Our "little egg business" is starting to boom. After talking with Murray McMurray Hatchery, we now need to make a decision. They recomend their Red Star first then the Australorp as far as production. We have a few of Mt. Healthy's Golden Comet's and they seem to be good layers. We need a bird that can take North Oklahoma heat and cold. Since we are ready to purchase a bunch of birds, any good advice is welcomed. Also, do we need to use generic egg cartons or is that a legal myth?

Dear Godseagle:
You failed to mention how big your "little egg business" will become. Hopefully, it will become successful. Something to remember is that there are lots of big laying houses competing with you. If you will be selling straight off your farm or if you are selling straight to restaurants, small stores, etc. you may be able to succeed. There are also health codes, restricitions, etc. that you will be faced with. Surely you have taken this into consideration before going into this head on with a large scale production. To my way of thinking, poultry is the greatest hobby there is but think this over thoroughly. As to what kind would be most profitable in your area, I think you have been wise to check with the Murray McMurray Hatchery. This is their business and they know it well. It might be wise to get both varieties and see how each works in your situation. I believe both of these varieties lay brown eggs. You might try a white egg laying variety also and compare. What works for someone may not work for you depending on your exact situation. I have ordered chicks from this hatchery for years and have always been very pleased. The younger generation is now running it now and I believe they will surely attempt to give you the right advice. If you have adequate housing, there should be no adverse problems with the heat and cold, again it depends on your situation. If they have adequate shelter, they can survive about anything. Of course production will drop drastically when cold and hot weather hits which can be expected unless they are in a climate controlled environment. As far as the cartons, I have no comment as to generic or what. If these are cartons that you will sell your eggs in, I would advise you to get the generic compared to having some printed with your logo as this is just another expense. It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to produce a dozen eggs so any way you can cut corners you need to do. Hope this doesn't sound like a sermon but these are facts you need to consider......Good luck.....Let us know how you get along..

As to the size of our egg farm, we are running about 30 layers and had to tell folks to quit speading the word of fresh eggs. Our deal right now is each family must give us cartons in order to pick up eggs. We did not advertise, just gave a few dozen away and boom, now folks call us. We do have a few Araucanas and that has added a little zest to the biz. One family told us they had to go buy some ham because the kids were wanting green eggs and ham. Cute. How big? We will do the same with the birds as we have done with the other animals. We want it to remain enjoyable and not a burden. They have already proven to be easier than rabbits but the chickens do require more attention than livestock. Brown eggs seem to be the choice of folks around here. Personally we prefer a little color with all our animals. Plain white to us is boring but I guess to others it may be crisper, cleaner. Mr Chickenhawk, I thank you for your "sermon". You have given us things to further check out. Yes we had considered a breakfast place near us but have yet to check on codes. A clientel already in place is the reason for our question about which chicken is best for year around production. If we had a hundred hens right now, we could sell the eggs. Our next question is how often do we change out the chickens. We have been told that they will lay steady for about 1 1/2 years. Our only complaint from a customer is that fresh eggs when boiled do not separate from the shell as well as the old ones from stores. Please sharpen up your pen and holler back at us. Advice from the experienced is worth more than a maybe from a well meaning friend.

I started my little egg business by accident. I have about 30 layers, too, but got hooked into exhibition poultry. I run plymouth rocks and australorps with a couple of aracaunas for the green eggs, too. They are quite popular...and it is with adult men as they regress to childhood and want their green eggs and ham.
My hens have been going strong for about 2 1/2 years, but then, I have pullets to keep the eggs coming. I don't cull, though, as I get way too attached to my hens and prefer to lose money on them. I suppose I am one of the few humans on earth that see these birds as part of my family, much like people keep dogs and cats.

Godseagle: Thank you for the kind words. All of the old farmers raised new pullets each year to replace the old hens. The old hens usually will quit laying along about the end of summer and start to molt their feathers. At about that time the new pullets should be starting to lay. The old hens were usually sold or butchered for home use at that time. Usually they were fed a lot of corn to fatten them up. Old hens are usually tough and had to be stewed somehow to make them more tender. There is no better way than to cook them with dumplings. I'm getting off my subject. Anyway this was the plan. Older hens lay larger eggs than pullets but not as often. It's tough to get rid of them but this was the farmers way of life. I can see that you have thought this out very carefully. Your venture sounds like it will succeed. I just felt that you needed to consider some of the details and you have....Good luck...I think I will get an old hen out of the freezer and have my wife fix us chicken and dumplings tomorrow night for supper. ......

I do a very small scale egg business around here. By very small I mean I keep about 12-15 hens at a time for laying eggs. This gives plenty of eggs for the two of us and extra eggs to give away or sell.

This year's flock at the moment consists of 8 leghorn pullets and 2 Americanas. They are just getting ready to lay, already getting 1 tiny egg a day, LOL.

I have a batch of 8 week old Austrolorps, RIRs and Black Beauty Sex Links, and White Leghorns who are going to be my new base flock for the summer. I am also getting in a few of the Golden Nuggets from Grainbelt. I like color in my hen house instead of just plain white!

People love the mixed batches of eggs they get when I have all my hens laying. The Americana eggs always look a little odd to me, they seem just seem "dirty" looking compared to the crisp colors of the white/brown eggs.

I will sell the older ladies to people who want pullets already laying and keep the younger ones so that they are all around the same age.

Godseagle: I had another thought which you might consider and that is for you to raise your replacement pullets from your own eggs. If you purchase two varieties of chickens, you can cross them and create a hybrid hen that might surpass both varieties in production of eggs. For instance if you would use Rhode Island Reds or New Hampshire Reds and another brown egg laying breed such as Barred Plymouth Rocks, you can cross the two and get a very good producing hen. This would eliminate the cost of buying your pullets the second year. You can purchase an incubator that can be used for years. Of course to keep up production, you should not breed the hybrids again the next year or you will end up with a mongrel hen that may not lay well. This would eliminate the costs somewhat. Of course you can stick with one variety and try to purchase roosters that are not related so that they would not be inbred. If you do this, you need to pick out the very best hens you have. It does not take a lot. Ten or twelve hens should be sufficient and breed them to the best cock you can find that represents his breed. Do not use your whole flock, just the hens that you have picked that are the best representatives of their breed. If you need l00 pullets to replace your old hen flock, it will take 200 chicks as they hatch 50/50. The excess roosters can be butchered or sold as fryers. By doing this you would need only l rooster and after breeding season is over, he could be disposed of if it is not in the best interest to have a rooster in your situation. Just an idea that I had today.

My goodness, You guys are a gold mine. This is the best forum ever. Since we do this as a family business, I'll call a meeting tomorrow to share all this info. My wife and I started all this farming several years ago to help teach our boys the work ethic. We gave them each some rabbits and several pygmy goats, provided the housing and feed, they had to sell them. The rabbits we learned were to much. They really multipled. Angle, selling the older ladies will interest the boys. They always are thinking of ways to make money for projects. Mr Chickenhawk, breeding to get a hybrid hen is a great idea. That will fit in with school which will make my wife happy. It also is good to know that older hens lay larger eggs. And as far as pets, well we have two roosters that keep the goats company. The only thing missing is a cement pond. We will sit down and figure out which breeds we want and let ya'll know. Me, I want one of them to be the Araucanas. Yep, I really like them green, blue, and spotted eggs.

Mr Chickenhawk, been thinking. The Red Star from McMurray and the Golden Comet from Mt. Healthy, they would be hybrids? If so, we would need to pick Australorps and Araucanas or Reds with Rocks, right? We really think it is a good idea, just want to start in the right direction. The boys are needing science projects and this would also help with farm cost. Still would want to get birds from hatchery from time to time so gene pool stays energetic.

To learn more about the different chicken breeds and hybrids, here is a site you will find VERY helpful:

feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html#Chickens

(definitely look up "sex-link")
While you're there, poke around a bit. You'll find links and abundant info on every aspect of raising and breeding poultry for meat, eggs, show, and just plain old enjoyment. Much luck to ya. By the way, I think it's great you are involving your kids--extremely valuable education. Do include them in your computer searching beginning with the above mentioned site, too.

Godseagle: If you order your chicks from Murray McMurray Hatcher, you can order your regular order of Comets or Australorps as you had discussed earlier, and order extra chicks in any variety you want to be included in your shipment. These extra chicks could be whatever you would eventually want to raise. When you order a very small number of chicks from one variety, each chick may not be a good representative of that breed. Not that it is the hatchery's fault, it is just that they may not all be really good mature stock that should be used for breeding your next year's pullets from. So to get around this, you need to get at least double the amount of mature hens you will need for breeding stock to insure that you have really good looking and productive stock to work with. By doing this you can even choose a variety of different kinds and see how productive they are. You can see first hand how they will handle themselves in your particular situation. If they are not real productive or are not good in your climate with the heat and cold, you can make the decision before you hatch your brood. Do the same with the male chicks that you will need to breed to your hens. Each cockerel will not turn out to be a rooster that you would want to use as a breeder. If you decide to go with one breed, it is possible to purchase your pullets from Murray McMurray hatchery and the cockerels from another source that are completely unrelated. One more thought if you cross the Araucana with the Australorp, the egg color from this hybrid will be a darker shade of blue or green than the egg color of the Araucana. They probably will not be brown. Just remember this if you are thinking of using an Auracana rooster on your brown layers. If you have a catalog from Murray McMurray hatchery, you can choose several brown egg varieties. I used to buy a cross between the White Plymouth Rock and Dark Cornish. They were almost all white with a few dark feathers, very heavy birds and layed beautifully in even the coldest weather. Their eggs were very dark brown . Something like this could be produced using some color other than the white to get something really different. I guess the sky's the limit on what you might come up with. Of course a dark chicken is not as easy to pick as a white chicken when it comes to butchering them. Just some ideas for you to consider. It is great that you are including your children in this endeavor. Most childeren these days have no idea where their food supply comes from. I included my children when they were growing up. Unfortunately they now have other interests but stilll rely on them to do my feeding, etc. when their mother and I go on vacation. I now have grandchildren that all love to come and help me with my work. One grandson (4 years old) informed me that he was going to be a chicken man just like me. Pretty good idea, I think.

Mr Chickenhawk, one last question, aleast for tonight. Well, maybe several. We are trying to settle on a couple of breeds. First, the White Plymouth Rocks and Dark Cornish cross you used to have, is that the Cornish X Rocks that are sold for meat? Second, my wife has discovered that Rhode Island Reds and Black Australorps are both good layers. She was told that both would lay through the winter. The lady at our feed store recommended the Australorps. The reason I ask is a family at our church requested us to raise some meat birds for them. Since we live in the country and have a farm it was not a hard decision for us. We purchased a straight run of Jumbo Cornish X Rocks from McMurry Hatcheries. If these are the same we could pull a few hens from there. At two weeks some of those little fellows already stand 6 inches tall. I just do not want to build a whole bunch of pens for all the different breeds. I say that because I do not know if they are fighters. Our Comets and the Araucanas get along fine. I would guess that to be typical of most hens. Yes, we held back a couple of Araucaca roosters for breeding and the rest, well they made good gumbo. Also heres a tip I learned before I was blessed with a wife that knows how to cook. Take the chicken (a butchered one) and put it in a zip lock baggy. Pour in a bottle of Zesty Italian dressing and let it marinade over night in the fridge. The next day bake. The meal will have your taste buds doing a dance.

Hello Chickster. Been looking at feathersite.com. It is going to take us a while to dig thru all that info. Meanwhile, I thank you and all the others for taking time to walk us thru the chicken biz. As a rule, we always spend several months educating ourselves before we jump. Then we go small scale to work out the kinks. But no matter how much reading or people we talk to, there is always more to learn. Besides, you guys have added the personal touch that makes all this so enjoyable. It is also easier to copy down all this good info than it is to carry a recorder to the feed store.

Godseagle: In answer to your question, I don't believe the cornish cross are any more agressive than the other hens that you may have. Of course if the area that they have is cramped and small, there will be more problems than if they are in a large area and each has adequate space. I wouldn't believe they would be classified as fighters. This is the same variety that I purchased in the past. I haven't seen their catalog this year but in the past this was the same. They used to advertise that they were excellent layers and suggested that they could be kept for winter laying brown egg layers. Of course you can watch them carefully and if any seem to be overly agressive, you can deal with them . If you have any more questions, give me a holler. I will be gone in March on vacation to Ireland. We are attending a wedding on St Patrick's Day. It should be a real hoot. Erin Go Braugh........

Mr Chickenhawk, may the wind always be to your back and sun smile on your face. Thank you for your input. It was needed and will be used. All the input from everyone ended up being the topic at supper.
Further update. The guys and I built 4 brooders using barn tin. Took a piece of ten foot tin cut it to make two five foot lengths. Curved it over some 1 1/2 " material and screwed it down. A couple of legs and a light on each end answered the $100 question. Seven dollars for the tin and six dollars for the lights. Gave it a test run on the meat birds and they loved it. When the new chicks get here this Monday, we are set. Yep. I think I feel spring a coming.

Godseagle: Thanks ...Good luck in your plans. I feel you will make a success of this. Need any more input, I'll keep checking.....Red Tail Chicken Hawk...

I have preety red hens with white in diff areas what are these? I was told sexlinks? rooosters are white one has redish brown specks on the wings

We are fairly new to chicken raising, done it once before but mostly just for pest control(no eggs, no meat,but NO BUGS!)We are now doing it for meat and eggs. We have a small flock of Black Australorps and Buff Orpingtons that are thriving at 3 1/2 weeks old, some stand 6-7 inches at the top of their backs. My question is, when they come into lay and are established, will this be enough to supply eggs for our family? We have six children, all love eggs. Do I need more? We are getting broilers next, 25 at a time to put in the freezer, but if I need more layers, I want to do it soon. We live in a warm area (Mississippi) and cold weather will not set in until January, so there is time to do both. Thanks for any advice!

I forgot to say that our small flock is 25 pullets, no roosters as we live in city limits. Thanks again!