Start with _Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens_ by Gail Damerow. Next,
point your news reader to sci.agriculture.chickens.

First of all, you'll want more than one chicken. Chickens are flock
birds, and are very unhappy when asked to go solo. When we rescued a
chick from sure death, it cheeped plaintively until we bought it a
couple companions. I could quiet it by holding it in my hands, but that
isn't a viable solution. In your situation, I would get three pullets.
No rooster is necessary unless you want fertile (hatchable) eggs, or
enjoy waking up to crowing in the morning (as I do).

Since sexing chicks is a chancy business, you will probably want to get
one of the varieties with sex-linked traits. The three I can think of
off-hand are the black sex link, red sex link, and isa brown. All three
are really good layers, and lay brown eggs. My son's very tame chicken
is a black sex link (a cross between a rhode island red rooster and a
barred rock hen). I have found the isa brown chickens to be friendly,
too.

Since you want hens that are good foragers, you'll want to avoid the
commercial strains. The classic plymouth rock (white or barred), rhode
island red, new hampshire red, and the like are classic breeds, and are
quite adept at getting bugs and stuff. That, again, makes the black sex
link and the red sex link a good choice. A non-commercial leghorn will
work, too, but they are flighty birds.

The problem you may have with a black sex link, plymouth rock, rhode
island red, or new hampshire red is that they prefer cooler weather.
The book I use for reference lists Andalusian, Buttercup, Hamburg,
Leghorn, Minorca, Naked Neck, Shamo, and Spanish as warm weather breeds.
Of those breeds, I have only seen the leghorn, so I can't comment too
much on them. I'm sure that someone in sci.agriculture.poultry has
experience with warm weather, though.

I do know that the cornish rock rooster and broiler hen that we had were
in distress whenever the weather turned warm.


Ray Drouillard





"Flatspin" wrote in message
news:yXP_c.85528$4o.15986@fed1read01...
If I wanted a single hen, maybe two for garden duties and the eggs,
what
would be a good variety? I grew uo with ducks so we only really ate
green shelled mallard eggs as kids, they're thicker than chicken eggs
as
I recall.

My garden is small, 9'x60' but I get crickets, white flies, spider
mites
and the occasional Tomatoe Hornworm. Do they eat lizards, I have a
cinderblock wall regularly patroled by lizards and occasionally
inhabited by cockroaches.

I live in Mesa, AZ so need something that would adapt to the desert
climate. I have a beautifil lemon tree and could build a henhouse
under
it. Nothing else wants to grow in its shade.

Ray Drouillard wrote:
"Katra" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Ray Drouillard" wrote:


"Glenna Rose" wrote in message
news:fc.003d094101d2f9723b9aca00ef08c800.1d2f98 ...

writes:


Paul was very delighted to get a double-yolk egg this morning. I

told

him that maybe Racetrack (the name he gave his hen) gave him that

egg

because he fed her so many bugs. She really is the best laying

hen I

have ever seen. I think I'll buy a dozen black sex link pullets

next

year. She only missed one day since the day she started laying,

and

that is exceptional even for a hen in her peak. Most start

laying an

egg or two a week, and take a while to get to peak production.

I've found the Australorps (sp?) to be reliable layers. This is

only

the

second year for my Aracuna but she seems to be a steady layer also

easy to

tell since she is the only one laying blue/green eggs. g

We still only have one layer. The others are too young. I'm

expecting

the Isa Browns to do very well. The Barred Rocks and Rhode Island

Reds

are old classics, and ought to be steady layers for a long time. I
don't know what breed the white ones are (they were unexpected

extras

that someone else had ordered but didn't pick up), so I don't know

what

to expect from them. They look somewhat like leghorns, but have
red
earlobes.

I'm glad to hear the araucanas are reliable layers. We have ten of

them

(should have had an even dozen, but the person doing the sexing
must
have had a bad day). We had gotten a pastel blue egg from a farm

before

we moved up here, so when I found out what kind of chicken did
that,

I

ordered some.


Aren't pet chickens great?!

I certainly have no problem getting my middle child to eat eggs.
He
loves to run out there and collect the egg from his pet hen, and

wants

me or his mother to cook it up right away. We're enjoying the
birds

a

whole lot more than I thought we would.


Ray


I agree about the Barred rocks and RIR's being nice reliable
standby's
:-) Our local feed store has gotten in the fall chicks. I like to
get
them right now as the tend to start laying right about the time the
older hens quit for the winter. I picked up 2 of each along with a
couple of ornamental bantams, and dad bought me 3 more aracauanas.
All
are sexed as hens.

By far tho', my most reliable layers have been red sex links, and
also
turkens. The turkens were good for about 3 years before they slowed
down, and tended to be better winter layers.

Don't mourn the Aracauna roosters! They are very nice birds, and
I've
never had a mean one... One rooster per 5 to 10 hens is about right

but

if your hens start getting bald backs, you may wish to make soup out

of

one or find it a good home. I've also found aracaunas to be one of
my
longer lived birds. My one roo' is about 8 years old now.

K. (a fellow chicken lover!)


I just counted all the chickens to make sure we didn't lose any that
I
don't know about. It turns out that we have 38 hens. That's enough
for
three roosters. We are keeping my youngest son's pet named
'stripe',
who is a beautiful red and gold bird (I don't know what breed). We
are
also keeping a red Araukana mix who is starting to look rather
handsome.
We need to choose one of the black and white Araukana mix roosters
as a
third. A lot of them have bent toes that look genetic, so it may be
a
simple matter to choose one with good feet LOL.

Right now, we're working on new digs for them. I need to make some
nest
boxes and a big 100 pound feeder to put into the lean-to behind the
pole
barn with the goats. We just put in a woven wire fence, so the
chickens
and goats will have plenty of room to roam, and plenty of greens to
eat.
I haven't quite decided what to do with the guineas. They are
supposed
to be our free range bug patrol, but they keep hanging around the
chicken pen. We let them in at night to keep them save. We already
lost two -- probably to that hawk that ate one of our barred rocks.


Ray