We have laying hens sort of by default. A friend of ours asked if we could keep a few chickens for him. I ordered 15, but he went a little wild and arrived with 55 chicks. I thought he said a few! Initially, the grand total was 70 chicks to start out. The henhouse consists of Buff Orpingtons (my favorite), Columbian Rocks (not too common), Black Australorps, White Giants, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, Araucana/Americana (Easter Egg chickens), a Golden Polish (exotic) and Jumbo Cornish X Rocks (meat birds). Shown below in the order listed. The meat birds proved to be a bust, chicken is way cheaper from the store, these ended up being about $20 a bird. First, they were supposed to be slaughtered at 10 weeks, except the guys keep deciding to give them more time, against my protests. They slaughtered four at about 14 weeks, it was a huge mess. I cooked one and I didn't care for finding the esophagus and crop with food in it when I rinsed the bird prior to cooking it. I made it "Beer- butt" style, which should have produced a tasty, tender chicken. Alas, it was a rubber chicken and stringy to boot. After this, Mark decided he should pardon the rest of the meat birds. Oh boy, they plop in front of the feeder and eat all day long. These are going to prove to be an expensive pardon.