[Red]

We are planning to get about 15 chickens to start of with but I was wondering if there were any good hardy breeds that anyone can recommed to someone new to this please

 

[Womble]

Hiya,

That's a bit of an unanswerable question, but if you're looking for a hardy productive breed to get you started, you won't go far wrong with Black Rocks.

Apart from that, the best advice is probably to get whatever you like the look of. In general, pure bred birds will cost you more and lay fewer eggs, whilst hybrid birds are a bit cheaper, and will lay more eggs per year. It all really depends on what you want to be honest!

[jaykay]

As Womble says.
I started with four Black Rocks. They were healthy, i liked them, they layed well but scrapped a bit between themselves if enclosed (in a very big run).

Now I've got 50+ pure breeds 

 I can only really tell you about my breeds:

The Wyandottes are pretty, come in several nice laced colours and fuss round when you appear, for corn or sultanas. The Sussexes are similar if plainer. Both lay reasonable numbers of pale brown eggs.

The cream Legbars lay pretty blue eggs, have cute little 'mopheads' but are otherwise mainly just mottly brown. The Marans lay beautiful dark brown eggs, mine are blue (grey) with copper necks so pretty in a subdued sort of way. Neither the Legbars nor the Marans are as friendly as the others.

If you're going to hatch your own chicks in due course, you need to know how the cockerels grow. The Wyandottes and Sussexes are dual-purpose breeds and the cockerels grow to about 5lbs in 6 months which is about the point at which they become annoying and you don't mind dispatching them. The Legbars and Marans are smaller, maybe 3 1/2-4lbs because really they're laying breeds.

All the cockerels are friendly to have about and ok with each other once they've sorted out the man-pecking order, unlike the Old English Pheasant Fowl cockerel I had which was evil and attacked me at every turn.

[Rosemary]

We are planning to get about 15 chickens to start of with but I was wondering if there were any good hardy breeds that anyone can recommed to someone new to this please

Make sure you've got a market for your eggs or that you like eggs an awful lot 

[chrismahon]

Some very good advice for you there Red. Our Black Rocks laid like crazy for 2 years and then died off -literally. They are a 'free range only' hen and the genuine ones are bred in Scotland -many poor imitations are available often called Rhode Rocks. There are other hybrids available and they all generally cost around £12 each.

We have moved on since then and now only keep Pedigrees, mainly Wyandottes and Orpingtons, both of which are at the bottom end of the Utility breeds -reasonable number of eggs in a year (150 -200) and cockerels edible and reasonable size at 6 months. Light Sussex and Rhode Island Reds are the top Utility breeds but not very colourful. Pedigrees live a lot longer and are generally more laid back and friendly, Cream Legbars less so. They become part of the family. Eggs are more seasonal which suits our tourist customers -if we had eggs in Winter from hybrids we couldn't sell them. Expect to pay £25- £30 each for good point-of-lay pedigree hens.

We have now extended our Utility range with Transylvanian Naked Necks, although it will be a year at least before we breed from them. We also have Brown English Leghorn Bantams -best birds in my opinion for egg production against feed intake.

I think most people start with Hybrids based on their price and egg output. Then think again when they have started to pack up after a few years. Hybrids have a 'design life' of just 18 months and commercially are replaced every year, because they moult for the first time and stop laying. They will lay for a second year but commercially they can't be fed for no output. If you want to make a 'real' profit from egg sales you will need to adopt commercial practice and feed them the cheapest stuff you can get. I say 'real', because people usually overlook the capital costs (which are significant and includes the cost of the hens)  when considering their profit from egg sales.

[Big Light]

 I would think about buying them in two stages ( or more) get 7 point of lay just now then 8 in 9 months time when the first ones are thinking about moulting that way you will have a continual egg supply for almost the first two years. Also it means you will have them not all finishing their usefull laying life at the same time, successional planning is worth thinking about at this stage. I like Light Sussex / Marrans / Welsummer / Barnevelders and Araucanas for their different eggs / looks. If you want birds with a dark egg ask to see the eggs of the parent birds as there are a lot of poor strains going about, as previously stated Black rock are bomb proof also

[ellied]

15 from day 1 sounds a bit much to me - I only started with hens last July and bought 4 POL for £15 a bird - Sussex, RIR, Bluebelle and Black Rock so I could tell the difference and enjoy the colours   The RIR lays the biggest eggs and is quite feisty in a nice way, the Sussex is top bird and can be a bit of a bully but is the quickest to "sit down" when I go in the pen so she's easiest to catch and handle.  The Bluebelle and Black Rock are slightly more wary, the BB is quite nervous by comparison to the other 3.. but I love them all

Having got hooked I then took on 4 BHWT rescue hens in about September - all arrived bald but the upside was that by Christmas they were feathered and starting to lay just as the RIR went into moult.  The other 3 haven't really moulted this winter but I have been getting 2-6 eggs through late December and January and never a day without at least 2..  By next winter I imagine I'll be lucky to get any of these laying, so the plan is to find another 4-6 POLs in spring and if more BHWTs come up in the autumn I'll think about a few of those as they're very rewarding to see the change in and even in one final laying year they'll more than pay for themselves. 

My thinking is to bring in batches to keep production at a consistent level allowing for moults and retirement, but also so I can build egg sales before getting too many to cope with - there was a stage late last year where I was eating a 3 egg omelette for lunch every day as over December/holiday period there were no sales at all, folk being otherwise occupied and focused more on junk food than baking/eggs   The tactic also allowed me to test the waters of chicken keeping before inflicting myself on more than I could cope with cleaning out, feeding etc.

I had a foray into Araucanas and loved the hens, didn't get on with the cockerel so parted with them again but while the eggs were lovely colours they were smaller and I found myself apologising to customers in some cases as the contrast to the huge RIR and BR eggs was noticeable..  I'm thinking Cream Legbar, Wyandotte, Maran as my phase 3 possibilities as I heard they were a bit less easygoing but will produce large and different coloured eggs aswell as adding more variety to my living room window view

[Red]

Thanks thats all great advice! the more I've read about it the more there seems to learn! we intend to sell eggs eventually but will now probably start with a couple and work up to about 40 ish ... we love eating eggs and just wondered if there way a good all rounder for a total beginner like me!

Any more advise galdy recieved
 

[jaykay]

I'd start with a couple of Sussexes or Wyandottes 

[PetiteGalette]

In Cornwall we started off with ex-bats and what a joy they were.................. they produced eggs continuously while they feathered up and learnt to walk on the flat ground, but only survived a couple of years. We then tried Marans, Black Rocks, Light Sussex, Derbyshire Redcaps (too flighty) and Jersey Giants (tiny eggs for their size). We didn't want anything with fluffy feathery legs/feet because of free-ranging in wet winters in Cornwall............................
I'd go for Marans for (hopefully) dark brown eggs, or Light Sussex for good sized eggs and consistent laying.

[deepinthewoods]

i would start with a few cheap ones tbh! then you can learn what you do and dont want from them without too much outlay, i ended up with way too many eggs so have slowly been changing the flock over to meat production with a few eggs as well.
i paid £8 each for vaccinated pol hybrids then picked up a few ls cockerels and added some cornish game pol (thank you sylvia!)  to start raising meat birds this spring.

[princesspiggy]

we started off with light sussex and a few years later after a few diff breeds now have white sussex. so easy and simple with loads of good sized eggs.

[Smalltime]

What about Silkies? Are they good beginner hens to get?

[Mel Rice]

More hardy than you might imagine and great broody mothers

[Big Light]

Silkies spend their time going Broody ( that's there role and they are great at it) and sitting on eggs you want to eat, unless you intend to hatch eggs under a broody and have another coop to keep them away from the eating eggs then think wisely. Nice pretty chicken and docile but the feathered feet are not great if its muddy also