what chickens are best for large eggs and being friendly

I have bombarded my brain with tons of you tube videos. Learning about heavy, standard and bantam chickens. I am intrigued with the Blue Ameracauna. My uncle had these chickens I always saw them up in the trees. I guess that was good for predators. I Plan on keeping them in a safe coop and run. I plan on having 4-6 chickens. Can anyone tell me more about these types and offer any suggestions? I would prefer a large egg but I guess medium would be ok. I understand it is important to get "friendly" types rather than flighty ones. Can you offer me any advice?

Golden Comets (red sex links) produce jumbo eggs and are known for being friendly.

Black Australorps are known or being friendly, but I'm not sure of the egg size.

Buff Orpingtons are friendly, but produce smaller eggs.

Black Australorps lay a good, large egg.

keiferlou said:

Black Australorps lay a good, large egg.

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That's what I've heard. I can't recommend them from experience, but I can say that if I were to start a new flock knowing what I know now, I'd probably choose BA's.

We've only got two types...Barred Rocks and Buff Orpingtons. My main criteria when I was looking at the breeds was to get chickens that were friendly and docile.

The buff's lay a pretty large egg - sometimes they don't fit in the egg carton...and definitely larger than the BR eggs (maybe 1/3 bigger).

I've got one BO and one BR that love to jump up and cuddle - one other BO that will let us handle her any time. The other two are friendly when you have treats, but don't like to be held.

Ours came from Meyer Hatchery and I believe if you go to that website it will give you the specs on the chickens (egg color, size, friendly, docile, etc.)

The only noise we get from them is about 5 minutes of egg song, and then they get really aggravated when there's a cardinal on the fence near them...other than that...pretty quiet.

Cacique500 said:

We've only got two types...Barred Rocks and Buff Orpingtons. My main criteria when I was looking at the breeds was to get chickens that were friendly and docile.

The buff's lay a pretty large egg - sometimes they don't fit in the egg carton...and definitely larger than the BR eggs (maybe 1/3 bigger).

I've got one BO and one BR that love to jump up and cuddle - one other BO that will let us handle her any time. The other two are friendly when you have treats, but don't like to be held.

Ours came from Meyer Hatchery and I believe if you go to that website it will give you the specs on the chickens (egg color, size, friendly, docile, etc.)

The only noise we get from them is about 5 minutes of egg song, and then they get really aggravated when there's a cardinal on the fence near them...other than that...pretty quiet.

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I have 3 Barred Rocks and a Buff Orpington, also from Meyer Hatchery. I agree that their website is very helpful with breed selection. Their customer service is fantastic, as well, so you can always call and ask for advice. My Pet Chicken's website also has a helpful tool for selecting breeds based on the characteristics that are most important to you.

That being said, I have 25 girls, and the oldest 5 (2 Barred Rocks, 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Black Australorp, and 1 Welsummer) who are 6 months old have started laying, so my experience is VERY limited! So far, the BRs lay the smallest eggs, but they were the last to start laying, so that may be a factor. The BO and BA are somewhere in the middle, and my Welsummer...WOW, she lays some MONSTER double-yolkers!!! Her eggs from the very start have consistently been the largest of the 5, and the color is simply GORGEOUS!!! Check out these pictures!



Now, as far as personality goes, the BRs are in-your-face, curious, talkative, and SUPER friendly. They are my hands-down favorite of the bunch. The BO has always been decently friendly and is VERY gentle and easy to pick up and handle.The Welsummer was standoffish as a chick, but she became friendly and started allowing us to pet her right before she started laying. The BA was also standoffish and still resists being touched, though she enjoys coming up and talking to us in her soft voice. ALL enjoy running up for attention, following us around the yard, and are beautiful and docile girls.

Anyway, I hope all of this is helpful rather than confusing. Basically, it all comes down to what's most important to you. Thankfully, there are MANY friendly, large-egg-laying breeds available, so if you're so inclined, why not try several of them? Best wishes to you, and have fun with it!

I recommend Welsummers for friendly temperament and jumbo eggs. They also have the distinction of being a gorgeous brick red color. They are daily layers.

I would recommend red sex-links. We had one who laid huge reddish brown eggs, and she was quite friendly. Although I have heard that they tend to have health issues.
Barred Rocks are good too, they are a friendly curious type good egg layers too. I've never really had a bad experience with one.

There are several breeds that could meet the requirements you want (many mentioned above already) - one thing to consider would be to have a flock with a few different breeds. While it is good to choose breeds naturally geared towards the temperament you want to have, remember that a large part of how friendly or unfriendly the birds you have will be is going to be socialization on your part and also a matter of the individual personality of the birds you get as while a breed may "generally be friendly" individuals in that breed can be quite the opposite and vice versa with breeds that are generally listed as unfriendly.

X2. I'm all for variety. We spend LOTS and LOTS of time and energy socializing our birds. In spite of it, some of our "friendly" breeds avoid us and others, like the Hamburg and Black Sumatra are total love bugs. "Flighty" doesn't deter me, but I personally steer clear of anything labeled "aggressive."