Posted on 11/19/2011 5:21:15 AM PST by simplesimon
I can only buy Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks locally, so I’ve ordered other breeds from both Ideal Poultry and Murray McMurray. Both have shipped excellent chicks.
My favorite breed of all is the White Leghorn. They weigh about 4 lbs. at maturity, start laying large white shelled eggs at 4 1/2 to 5 months, and they continue laying 10 to 12 weeks longer than most good layers. Their resistance to disease are very high, and the feed to egg ratio is excellent.
From the McMurray website: “When our local farmers ask us to recommend the pullet that will lay the most eggs of top grade and size, of uniform shape, good shell, and highest interior quality, and do it on the least feed and in smallest amount of space, we suggest the Pearl.”
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html
Cool photos . . . I love the roadrunner!
Moderator, request advice on why my comment #16 was removed but several fairly disgusting pictures of chicken poop (#47)are OK. Just trying to learn for future use. Thank you.
Excellent site for chickens!!.
http://www.backyardchickens.com
If it looks like tar it is normal.
Funky Chicken!!
I recently got one of their catalogs in the mail , upon request. I’ve looked at it briefly but we found the Buff’s pretty close and since we didnt want to deal with babies with winter knocking on our door, we decided that a pullet of several months old would be perfect for us right now, at least to start out with.
In fact, I just found out she has a few Buckeye’s, 4 mo available but dh says in the spring we will add a few more.
I reallllllllllly want an “easter egger” and a black copper maran to add to the mix, just to see which breeds we like the best. But so far we are really enjoying the Buff’s.
I don’t think I’ve heard of Ideal but I’ll take a look at the link you provided. Thank you for that ~
I know the site ( grin ). It is a very good site I agree.
Has anyone used My Pet Chicken . com ?
Thanks for all the referals to backyardchickens ~
There are lots of differences in the various breeds in their performance and their attitudes towards you and towards the rest of the flock. Orpies are one of the more gentle breeds and seem to get along well as a flock. The roosters are average in their behavior I would say, that meaning that they will most likely kill any brooded chicks you may hatch if you don’t protect them and the rooster will start to get kind of feisty on you after a couple of years.
Rocks have much the same sort of behavior, the roosters are typically more gentle, although my current rooster, Fred, puts the lie to that theory. He will try to put the spurs to you if you let him. I keep an old flyswatter by the door to the pen for when Fred gets that rowdy look in his eye. Rocks lay at about the same rate as an Orpie, I get about 6 eggs a day from 10 hens, give or take.
The best laying chicken that I ever had was a Black Australorp (sp) a cross between Orpington’s and something from Australia. They are the world record layers. I believe the record is 500+ eggs from a single hen in a year. I got an egg every day from the one that I had and sometimes two.
Must have chicken book: “Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens” by Gail Damerow. It’s all in there. Good luck.
And here all these years I was told the white part is just more of the dark part...
Your post was removed for implied profanity. 47 is a link to pictures of chicken poop, someone doesn’t have to leave the thread to look at them if they do not want to.
Thanks for your reply.
Australorp was another one I was wanting to get eventually.
We don’t want any roosters even though they are gorgeous regardless of the breed. Just too noisy and I dont want to deal with an a$$ of a chicken LOL because memories of 30+ years ago , my brother and I both got attacked by our roosters when we were little kids. So no roosters ~!
I didnt know that about the record egg layer Australorp ~ Wow. That’s pretty incredible to say the least ~
One should always bear in mind that the little white specks in chickenpoop (see link in comment #47) are chickenpoop too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.