Deep South Homestead
Deep South Homestead community with Danny and Wanda.
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Chicken-First Time Raiser
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Chicken-First Time Raiser
We are thinking of getting chickens for our personal egg production. As first timers we were looking for suggestions on the best breed for eggs and would thrive in northeast Texas weather
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49 Replies
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Egyptian Fayoumis, they are a smaller breed. With a small-medium egg.
They start laying earlier than most breeds.
And do good in heat.
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Thank you
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Time crowing and laying is same with Bresse, but are they also good meat chickens?
Nice breed, they look like active chickens.
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In Egypt the main use for them is meat, however they are small birds. So it’s not much. They are supposed to have dark meat though. In other areas they breed them with Rhode island reds for meat because the fayoumi has such high disease resistance.
We’ve never tried ours for meat, but they are cool birds. Definitely flighty, and fast. They do good free ranging.
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Good to know, they look like very actief chickens nice.
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Would love to have some chickens for eggs. Up front cost?
Feed prices?
Are the top questions. In TX with city restrictions on how many we can have. Love feed back
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You can keep your up front costs fairly low if you build your own chicken coop and keep it simple. The coop will probably be your biggest investment. For me, I can buy regular layer feed from a local mill for $14, but I opt to buy soy-free layer for $23 a bag. My 10 hens go through a 50 Lb bag each month.
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How are dogs around the flock. My concern is dogs harassing them and they having heart attacks and dieing
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Dogs can be the worst enemy of chickens if they are not trained to not harm your chickens. Your chicken pen should to be built so that dogs cannot get in, or you might have to find a way to contain or remove the dogs.
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Yes I understand a space to keep them away. How much room do couples birds need?
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They will do fine with 4 square feet for each chicken in the coop and 10 square feet per chicken in the run. Of course, the more room you give them the better.
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Thanks for the info.
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We love our Barred Rock and American Bresse. We have had Buff Orphingtons that we really like as well.
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We love ours too. First year raising them and they are tough and lovable girls who all produce for us.
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I have many breeds but my personal favorite are Plymouth rocks. They lay often and most of the time very calm and social birds. I haven’t harvested one but they get big enough I feel they would be a good dual purpose breed.
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Appreciate it
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I have some ISA Browns and some Plymouth Rocks an# they are both very good and productive hens. Also good if you want your hens to have a good personality although my ISA Browns to seem a little more docile. I started my flock March of 2022 with 12. I am able to provide eggs to my parents, wifes parents, nieves and nephews, my pastor and a few others every now and then. My chickens are still young and in still averaging 6 to 6.5 dozen every 2 weeks. I know i enjoy my chickens and I think you will as well.
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Thanks
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I live in southern IN and we got chickens in April 2022.
We had extreme heat and cold in 2022 and I can say focus on your coop as well as the breeds.
We got australorps, Easter Eggers and buff Orpingtons. The australorps have been the best egg layers and had little issue in both weather extremes.
Find a good way to insulate and ventilate the coop.
Good luck to you! Fresh eggs are worth the work.
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Appreciate the luck sent.
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American Bresse and Black Jersey Giants they are duel purpose and great egg layers
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Thanks for the info
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You are welcome
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👍 🐔
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Hi JohnP,
We live 20 miles northwest of Ft Worth. We have just 3 chickens but that is enough for my husband and I. We bought Production Reds they are a hybrid chicken bred primarily from the Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire. They are not broody, excellent egg productivity, the egg size is large, color of eggs are brown, they are friendly, they do fine in cooler months, and they are NOT heat tolerant. However during our heat wave this past summer they survived.
We did buy a 6 nozzle spray mister from Home Depot $19.00, we clipped it to the hardware cloth and I believe that helped them survive. I also froze water bottles and put them in their water tub during the day. We also have large oak trees and built their coop and run in the shade.
They consistently give us three eggs per day. This is 20ish days worth of eggs.
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Thank you for the tips. We share the same beautiful summer weather.
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Yes 😂
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Do you wash your eggs, or just save them outside the fridge? Do not forget to eat them though!
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I can’t speak for anyone else. But as for our homestead, it really depends. The eggs that we collect in the morning usually just get stored in the cupboard unwashed. However, we have a few chickens that lay later in the day. We normally don’t collect them until after work. Those get a tad soiled, so we wash those and store them in the fridge. My grandparents used to just dry wipe the stuff off the eggs. But I think it’s just a mental thing with me. I have to wash them if they have poo on them.
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No, we do not wash them until we use them and we keep them in the refrigerator. I just happened to have them out of the refrigerator yesterday and took a picture. I told my husband we have to start eating more eggs.😃
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That is why I have ask, washed eggs need to be saved in fridge and left alone can be ouside the fridge and longer. You can gently scrape off dirt with a knife. But do not wash and damage the protection layer on the breathable eggshell. That way bacteria can get in, that is not what you want. Just before use put them in cold water, the one that floods is bad gently trow away in compost. Middle still good but a couple weeks and bottom are fresh.
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Quick question: I’ve heard not to wash in cold water because it pushes bacteria into the egg and to use warm water instead. True or false?
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What I’ve always heard is don’t wash the eggs at all. Maybe wipe off serious crud, but don’t rinse them and store them.
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Water glassing allows you to keep fresh eggs for 18 months.
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That is nice.
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I love the water treatment for them. I am in NH, where in the summer it can get rather hot, that we had to put a cover over part of their run so that could get some shade.
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We also live in NE TX & we have had a variety of chickens; Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red,Easter Eggers,Red Jungle Fowl and crosses, all have done well. Insulated chicken house with ventilation and heat lamp. Have a large covered run around their house where they are kept at night and we let them free range during the day. Hang box fans in their house in hot weather. Watch for predators; foxes, hawks, etc. Good luck with your chickens.
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My best layers are Americans and the Jumbo Jerseys. They lay every day.
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May I ask what jumbo Jerseys are, is thT a new breed?
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I’m sorry for posting here it’s the only place I’ve seen to write something I’m not sure what to do on this site
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When I started looking into chickens, it was also important for me to have chickens who can take care of themselves, good foragers. I have a mix of dual purpose breeds like Easter egger, barred rock, Wyandotte, a Leghorn and for the first time a Starlight green egger (a layer only).
They all are great birds, well tempered, good foragers and do well in extreme weather. The Leghorn is the most outgoing and turned out to be the perfect mum, fearsomely protecting her chicks. But my favorite is the Wyandotte which pretty much lay through winter and only stop at the coldest time. My roo is a Wyandotte.
Good luck on your new endeavors 👍
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Everyone has their favorite breeds for various reasons but for us, its the Asian Blacks. They are hardy, docile, very good egg layers and conversion ration of food to meat is good.
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I would recommend Black Australorps, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Buff Orpingtons, and Easter Eggers. All of these breeds should be easy to find and are great egg layers that also gain enough weight to make a good eating bird. Over the past few years I have raised Dominques because I liked that they have good survival traits: foraging and protective roosters. However, I don’t free range them due to predators so I have decided to go back to the breeds I mentioned previously. It now makes sense for me to raise the more productive breeds because it costs about the same to feed them as the less productive breeds like Dominques. But Dominques might be a great fit for others. Everyone’s situation is different.
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Chickens are simple, and you don’t have to get all fancy! Just need a sturdy coop for protect them from predators! I don’t put heat or special lighting in my coop, its just a fire hazard! Most chickens are cold, and heat tolerant. I don’t wash my eggs unless they get a little poop on them. unwashed eggs last longer! I have plymouth rocks, reds, ameraucanas, buff orpington, and a black australorp, they all are doing well. They’re mostly free range, apart from really cold days, and they get seeds, and cracked corn mixture, and special times they get leftover fruits, and veggies I didn’t eat, for treats, be sure table scraps are not moldy! All in all they are pretty happy chickens!
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My neighbor said the price of eggs had gotten out of hand so he bought this chicken…
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We get ours from a local farmer and they’re usually quite filthy. I’m sure they’d be fine if I just wiped them a bit but I’m not that brave yet haha I’m sure once we live somewhere that allows chickens it won’t be an issue, as I’ll be collecting more often than he does. I should’ve tried water glassing over the summer. I regret that I didn’t. Thanks for the info! Adding that video to my “how-to” collection.
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We replaced grass 3-4 years ago with chip drop. Easy care. This year is rotation time, All that good stuff under the top layer
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