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For those wanting fresh eggs all year long some consideration might be given to using two different classes of hens. Heavy rose combed breeds fair better in the cold climates of the north and the lighter breeds handle the heat better. Then come in the light breed X heavy breed crosses. Never raised personally anything but the dual purpose rocks and reds.
Everything from tiny silkies to black austrolorps. I loved the austrolorps for their size and the beautiful birds they were--bigger chickens have a better survival rate in the presence of predators. But the austrolops just about ate us out of house and home, they have a hearty appetite.
After every imaginable breed of chicken my favorites ended up being Rhode Island reds and wyandottes. Both breeds are nice plump birds, good mother hens, and lay a nice fat egg nearly every day. Well behaved and easy to keep.
The worst were araucanas and leghorns. The leghorns just would not stay home. As soon as they came out of the coop every morning they headed off to some neighbors yard to dig up their gardens, they were constantly wandering everywhere. Just couldn't keep them in. The araucanas refused to lay eggs in the hen boxes--they hid their eggs--and liked to nest anywhere but the chicken coop. Bad girls.
But it certainly is my experience that chickens do much better with a rooster in the mix. Roosters are very protective of their hens and will charge a predator and let them have it. The hens wander less with a rooster around too.
Most cities seem to prohibit keeping backyard roosters because they crow and make noise. Meh, roosters are not nearly as annoying as the gangs of bikers that constantly roar up and down my street, nobody complains about them....
Many years ago, I bought half a dozen White leghorns from a co-worker and they were THE most godawful birds I have ever owned. High strung, petty, and nervous - not at all suited to a farm with little kids and dogs running around. In fact, much better suited, IMO, to cage living (as mean as that sounds).
I mentioned in a previous post about taking egg-eating, feather-pulling chickens to the auction? That was THEM!!!
When I was first getting chickens 30-plus years ago, the Aracauna was just becoming known in this country - at least where I lived. Back then, the "information" was that the Aracauna egg had no cholesterol. Then, over a few years, it changed to them having less cholesterol. I believe, now, the common knowledge is that the only difference in the Aracauna's egg is the color of its shell. LOL
I used to work in a feed store and the Aracauna chicks we got every year were THE big seller - because of the blue and green shells. Nothing more. In my experience, they are NOT the best layers. They don't even start laying until, if I remember correctly, around ten months of age and they are not the most consistent layers, not really doing well at all in the winter.
And EVERY Aracauna rooster I've ever had has turned mean. As in meaner than a junkyard dog mean. Fine up until about a year old, and then WATCH YOUR BACK!!
I, too, have always liked the Rhode Island Red. They're consistent, hardy, fairly dependable winter layers and they're relatively easy-going, just overall a nice bird. I have had a few mean RI roosters over the years, but I've also had a lot of perfectly peaceful ones.
My favorite chickens by far are the Barred Plymouth Rocks. They are large, beautifully specked black & white, very good laying hens, with large brown eggs. They're cold tolerant (we are in New Hampshire). We contributed a couple of chicks to my brother in law's flock, and they were happy and friendly chickens (as opposed to the ones who would scatter away). If I can ever manage to talk my husband into having our own small flock, this is the breed that I want to have the most.
Those Rhode Island Reds are something else. My wife a home health care nurse made a house call out in the sticks some months ago and the the hens met her at the gate. They followed her to where she parked the car and everything but got in the car with her to check things out. They followed her up the steps and one or two managed to get in the house. She simply picked them up and put then gently out the door. Talk about a spoiled bunch but that they were.
If racoons are chicken predators, how can anyone have free range chickens without worrying about that?
A dog that keeps the raccoons away but doesn't kill the chickens. I had a good outdoor dog once that protected the yard including the chickens but would go after any "invaders".
Those Rhode Island Reds are something else. My wife a home health care nurse made a house call out in the sticks some months ago and the the hens met her at the gate. They followed her to where she parked the car and everything but got in the car with her to check things out. They followed her up the steps and one or two managed to get in the house. She simply picked them up and put then gently out the door. Talk about a spoiled bunch but that they were.
Anybody who has raised farm animals has funny stories to tell.....
We had a pair of guineas, I really liked them. They were just cool. And they were great warning signals, nobody came around that the guineas didn't raise a fuss. But I think they are not entirely domesticated birds and they fly quite well.
We once got a new neighbor across the street with a new pickup truck that had big shiny chrome wheels. For some reason our guineas became fascinated with staring at their reflections in the chrome wheel hubs. Except the neighbor was inexplicably terrified of them and every time he came out into the driveway to get in the truck, there were our guineas staring at themselves in his truck wheels and he was afraid to get anywhere near them....
so he'd go back into the house and call us up to tell us to come get our guineas out of his driveway . We'd go over and shoo them across the fence and he'd drive off.
As soon as he came home again and parked his truck, there they'd go again to stand in front of his truck wheels for hours, mesmerized.
Anybody who has raised farm animals has funny stories to tell.....
We had a pair of guineas, I really liked them. They were just cool. And they were great warning signals, nobody came around that the guineas didn't raise a fuss. But I think they are not entirely domesticated birds and they fly quite well.
We once got a new neighbor across the street with a new pickup truck that had big shiny chrome wheels. For some reason our guineas became fascinated with staring at their reflections in the chrome wheel hubs. Except the neighbor was inexplicably terrified of them and every time he came out into the driveway to get in the truck, there were our guineas staring at themselves in his truck wheels and he was afraid to get anywhere near them....
so he'd go back into the house and call us up to tell us to come get our guineas out of his driveway . We'd go over and shoo them across the fence and he'd drive off.
As soon as he came home again and parked his truck, there they'd go again to stand in front of his truck wheels for hours, mesmerized.
We never knew why.
(I'm sure he was thrilled when we moved away )
You can't keep those suckers home.
I've had them and where I used to live, they didn't really bother anybody. When they did leave, they'd go up into the woods where nobody lived.
Here, however, instead of going up into the woods, they chose to go down the hill to the neighbor - who is petty and who has zero tolerance for anything. I was trying to be a good neighbor so I got rid of them when he complained. I shouldn't have bothered because it seems like the more concessions I made to get along with him in the beginning, the more (and bigger ones) he expected.
Peafowl are the same way - hard to keep at home.
malamute - I can't leave my dogs outside at night because of the above-mentioned neighbor. If they barked ONCE and he heard it, and even if they were barking at predators, he would have the cops here in a heartbeat.
We live in a suburb and have 8-12 chickens. It varies. OUr suburb is kind of rural so we have woods around us.
Raccoons kill chickens just for fun. They will even reach through the fence and pull their heads off. They do not eat them, just kill them.
Eagles, hawks, coyotes, foxes, cats, dogs and who knows what else will be attracted to your chickens. Humans are not the only ones who like McNuggets.
You need to build a run with a fence over the top. You need a coop that is like fort knox and it should open into the run. It should also be heated if it gets below freezing. We just use a light bulb, that provides enough heat.
We let ours ut during the day and they waner around our yard, in the woods and in the neighbors yards. We rarely lose any. Once in a while. The rooster helps keep the hens in line and safe. They just come back on their own in the evening or we call them and they come.
When you get chicks you do not know if they are hens or roosters (ignore the swinging key thing, it is BS). If they can tell the difference, some sellers will try to foist the rooster chicks off on newbies. No one wants roosters. Usually they just end up being killed. Our current rooster is very cool. Super pretty, friendly and takes execellent care of the hens. We had another one, but he crowed 24/7 every 10 to 15 minutes. We did not wait for the neighbors to call the township, we just killed him.
Do not get boring chickens. Why woudl you want them? UNless you need a lot of eggs. There are chickens that lay blue, green and pink eggs (Americanas, Arcuanas aks Easter Eggers). There are chickens that look like punk rockers (Polish). hre are really neat colors and patterns. Life is too short to raise boring chickens.
We never bother hatching eggs. Chicks cost about $2 - $15 for really fancy things. Hatching is a lot of work and requried expensive stuff and more room. Besides, we like to eat the eggs.
Chicekns are neat pets. they have personality. We had one that woudl hang out on a shelf on our back porch. My wife put a towel over the shelf to make her a cave. Whenever somone approached the house, she would run out, run around them three times and then run back in to her cave. My son impressed his friends by calling out as they approached the house "Robotic Attck chicken - ACTIVATE!" the chicken came running out and ran around them three times. My son then called out "Robotic Attack chicken, DEACTIVATE!" the chicken ran back to the borch and disappeared int her cave. His friends were amazed and probably still talk about our robotic attack chicken.
That same chicken also could always find her way into my office in the carriage house. Every day she would lay an egg on my computer keyboard. She loved people and was a great pet.
We ahd some rough learning experiences. One winter night when it was well below zero, my daughter told me that the light for ehat was not working in the cooop. I could nto find anything to replace the broekn light, so I stuck a 500 or 1000 watt halogen worklight at the very top of the coop, thinking it was far enough away form them to keep them warm but not hot. the rooster scrunched up on the handle of the light and sat right up against it (roosters do this). HE caught on fire and jumped down into the straw at the bottom of the coop setting it on fire. Somehow the resulting flaming chickens got out of the coop and most went into the carriage house (running right by a shelf full of gasoline, kerosene, paint thinner and the like while they were still on fire). A few of them ran out tino the woods and were killed by something. We peiced together what happended in the morning. We were like NCIS investigating a crime scene. It was embarrassing to tell my daughter "Sorry I set your chickens on fire"
When we first got chikens, we knew nothng about them. A neighbor just gave us 8 chicks. One fine day when they were nearly grown I looked up while outside and noticed several hawks and a bald eagly circling aroun my house. I thought it was really cool until I went to the back yard and found chicken parts all over the place.
The moral of the story, learn first. Do some research. Join BYC (Back yard chickens) and read their newsletters. Build an imprenable coop and run. You will need to set the fenc bottom in concrete to keep things form digging under. Then get some cool chickens.
Do not be sad when they die. They die a lot. Just look at it as an opportunity to buy even cooler chickens.
Oh ducks are neat too and have even better personalities and richer eggs. They can live together. Our crested duck thought she was a chicken.
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. We'd go over and shoo them across the fence and he'd drive off. 
