Whats the best chickens for eggs?

Yeah, I've heard mixing Silkies is a bad idea, but no one really mentions EEs or Amers and that should maybe be mentioned more but i think it also maybe depends on the bird cause some have more of a personality.

I learned how gentle pure Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers were after my friend and I got some for their blue and green eggs. We both saw how more skittish and timid they were in a flock of heavy dual layers like the Marans, Java, 'Lorps, Orps, Legs, Wyans, Sussex, and Sexlinks. That's when I decided to keep my Ameraucana around our Silkies but re-homed the others. I was going to get something like a docile Polish, Sultan, Houdan, or Crevecoeur for white eggs but on 3 people's recommendation I tried the light-weight Breda for white eggs and was very pleased with the non-combative temperament of the breed and how great a layer they are.

I agree with you that more people should mention more about how kooky spooky jittery jumpy skittish, wary, cautious, alert, timid, and docile Easter Eggers and Ameraucanas can be. They are mostly gentle birds that take in orphaned chicks or injured birds into the flock with hardly a notice while other aggressive breeds usually will not. Amers/EEs are kind to flockmates - they avoid conflict sometimes even if cornered so they are not the best to be mixed with more assertive heavier dual purpose or layer breeds. There will always be the exception bird but mostly this describes pretty well the EEs/Amers IMO.

Hatcheries and feed stores just want to sell chickens and will never clue the new customer to what breeds go best together in a flock and just push the fact that Easter Eggers give "colored" eggs and the customer is totally unaware that the EEs are slightly smaller than the dual purpose layers and that EEs are much more gentle souls. At first all pullet breeds as youngsters seem to get along but as the dual purpose mature by 18 months to 2 years they begin to get assertive and if not monitored they can get downright aggressive toward docile non-combative breeds that won't assert back. Some owners who have EEs/Amers get upset at me that their birds are not that docile but if really monitored well I can almost be sure that the Ams/EEs are the more picked on birds in the flock. Some Ams/EEs just get better at dodging the bullies before a confrontation starts so one doesn't notice that there's any difference between the EEs and the dual purpose/layer breeds. I always suggest a minimum of 2 Ams/EEs or more in a flock so the gentle birds can hang out together away from the dual purpose breeds. I certainly don't suggest keeping them in a closed run with other breeds where they have few areas to hide to avoid conflicts.

Being in an assertive environment is contagious and will turn an otherwise gentle bird into a mean bird to fight back or else get pecked to death. It's how chickens are - downright mean sometimes and those are the ones I avoid. I had a 7-lb Marans that challenged the authority of our alpha White Leghorn but that little 41/2 lb Leghorn was an assertive breed and she put the Marans in her place. However, the Marans subsequently turned on the 21/4 lb Silkies to harass them viciously because they ran instead of fighting back so she was outta here! As all our Leghorns got older I had to finally re-home them too because they were getting too big for their britches toward the gentle littles.

I make observations and post them in hopes it helps someone else in my same situation as a small backyard owner. I'm always open to hear non-judgmental feedback as not everyone's breeds, flock mix, environment, climate, space, etc, is the same.
 

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