There is just something heartwarming  knowing that soon enough 68 baby chicks will be waiting for me at the post office.  Last year was our first year with chicks and we loved it!

Here's what we ordered from McMurray Hatchery with pictures from their site:

50 Jumbo Cornish X Rocks (the meat birds)or Godzilla chickens as CrewChief calls them!

4 Rhode Island Reds 

All girls.  2 for us and 2 for a friend.  They lay lots of brown eggs.  They are considered the best all purpose bird by lots of folks.

2 Buff Orpingtons - 1 male and female for us

I picked them because many of the folks on my HSCountry Yahoo group say they are wonderful gentle chickens.  We're only getting one rooster so I wanted to try and get a friendly one.  Have you ever heard that fertilized eggs are healthier?  I just heard that from my friend yesterday.  Somehow I missed that in all of the bird talk.

2 Silver Laced Wyandottes   - My middle son picked them.  Mostly just because they were different looking. But they are also supposed to be good at laying eggs in the cold weather too.

2 Black Australorps - We had some of these last year and they are supposed to mature early and start laying between 5 and 6 months.  Of course we couldn't really tell who was laying eggs when since they were all in there together.

4 Araucanas - 2 for us and 2 for our friends.  These are the ones that lay the pretty pastel colored eggs.  I had heard that their eggs are lower in cholesterol, but McMurray says that's not the truth.  They say all eggs have the same amount of cholesterol.  These birds were pretty slow to lay though. We didn't start getting eggs from them until they were a year old.

2 Red Star - My friend decided to give these a try.  They are supposed to be specially bred to be good layers.  They look a lot like Rhode Island Reds to me.  These are often the kinds of chicks that you see for sale around Easter because they can tell that they are girls because of their red coloring. I don't know what color the boys are.... Hmmm.....

1 Pearl White Leghorn - My friend wanted to see if these laid as many eggs as they said.  These are supposed to be commercial standard white egg layers.  So if she gets a bunch of white eggs, she'll know who did it!

1 Red Leghorn Rooster -My friend just chose this one since it would look pretty running around in the yard. 

So we'll be getting all of our brooding supplies ready for April 19th.  Then the fun will be trying to figure out which ones are which.  They all have different markings, but they are pretty doggone similar looking.  Oh fun, fun, fun!!

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Posted by TChannel4

I can't wait for the day when we are able to get chickens. My grandparents use to raise chickens and I have many fond memories as a child.

God Bless,
Tammy

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Posted by Anonymous

My grandmother raised chickens when I was little which is a long time ago. She killed them herself which I don't remember ever seeing. Her chicken dinners were so good. I don't remember eating the eggs though. She lived a few hours away so we would visit for weekends sometimes. I didn't realize there were so many kinds of chickens so it sure makes it an interesting topic. Blessings.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/abiga51

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Posted by kissesmomof4

It is so exciting to see what others are ordering. It makes me even more eager to get ours ordered up. Good choices.

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Posted by Leah

I'm assuming you raise your chickens for eggs and meat?

We are wanting to raise chickens just for the eggs. What do you suggest and where do you order your chickens?

We have many stores here in Oklahoma that sell chicks. Do you suggest we start there first?

Thanks for your help and I love your newsletter!

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