videos on youtube. They were a huge help to me, increased my speed and ease of processing a lot. I'd been butchering my own for years, and these videos made ie a lot easier.

Why bantams? They're cute, and make good moms, (usually) but for practical purposes, the eggs are tiny, there's not much meat, and the roos are just as loud as full-size birds.

For full size birds, I like Australorps and Orpingtons, too, they're good chickens. Sussex are nice, Salmon Faverolles, Brahmas, all great chickens. Just for eggs (not setting, they're non-brooders) I like Cherry Eggers, too. Rhode Island Reds are good layers, so are New Hampshire Reds.

Here's a chart that might help. http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html#a  Shows egg color, how well they lay, average size, whether they tend to lay in the winter, broodiness/non-broodiness, temperament, whether they tolerate confinement or not, and more.

I agree with Tessiers, hatchery birds are not all that great. They look more or less like the breed they represent, but tend to be smaller, less likely to brood, and more like run-of -the-mill layers than whatever the breed was when first developed. Your best bet for good quality birds with the traits the breed is meant to have, is to find a show breeder. You can find show stock for sale at state and county fairs, too, just check to make sure you have the poultry exhibit dates. Go on the first day, early, otherwise the best will already be sold. You may have to leave birds you buy there until the poultry exhibit closes, but you can go ahead and buy them so you'll have dibs on 'em.

If you want show stock, let me know, I can tell you how to find breeders in your area.

Matt - I actually like the idea of the guineas being natural predator alarms but, as Jenny points out, they are small. Though I only want eggs for consumption, I think, once a flock is set, it would be nice to grow our own babies every few years so a rooster would be a good addition to have around.

That chart is aweome! So many things to think about. I will check out the fair schedule as that is a good idea for scouting birds and getting in contact with breeders.

I'm with Matt on this one. Orphingtons (Hippie Chickens) even walk laid back.

Mo, I said Bantams are small. Guineas aren't all that big, but bigger than Bantams. Guineas are the noisiest birds, not really good as alarm birds because they yell all the time at every little thing. Like car alarms that go off all the time, you stop responding after a while. Guaranteed to irritate the neighbors.

Here's things to consider, on hatchiing eggs now and then. If you keep hens that tend to be broody, they will go broody even when the eggs are not fertile. They will go broody even if they have no eggs. While they're broody, they only leave the nest once a day to eat, drink, and poop. This is physically hard on them, and they tend to lose weight and body condition. If nothing hatches, they may stay broody for as long as 3 months, unless you do something to break the cycle, like confine them to a wire-bottom cage, up off the ground or floor, with nothing to make a nest from. This is the best thing to do for the hen's overall health, if she's not going to have fertile eggs to hatch.

If you get hens that are not broody types, you won't have endless brooding to deal with every summer. But they also will not suddenly decide to be brooders when you want them to once every 2 or 3 years. You can however, get an incubator and hatch them yourself.

You don't need a roo all the time if you're only going to hatch eggs once in a great while. Roos are pretty easy to get, you can get one the year you want to hatch eggs, and if he's no trouble keep him, or, when you're done with his services, eat him, sell him, or give him away, if your neighbors are tired of hearing him crow. If you get acquainted with other folks who keep chickens, you might be able to borrow a roo for a summer, as needed. Of course, making provisions for "what if's" in case he meets a bad end while in your care.

Rob, there's no "h" in Orpington. Lots of people insert an "h", but I have no idea why.

My mistake Jenny! Thanks for the information. I have been thinking about this a while and still have a lot of questions to answer but want to jump in this year.

Hmm, I have owned Poms and would not want chickens with the same temperament.

Has anyone read The Chicken Whispering? It looks interesting from the reviews.

http://chickenwhisperer.com/radio-show.html

Ah! Thank you Rob!

Yes, Geese are gaurdians - in the middle ages when dogs were only owned by the upper classes (by law) Geese filled the niche.  They will go berserk if strangers come in your yard, and may actually even attack them.


We find a historical example of just how good Geese are at that sort of thing in 390 BC , when Rome was attacked by a massive army of Gauls. Civilians were evacuated from the City,  leaving the Roman Military fortified on the hill where the Capital was  located.  There on the hill also was a temple honoring the Triad of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.  This temple was home to temple Geese , sacred to the Goddess Juno (a goddes of many roles, first and foremost as divine protector)  - Geese which the Romans continued to feed from their meager stores even as the seige saw their supplies dwindling and the threat of starvation looming.

At one point the Gauls attempted to sneak in on the Romans, and managed to breach the defenses unseen by man or dog only to have their plot foiled by the Geese, who erupted into noisy honking and wing flapping.  Alerted, the Romans were able to repulse their attackers, and eventually the Gauls withdrew from Rome.

Subsequently, the Romans built a great temple to  Iunonis (Juno) Monetæ  (The Latin monēre means to remind, warn, or instruct) and this became a great repository of records and the site where Roman coins were minted - the word Monetae is the origin of our modern english words "Memory" and "Monetary".

Geese? Well, I had not contemplated them but this could be a nice addition to the flock.