# Egg Laying Chickens



## Stepher (Nov 5, 2007)

don't all chickens lay eggs?


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## 8horses (Jan 28, 2008)

Stepher said:


> don't all chickens lay eggs?


All chicken do lay eggs, its their form of reproduction. However, some breeds are known for their eggs. These breeds are known as laying hens or egg laying chickens(they don't usualy hatch their own eggs, just lay them). These chickens generally lay more eggs then their counterparts.


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## CuttingEdge (Nov 24, 2007)

Stepher said:


> don't all chickens lay eggs?


Roosters are chickens too.They don't lay eggs. :wink:
I have some feathered friends on our farm. Kind of a mixed bag of chickens, turkeys, and ducks.... I might be able to help you with an egg laying question.
My best and most consistent egg layers are Rhode Island Reds.
I have one white rooster, eight Reds and five Bar Rocks (black and white stripes)


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

I keep chickens, what do you want to know. Please don't ask what came first the chicken or the egg :wink:


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

Cuttingedge- You can keep the RIR chickens. My last order of chicks got mixed up and I got Rhode Islands instead of my favorite Production Reds (a RIR leghorn mix) They arent near as friendly and pick on my Buff Orpingtons. They are good egg layers but not as good as the production reds and they peck at me when I go under them for eggs :evil: My PR's will sit on your lap and just stand there and let you pick them up, same with the orpingtons. I just think the RIR's are meaner.


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## CuttingEdge (Nov 24, 2007)

Vida, My reds are all tame....I got this batch as chicks and handled them daily, I had 2 red roosters in the bunch I got and when they got larger started showing aggression, in to the oven they went! 
You are right though, Reds are an aggressive breed....


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

I didn't handle the RIR when they were chicks as much as I did the PR's that may expain it. I haven't named any of them either :lol: I had one named Shirley that used to work in the garden with me. Just a really friendly chicken. She made the mistake of sticking her head through the fence and one of my dogs took her comb off. We had to eat Shirley so that was the end of my naming chickens.


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## 8horses (Jan 28, 2008)

Reds are misserable chickens. At one point we had a little over 300 production reds. We have never had a better set of laying hens.


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## LadyDreamer (Jan 25, 2008)

Oh I HATED the RIR Devils we had. We had one nasty rooster, and then my sisters friend gave us, a hen. Soon we had about seven thousand of them.

White rocks and cochins are the best layers we had. I LOVE cochins. Polish are actually my favorite chickens, but they do not make nests or sit on eggs.


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## kim_angel (Oct 16, 2007)

well, I would like to get a few when we get the farm. There is a 6 nest chicken coop there already with a large fenced in area attached to the coop. I would ideally like them to be "friendly-ish" and lay eggs. They dont have to produce a ton of eggs - size and color doesnt matter really. 

Wondering what are some chickens that might fit the profile I am looking for?

Also should I have a certain amount of them ?


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

If you have a 6 hole laying box you can have 12 chickens, thats the general rule of thumb anyway. A lot of places won't let you order fewer than 12 anyway. You can buy them from some of the large farm supply places and if you put in a special order they will usually get what you want. I have gotten them from my local co-op when they have "chick days" in the spring I can order from them. I also like McMurrey http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html 
Personally I like Buff Orpingtons. They are generally friendly chickens but they don't lay very large eggs and won't over-egg you. I have occasionally seen ads where someone is selling their flock of laying hens you might keep an eye out for them if you don't want to mess with chicks. I always buy "sexed" chicks meaning that they have a better chance of being hens then roosters. I have paid extra for sexed and had half of them turn out to be roosters so that isn't always accurate. I don't like keeping roosters I just throw them out of the coop and let them fend for themselves. You can do as cuttingedge says and butcher them if you have a mind too. I don't butcher chicken is just too cheap in the store and cleaning them is a pain in the patooty. sorry I have gone on let me know if you want to know more.


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## kim_angel (Oct 16, 2007)

ok next question!!! :lol: 

I have been reading various websites but have not seen my question answered anywhere.

Can I have a mix flock of Bantams and Standard sized chickens?


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## KANSAS_TWISTER (Feb 23, 2007)

have you checked out backyard chickens yet?, they have a great web site!!, i went there when we had chicken's, i spent more on feeding foxes so i stopped buying chickens


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

I think you can as long as they are raised together. If you bought them all as chicks and they grew up at the same time I don't see a problem unless you keep roosters. Chickens will attack and kill any new chicks or chickens if they aren't given a few days to a week of introduction time. I usually put new chicks in a box with a wire lid on it into the chicken coop so the older chickens will get used to them before releasing them into the group. 
I had someone dump a chicken off at my house. I thought it was one of mine that had gotten out. I put it in with mine and before I realized it was a "chicken dumping" they had killed it.


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