Nothing here is bookable until three questions get answered, and all three are phone calls.
Three slots, maybe four
Every decision below is downstream of that number. With five slots you could take the cute birds and the pretty eggs. With three you have to choose.
The tension in one line. The cutest, most unique bird on this whole page is the White Crested Polish, and it is also the only one you cannot buy as a guaranteed hen. Every plan below is a different answer to that.
Rank them yourself
Seven levers, each scored 1 to 5 per bird. Set how much each lever matters and the list re-sorts. It starts weighted the way you described it, cuteness and uniqueness heaviest.
What the default weighting says. Peninsula birds take the top five slots, because a guaranteed hen and a rare egg color together outweigh a single very cute face. Drag Guaranteed hen to zero and the Polish jumps to first. That is the whole argument on this page, and you can watch it happen.
Four ways to spend the slots
Ordered by my recommendation, not by cost.
The split
4 birds · lands at 4, or 3 if a Polish crows
- Sat Aug 29, Peninsula, under the Silkie: French Black Copper Maran and Cream Legbar
- Fri Oct 2, Oasis, at your friend's: two White Crested Polish
Why
You get the chocolate egg and the sky blue egg guaranteed, plus a crested bird guaranteed, because the Legbar has a crest too. Then you take a 75 percent swing at the Polish on top. If both Polish are cockerels you still own two great hens and a crest, and Oct 16 is your backstop.
All guaranteed hens
3 birds · one Saturday, done
- Sat Aug 29, Peninsula, under the Silkie: French Black Copper Maran, Cream Legbar, Silverudd's Blue
Why
Three new egg colors, three certain hens, all raised at home under the Silkie, all done before Labor Day. No friend needed, no October, no rehoming plan. The cost is that you never get the Polish, and the Silverudd had only one bird on the last list so it needs a phone call.
All in on cute
3 birds · $30 total
- Fri Oct 2, Oasis, at your friend's: two White Crested Polish and one Buff Brahma
Why not
Top three on the cuteness board for thirty dollars. But all three are coin flips, so the expected number of hens is 1.5 out of 3, none of them adds a new egg color, and the whole batch is raised at your friend's, which means you skip the baby chick weeks at home. High ceiling, low floor.
The hedge
3 birds · lands at 3, or 2
- Sat Aug 29, Peninsula: French Black Copper Maran and Cream Legbar
- Fri Oct 2, Oasis: one White Crested Polish
Why not
Same shape as the split but with a single Polish, so the crest bet is a straight coin flip instead of 75 percent. Saves one slot and ten dollars. If the Polish crows you are at two new birds, which is under your own target.
The Polish problem
Your top want is the one bird nobody will sell you as a guaranteed hen.
| How many Polish | At least one hen | Two hens | Zero hens | Slots used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One | 50 percent | not possible | 50 percent | 1 |
| Two | 75 percent | 25 percent | 25 percent | 2 |
Two Polish costs $20 and takes half your slots, and a quarter of the time you end up with two hens, which is a fine outcome since a pair raised together look after each other. A quarter of the time you end up with none. Oakland allows hens and not roosters, so a cockerel means a rehome around sixteen to twenty weeks, before he starts crowing.
The hedge worth knowing. The Cream Legbar is crested too. Smaller crest than a Polish, but the same jaunty look, and it is auto sexing so you know it is a pullet at hatch. If you take the Legbar, a bad Polish outcome does not leave you with no crested bird at all.
The other risk. A crested bird in a flock of eleven non-crested birds is the classic head-pecking target, and a bad case can blind one. Two Polish raised together helps because they have each other. Go slowly at integration, watch the crest, and trim the feathers around the eyes if they are getting hit.
The candidates
Ordered by the default weighting. Peninsula counts are from their Aug 22 hatch list, which is the most recent one published; the Saturday list changes weekly, so call before you drive down.
1Silverudd's Blue Peninsula
Swedish breed developed by Martin Silverudd in the 1980s, also sold as Isbar. Slate blue plumage with a sheen, small and efficient, around 200 mint green eggs a year. Genuinely rare in the United States. Calm, quiet, strong forager.
Tops the default ranking on rarity plus a brand new egg color plus certainty. Only one was available last week, so it is a call-ahead bird rather than a plan bird.
2Cream Legbar Peninsula
British breed from the 1930s, cream and silver with fine barring and a small backward swept crest. Auto sexing means chicks are visibly different by sex the day they hatch. Around 200 sky blue eggs a year, active forager, a little flighty.
The single most useful bird in the plan. A bluer egg than your Ameraucana gives, a crest that hedges the Polish bet, and a guaranteed hen. In every plan I would actually run.
3French Black Copper Maran Peninsula
The prestige Marans. Black body with a copper hackle, lightly feathered shanks, calm and quiet. Around 180 eggs a year, and the color is why people keep them: a genuinely dark chocolate brown that stops people mid sentence when they open the carton.
The biggest single jump your egg basket can make. Handsome rather than cute, which is the only reason it is not first. Seven were available, so this is the Peninsula bird most likely to still be there.
4Bielefelder Peninsula
German breed from the 1970s, big and unhurried, hens run 7 to 8 pounds in a warm partridge pattern called crele. Auto sexing at hatch. Famously the calmest bird in most flocks, tolerant of handling, and a reliable winter layer at around 230 eggs a year.
The gentle giant with a guarantee attached. If you want the Brahma feeling without the coin flip, this is it. Loses to the top three only on egg color.
5Olive Egger Peninsula
Not a breed, a cross. A blue egg parent over a dark brown egg parent, and the brown pigment washes over the blue shell to make olive. Because it is a cross, no two look alike and the shade varies bird to bird. Hardy, good tempered, around 180 eggs a year.
Great egg, ordinary bird. Ranks below the Silverudd because the mint green is rarer and the Swedish bird is a more interesting animal for the same money.
6White Crested Polish Oasis
A pompom of white feathers over a dark body, docile and curious, about 150 small white eggs a year. The only bird on this page that scores five on both cuteness and uniqueness, and the only one you cannot buy as a hen. The crest blocks upward vision, which is why they get pecked and why they need perches with clear approaches.
Sixth by the numbers, first by the two levers you actually named. The model penalizes it for the coin flip; you can decide that ten dollars makes the coin flip cheap. That is a taste call and the model does not get a vote.
7Lavender Ameraucana Peninsula
Same breed as your spotted bird, different color variety. Lavender is a soft dove gray held all over, with the muff and beard and pea comb the breed is known for. Around 180 blue eggs a year, friendly, cold hardy. The face is genuinely one of the cutest in the hobby.
Loses only because it repeats a color you have. If the Cream Legbar is gone on Saturday, this is the substitute, and you keep the blue egg while losing the crest.
8Buff Brahma Oasis
Feathered legs and feet, small pea comb, up to 10 pounds. Extremely docile, handles cold, rarely flies. Slow to mature at around seven months, then steady right through winter when the others stop. The feathered feet are the cutest thing on this page after the Polish crest.
Second on cuteness and it costs ten dollars, but with only three or four slots it is hard to justify a coin flip that adds no egg color. If a slot opens up, this is the first bird back in.
9Welsummer Oasis
Dutch heritage breed, salmon breast with fine gold penciling, around 160 eggs a year. Deep orange brown eggs with dark speckles, and the speckling is unlike anything else on this page.
Your backstop. If both Polish turn out to be cockerels, Oct 16 is the last chick day of the season and this is the bird to take.
10Cuckoo Marans Oasis
Same dark egg family as the French Black Copper, one shade lighter and a quarter of the price. The cuckoo pattern looks close to your Barred Rock but with clean pinkish legs and a stockier build. Around 180 to 220 eggs a year, quiet and easy.
Last only because it looks like a bird you already own. Purely on eggs per dollar it beats the $40 Maran, and if the cost lever matters more than I have weighted it, drag that slider up and watch this climb.
Off the list
| Breed | Why it is off |
|---|---|
| Colored Silkie | Paused, not dropped. Peninsula had eight, but theirs are the black and white paint pattern and your wife does not like the look. If a partridge or buff Silkie shows up on a later Saturday it is worth reopening, since that was the color contrast you wanted next to your two whites. |
| Silver, Golden and Blue Laced Wyandotte | Five of your eleven are already Wyandottes. |
| Buff Orpington, Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red | You have the Buff and the Barred. Rhode Island Red overlaps both. |
| Red, Black and Golden Sex Link | Great layers, but hybrids. Two to three productive years against four to five for heritage, and ordinary brown eggs. |
| Serama and Japanese Bantams | Charming, and there were nineteen, but a true bantam among standards gets pushed off the feeder. |
| Delaware, Hampshire Red, Danish Brown Leghorn | All good utility birds. None adds an egg color or a look you do not have. |
Timeline
Two batches, five weeks apart, raised in two houses. Peninsula pickups fall on Saturdays and Oasis pickups on Fridays, so every date below is a real calendar day.
Pickup at 9:00am in Redwood City. Two DNA sexed females, home by lunch, under the Silkie that night.
Home batch is two weeks old and wing feathered. Your friend is back this week, which reopens Oasis.
Urban Farm Oasis pickup, $10 each, straight to your friend's brooder.
Fully feathered. The Silkie starts weaning them and they range with the flock during the day.
Final chick day of the season at Urban Farm Oasis. You will not know the Polish sexes yet, so this date is insurance you buy on a hunch or skip.
Six weeks old and off heat. The home batch is about eleven weeks by now and already running with the flock.
Maran and Legbar are close to adult weight and fully in the pecking order. Nothing to manage.
The Polish hit sixteen weeks and go in with everyone. One flock of fifteen, or fourteen if a Polish turned out to be a cockerel.
The Peninsula pair starts laying. This is the payoff of buying the certain birds first.
Small white eggs, roughly 150 a year, and by now you know exactly how many Polish hens you got.
Raising and roost math
Broody hen versus brooder
A broody hen will adopt day old chicks if you slip them under her after dark. She has to actually be broody: sitting flat and tight, breast plucked, hissing or growling when you reach under her. Chicks need to be under five days old. She will raise two to four comfortably, keeps them warm, teaches them to scratch and dust bathe, and defends them, which means they grow up inside the flock instead of being introduced to it later.
Buying from two hatcheries
Mixing birds from two sources is the one new risk this plan introduces. Both hatcheries vaccinate for Marek's, which is the main thing you want. The vaccine is leaky though, meaning a vaccinated bird can carry and shed field virus without ever looking sick, so two vaccinated flocks meeting is not automatically zero risk. Respiratory disease travels the same way, mycoplasma and infectious bronchitis in particular.
This plan quarantines itself. The Peninsula pair lives at your house under the Silkie and the Polish live at your friend's until Nov 13, so the two sources never share air for the first ten weeks, longer than any quarantine anyone would recommend. Keep it that way. If a schedule change ever puts both batches under one roof, hold them apart for at least two weeks and watch for sneezing, bubbly eyes, or a bird sitting apart from the others.
How far apart two batches can be
- Same day. One brooder from day one, nothing to manage.
- Two weeks apart. Separate brooders for the first week or two, then combine once the younger group is wing feathered and can dodge. Fully merged by five or six weeks. A wire divider so they can see each other speeds it up.
- Four to five weeks apart. Separate the whole time. A six week old is three to four times the weight of a two week old and will push them off food and water. This is the Aug 29 to Oct 2 gap, which is exactly why the two batches live in two different houses.
- Into your existing flock. Wait until the new birds are close to full size, around fourteen to sixteen weeks. Look but do not touch for a week behind a wire divider inside the run, then merge at dusk with extra feeders and hiding spots for the first two weeks.
Roost space
The rule is 10 to 12 inches of roost bar per standard bird.
| Flock size | Roost needed | In feet |
|---|---|---|
| 11 birds, today | 110 to 132 inches | 9.2 to 11.0 linear feet |
| 13 birds, after Dec 19 | 130 to 156 inches | 10.8 to 13.0 linear feet |
| 14 birds, three added | 140 to 168 inches | 11.7 to 14.0 linear feet |
| 15 birds, four added | 150 to 180 inches | 12.5 to 15.0 linear feet |
If you are short, add a second bar parallel to the first, 12 inches higher and 12 inches back, so birds can step up without landing on each other. A Brahma or Bielefelder is heavy and a poor flyer, so keep at least one bar low, around 18 inches off the floor.
What I need from you
Answer these and I will draft the Peninsula call script and the Oasis email.
1. Is the Silkie broody right now?
Sitting flat, plucked breast, hissing when you reach under her. If yes, Saturday works and the home batch happens this week. If no, everything shifts to your friend in October and you lose the baby chick weeks at home.
2. Three birds or four?
Four means two Polish and the 75 percent shot. Three means one Polish at a straight coin flip, or no Polish and three certain hens. This is the only real fork on the page.
3. Is the $40 Maran worth it over the $10 Cuckoo?
The French Black Copper is darker and is a guaranteed hen. The Cuckoo Marans on Oct 16 is $10 and unsexed and looks a lot like your Barred Rock. The gap is $30 and one shade of brown.
4. Cream Legbar or Silverudd's Blue, if both are there?
Legbar for the crest and the sky blue. Silverudd for rarity and mint green. I lean Legbar because the crest hedges the Polish bet.
