Reviews by BackyardDove

Depending on why you want Australorps, their broodiness can be good or bad. For me it was bad. I struggled to make a nest box that my Australorps didn't want to brood in constantly. Thankfully they still let the other chickens lay in the nests they were brooding in. After figuring out how to stop their broodiness, they became great egg layers. They don't have much personality and are slow to figure things out, but they are still a great chicken breed.

Nobody told me when I first got Silkies that they are very sensitive to everything when they are under 3 months old. Thankfully I had raised a few other chickens before starting on Silkies, but that knowledge didn't help me much. I got around 5-6 Silkies in my first batch. Two made it to sexual maturity but only one survived past a year. All of the deaths were caused by some little accident on the Silkie's part and they couldn't recover from it. My second batch did worse than the first. I got 9 that time and all but one of them made it to 5 months old, but after one heavy rainstorm they all died. I learned after that that, since their feathers aren't as water proof as other chicken's feathers, you have to make sure they are under complete shelter for their first heavy rainstorm. After a good deal of reluctance, I got a third batch of 9 silkies last April. This batch has done great, though I've had to take a lot of precautions with them. One died from unknown causes a few months back, but the others have done excellently. However, as they reach one year of age, they have yet to complete sexual maturity. In fact, one of my "hens" showed herself to be a him after he started crowing just last week!

I love my Belgian d'Uccle's. Unfortunately, I only have two since I wanted to try out a new bantam breed and didn't want to get a bunch since I didn't know if I'd like them. I regret not buying out the store while I had the chance! My little hen is the sweetest hen I've ever had. She loves attention and loves to just be around you. My d'Uccle's don't mind being picked up or handled and are very non-aggressive. However, they don't seem to have a sense of fear. My hen also doesn't like to be confined and had to be moved to a completely closed in area.

I've found that the color of their eggs eventually turns into a tan color, rather than the normal blue or green. My Americana's stopped producing colorful eggs a few months after first starting to lay, which was very disappointing since that was the main reason I got them. One of my hens is also aggressive towards roosters and fights with them as if she's a rooster. I don't consider this a bad trait though. I don't want her to be a breeder and if I get a rooster who's aggressive, all I need to do is put them in with her for a couple weeks and she straightens them out quickly. My Americana's also have distinctive personalities once you get to know them, meanwhile most of my other chicken's personalities are typical for a chicken.