There are HUNDREDS of different breeds of chickens, but only about 60 of these are popular in the USA. Yeah, "only"....lol....So picking out what kind of chickens you want can be difficult.
You need to figure out how many chickens you want to raise and what you want out of your chickens: eggs only? meat and eggs? meat only? look pretty in the backyard?? We went for a chicken we felt met all 3 of those.....the winner for us was the Barred Plymouth Rock.....freggin adorable!
"Where do you get your chickens?" #2 question I've gotten in the last 2 weeks since we decided/started to raise chickens. Well, since my friend Jen has been raising chickens for the last year or so, I asked her. She ordered her chickens from an online hatchery last time, so we looked up different hatcheries for pricing, breed, and shipping. We also looked on craigs list and at our local Tractor Supply Company store in Fredericksburg, VA.
We went with an online hatchery that gave discounts for ordering more chicks, sold pullets and cockrels, and had a live delivery guarantee. www.esteshatchery.com fit the bill for us !! Since we were ordering 25 pullets to be split between us, we paid $1.52 plus $0.47 per chick because of the sexing. Since I wanted 8 hens and 1 rooster i ended up paying a little more than $22 for my portion of the order. Not too shabby!
**SIDE NOTE: if you don't care how many males/females you get, you can order a "straight run" and anywhere who sells chicks will always be priced lower for a straight run.**
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