You can search through this forum, there are plenty of threads about chickens with tons of good info. I've also got a chicken info site here, with links to other sites there:

http://jackshenhouse.com/

Depending on how many chickens you plan on getting, McMurray or Ideal are good hatcheries, their site also have lots of valuable info.

Enjoy your chickens! :)

Velvet ~:>

is there a breed better than another for newbies? ease of care so we don't get discouraged? Is there a qty of chickens that might make the venture profitable?

If you get cold, freezing winters in your area, I'd suggest some of the heavy breeds that are considered 'dual purpose' breeds--meat and eggs. Look for birds with pea combs and small wattles, they are less likely to suffer from frostbitten combs & wattles. Orpingtons, New Hampshires, White Rocks, Wyandottes--all are good for this. Here's McMurray's page on their heavy breeds:

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/category/heavy_breeds.html

The big, fluffy, heavy chickens are more suited to cold temps. As far as ease of care, most chickens require about the same amount of care--the exception being Cornish Cross or X meat-only birds, which have been developed to grow very rapidly and be slaughtered within a matter of weeks--they have a reputation for being messy, nasty and dirty, fouling their feathers and getting bare spots. However, read forum member seramas posts on how he deals with this, he's got good advice. Cornish Cross birds require more labor, but mature quicker and are ready for table faster.

Bantams are also great, and besides being prolific little egg layers, they make great moms and are very smart and clever, and a bit feisty. Their eggs are attention grabbers and appeal to kids because of their size. McMurray's bantam section:

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/category/bantams_chicks.html

As for profit--are you looking to sell meat and eggs, just eggs, or what? What is your target market, restaurants, farmers markets, etc.? Craftspeople and trout fisherman are a sales venue for certain feathers as well.

For eggs, more and more people are becoming intrigued with colored eggs--the dark brown Maran eggs and blue-green pastel Americaunas or 'Easter Egger' eggs. If you are aiming for the farmer's market 'pretty' egg market, I'd get some Marans and Americaunas. I haven't raised Marans (which are very sought-after and so are more expensive, they are the fad now), but my Americaunas birds are beautiful, friendly, calm and docile. A sweeter breed is harder to find, and the lovely eggs and 'eye candy' they provide is a bonus. :) Orpingtons lay very large, brown eggs.

If you are looking for chickens that will go broody so you can self-replenish your stock, go for the big, fluffy breeds as well--cochins, Orpingtons and Silkies make great moms. Besides, watching chicks hatch and the moms take care of their little families is magical, and not an experience to be missed. :)

As for crested breeds such as Polish, I love them, but they can be subject to several issues--with the large crests that make it difficult for them to see, they can have trouble spotting trouble brewing and avoiding a peck to the head from another bird. Many crested breeds actually have a hole in the top of their skull through which their brain protrudes (thanks to humans breeding for bigger crests!) and when they get a peck to the head (or any other head injury), it can easily cause swelling of the brain and big problems, even be fatal. I've found that my Polish girls are plagued more often by mites deep within their crests, so I have to check them every so often. Polish also have a reputation for being skittish and startle easily, but I think that's more from an impeded field of vision than temperament. Silkies have the same problems, but to a more limited extent, depending on the size of their crests. Even with all that, I'll always have both Polish and Silkies in my flock, the good far outweighs the bad. :)

Read everything you can before getting your chickens, learn from other peoples' mistakes and it'll go a long way towards shortening your learning curve.

Velvet ~:>

We have a row of very mature row of evergreen trees along the west fence line. Would it be ok to build the coop in a position to incorporate those as part of their fenced in yard? Are the pine needles safe for them?

Pine is safe for them, but remember--predators can climb trees nicely, so wire fencing in the area is a must.

Velvet ~:>

I just wrote a post on my blog with a list of hatcheries. It might be of help to you when purchasing. There is such a large variety available it can be overwhelming at times. Hope the list helps in some way.

Here is a link that might be useful: A List of Hatcheries by Fowl Visions

Velvet Sparrow gives excellent advice.

It's best to just start off with a few. Before I made the plunge, I bought a chicken book that had a ton of info on various chicken breeds and went from there.

I chose from those listed as "docile" and "good for beginners", plus I wanted ones who laid a brown or tinted egg, and was fairly prolific. I wasn't interested in Bantams, nor Polish-type show breeds. Therefore, please bear this in mind when you read my advice.

Although I've gone more "commercial" and the majority of my hens are hybrid layers.I still have a variety of "heritage" or dual-purpose chickens.

I think that the best of these is the Barred Rock.
The females lay a good quantity of light brown eggs, and the males make really excellent eating. Very, very tasty.

I've only had 3 Buff Orpingtons (one was killed by my dog), so now I have two, and I just love their looks and their personality.

My Easter Eggers (Ameracaunas) have been the only "fragile" breed I've had. Of a total of six - one was euthanized for crop impaction before she came into lay, and another died without explanation - and she was the one who laid beautiful blue eggs, and was really, really sweet. One other lays only white eggs extremely rarely....(grrrrh!), and another is so low in the pecking order that she frequently has a bald back.

My Marans are nice birds, even the Roosters (although I've read differently - mine have been nice). The hens don't lay well (except for the spring of the first season. HOWEVER, my Maran-Ameracauna hybrids lay REALLY well - an olive-green egg.

I really like my Welsummers. To me, they just have a very pleasing look (and the roosters were the Kellogg's rooster!). At the moment, they're young, they lay a smaller, but nicely colored brick-red egg. They are very curious and have a very sweet disposition (even the roosters).

I'd also like to try Barnevelders - the double-laced variety - just beautiful.

I've heard that a typical novice error is to buy too many different types of chickens. However, I just don't agree with that.

It's MUCH cheaper to buy eggs and chickens from the store.

Depending on how your raise your chickens, it's usually much more humane to raise your own chicken and eggs.

Therefore, given that you'll be paying more, my stance is that you may as well raise different colored eggs, and chickens that please you visually!

It's a lot of work - why not enjoy it!

Although I'm raising eggs commercially now from several different breeds - I still get untold pleasure by looking down on eggs ranging from blue - green - olive green - pink, light brown - brick red - dark brown - speckled brown.

Plus, since my restaurants are buying "farm fresh eggs" it's kind of a good way of making sure I'm different from the competition!

Have fun!

Very good advice here. I would second Ewe's point about profitablility, at least as a novice/hobby. But the quality of your eggs will not compare with any store bought egg. And I'm also a sucker for the various colors of eggs, I can't imagine having just one kind of breed (I know many agree it is prefered). Chicken's do seem breed discriminating like to old saying goes " birds of a feather flock together". I had to rehome my barred rocks because they bullied some of my more docile breeds.

I don't think you can go wrong with orpingtons, they are really sweet gentle birds and come in various colors. I couldn't be w/out my americaunas, for both their beautiful colored eggs and different colorings (so you can tell them apart from each other easily).

I totally agree w/Velvet on the polish and silkie front, I would avoid them for now but if you get sucked in like the rest of us, you might want to try them. They are the eye catchers of the flock, most visitors are intriqued by their pretty looks. But we do have one polish w/the head injury mentioned above, she's getting along ok w/this injury but it's one more special needs bird to keep watch over. The silkies are sweethearts! and terrific for kids to handle.

Some of my best layers are mutt chickens! If you are able to keep your own roo you will be able to experiment w/various breeds etc. it's fun to hatch your own eggs etc.

Good luck with your endeaver :)

Sheila

okay I gotta jump in here. I brought a Weyondette and a Cochin because I was scared of getting discouraged as you are. I was told they are one of the calmest breeds. They are absolute sweethearts. They are also fluffy and according to the forums and books they weather the cold really good because they are so fluffy. Well this is their first winter and so far no problems. They are huge fluff balls! Now as for their temperament. I have a self feeder and so I only used to go in their pen to change the water. I now talk to them and announce my coming to the cage. At first they did not appreciate me coming to the cage and why would they when they had food avail w/o me?. I give them table scraps now especially rice and potatoes and they are so spoiled. When they hear the door open they start fluttering around the pen getting excited thinking I am bringing them a treat. They have so much personality and I would not choose any other breed. I can not even tell you how sweet they are and people love the fluffy feet on the cochin too.

polish and silkies... I wanted one soooo bad because they are so attractive but there are warnings everywhere about them not really being a winter bird and needing special housing to keep them comfortable in the harsh winter areas. I decided not to go that route because I did not want to chance it.

I have heard so many good things about the orpintons (bad spelling & too lazy to look it up) that I am seriously thinking of adding one to my flock. I have not made up my mind on that yet/

well I hope this helps. choose wisely. I brought my chicks from a guy who has a poultry farm locally. He advertised his chicks on craigslist. I decided to go that route because I did not want to buy a lot of birds and also too cheap to pay postage.

As for the fence issue I am the QUEEN of fencing problems so I can't help you there. For crying out loud it took me months and months to get my hot wire set up and it is not rocket science. It also took me 2 months to build the chicken pen!! so I can not offer you any opinions there except these guys know what the heck they are talking about. Except maybe one or 2 LOL...

For Peet's sake MsJay2U you need to relax you live in zone 7. It has been thousands of years since a harsh winter hit your area. Get the birds you want, 9 breeds out of 10 come from an area that gets colder than where you are.

I have 20 red sex link hens and one red sex link rooster. They are half Rhode Island Red and half White Rock - called "sex link" because they can be sexed at birth. This cross gives us the most productive egg layers crossed with good meat birds, so they are "dual purpose". They lay lots of large brown and speckled eggs. When the days are longer they each lay a very large egg every day without fail, now I am getting about 16-18 eggs every day and most are smaller. I don't have supplementary lighting but I am going to start turning on their light and waking them up at about 6:00 in the morning to see if I can get them back to laying bigger eggs. I started that this week, we'll see how it goes...

They have bigger combs and wattles so are not made specifically for the north, like Chanteclers were. My rooster is getting frost bite but I have started rubbing vaseline on his comb and wattles to help prevent it and have put in a 250 watt red heat lamp for nights when it's the coldest. If you don't get sub zero Faren. temps then you don't have any winters to worry about and should be fine with any breed. We had -29c (approx -20F, I think) last night.

They have great personalities, come running when they see us come out of the house or even when our red truck comes down the driveway. They are always watching everything that goes on from their pen, when they are out. A few of the friendlier ones will sit on my arm while I walk around with them. A couple of them follow me closely in the pen and hen house, actively taking part in everything I do, sticking their head in the egg bucket every time I put an egg in. They're a hoot! The majority will eat from my hand, even the rooster will now but that took some doing!

I can not believe all the great advice on this post. Thank you all. We are in zone 5 as well runningtail with record colds tonight and over the next couple days (school already cancelled for tomorrow) so I defenitly need to watch for cold hardy breeds. Do you have any pictures of your hen house or chicken coop? which is the correct terminology?!!!! I am very anxious for the weather to break so we can get the coop built but are still looking for layout ideas. In making conversation with friends and family we mentioned our egg quest and already have them chomping at the bit for fresh eggs. Any more ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I have lots of pictures on my farm blog at the address below:

With the frostbite my rooster has had, if I had it to do again, I might go with a Chantecler rooster. They were originally bred in Quebec for the extreme cold with tiny combs. The vaseline has helped.

I just put in a 250 watt red heat lamp in the chicken house. I got red so it wouldn't keep them awake at night. I have a reg 100 watt bulb in there on all day after it warms up.

I call it a "house" because it is. It's a well built insulated large shed. The term "coop" just doesn't seem to apply. What's in a name?

I have learned that you can make stuff for the chickens out of almost any material and, as long as it's safe, they don't care. They don't care what colour it is, how new it is, what it's was made to be used for or whether or not it's straight.

Here is a link that might be useful: Providence Acres Farm