Reply #3: Excellent. Welcome to the dark side.

[Denninmi]

Chickens are the gateway drug to all kinds of feathered mischief. This year, I'm going to try some geese. I'll be placing my order to reserve the eggs in just a few weeks, for shipment in late March.

RIR's are good. I've got 3 of those right now. But, last spring, I got 6 Isa Browns, which are a cross between set lines of RIR's and white leghorns. They were developed in France specifically for egg production. I am just amazed at the size of the eggs these birds are laying. I'm putting them into recycled Xlarge and Jumbo cartons, and some of these are so big I literally can't shut the lids on the cartons for fear of breaking the eggs. The Isa Browns look just like a RIR, except that the plumage is has just a little bit of white around the "roots" -- they kind of remind me of an older lady I used to work with who dyed her hair red, but wasn't so good about doing the follow ups, so she usually had gray roots showing.