Help choosing first flock breeds

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mommabear24

mommabear24

Hatching
Jan 29, 2015
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My family and I are planning to start our flock this spring. We would like suggestions on breeds. They must be child friendly, very cold hardy (we live in northern WI), and lay lots of eggs. We were thinking 5 Easter eggers(I'd love some colored eggs) and 5 barred rocks. Thoughts?
 
Both good breeds! You also have to judge on whats going to be available at the feedstores near you around the time you're adopting. I find those are good breeds, so are Welsummers (mine lays brown eggs everyday and is my best 4h handled bird! and from a feedstore!) Another I would suggest would be Easter Eggers like you're wanting! (my ladies lay olive, green, and tan eggs, and kinda irregularly but pretty good birds!)
 
Easter Eggers and Barred Rocks are generally docile breeds but on occasion I've had aggressive ones. Where children are concerned, I would suggest going with breeds that have a well deserved reputation for being calm and gentle (good lap pets) and good layers such as Australorps, Orpingtons, Faverolles, Sussex, and Brahmas. Of course there can always be an exception with any breed. If high egg production is a major priority, Australorps are the best layers on this list.
 
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Michael OShay said:
Easter Eggers and Barred Rocks are generally docile breeds but on occasion I've had aggressive ones. Where children are concerned, I would suggest going with breeds that have a well deserved reputation for being calm and gentle (good lap pets) and good layers such as Australorps, Orpingtons, Faverolles, Sussex, and Brahmas. Of course there can always be an exception with any breed. If high egg production is a major priority, Australorps are the best layers on this list.
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We were thinking about some of these breeds but don't they commonly go broody? We aren't looking to ever hatch any chicks.
 
mommabear24 said:
How many eggs a week do you get from your Easter eggers?
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My EEs have typically laid about 3-4 eggs per hen per week--about the same as my Barred Rocks, Orpingtons, Sussex, and Brahmas. If you want more brown eggs per hen per week than that you will either need to go with Black or Red Sex Links (6-7 per week) or Australorps, Rhode Island Reds, or Production Reds (5-6 per hen per week on these three breeds).
 
mommabear24 said:
We were thinking about some of these breeds but don't they commonly go broody? We aren't looking to ever hatch any chicks.
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Typically most of them go broody occasionally but no more than Barred Rocks and not excessively as broodiness has largely been bred out of hatchery quality birds. Of course there are always those exceptions which seem to go broody regularly. My Australorps and EEs though have rarely gone broody. If you don't want broodiness at all I would suggest going with Sex Links which very rarely go broody. Again it can and sometimes does happen even with Sex Links.
 
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mommabear24 said:
We were thinking about some of these breeds but don't they commonly go broody? We aren't looking to ever hatch any chicks.
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I got my hens from McMurray hatchery and one of my hens hatched four chicks in the first 7 months. None of my other hens have done that since though. I think it was just the blood-strains.
 

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