More About Chickens

The chicken palace now has a roof. Walls to follow later this week.

We were told by a friend that you need two different kinds of chickens - one kind for laying eggs and one kind for meat. I don't accept that. In my Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens (thank you Tina) it says that there are such a thing as "dual purpose" chickens. It says "best of both worlds--eggs and meat. Dual purpose chickens "don't lay as well as laying hens and don't grow as fast as meat birds, but they lay better than meat birds and grow faster than laying hens...are the classic backyard chickens."

They give a list:

General Purpose

Dominique
Houdan
Plymouth Rock
Sussex
Orpington
Wyandotte

Better for Eggs

Australorp
Red Sex Link (hybrid)
Rhode Island Red

Better for Meat

Black Sex Link (hybrid)
Langsham
New Hampshire

And the book tells me the number of eggs that I should expect per day would be two eggs for every three hens. I should figure out how many eggs I want and decide on the number of chickens from there, figuring in a certain percentage of chickens that might die off.

So, with that information, I've decided to start with 25 Rhode Island Reds. We'll see how that works out. Chickens aren't a long time investment as they are only good for laying for about a year or two and you don't want to wait until they are too old to eat or they'll be tough. If the Reds don't work out, I think we can easily switch to a different breed.

Perhaps I'm relying too much on a book (sort of like Howard Garrett's gardening book that has been proven wrong too many times), but...well, that's what I do.