- May 14, 2018
- 35
- 14
- 79
Hello all,
I am trying to find the breed best suited to our circumstances and wondering if pekins might be that breed.
We live in a neighborhood with a large run space for the hens (100 square yards), but we have neighbors that live close by, so the quieter, the better! We also grow a vegetable garden and need hens that won't fly over the fence (4ft) into the vegetable patch or scratch too vigorously when we let them have full run of the garden before bedtime. Egg laying is good, but we don't mind hens that take breaks to go broody and would rather have a breed that lays less per year, but slows down more gradually over time.
I would say that quietness is the most important feature.
Right now, our flock is composed of:
- a sussex, a marans, a blue limousine (a French breed) (the three big girls are pretty quiet, but their egg song is loud and they can be talkative when I am out with them or when they want to be let out in the morning),
-a dear little silkie who honks,
-a dear little polish who crows like a magpie,
-and two bantam wyandottes who are quiet, but too shy and unfriendly for my liking.
Our two pekins are good layers, laying 4-5 eggs every week (even in the winter), except when they take a break for 2-3 months to raise babies. Many sites say that they only lay 80 eggs are year, but ours definitely lay more than that, probably at least double. And they are so quiet! I hardly hear a peep from them except when they are talking to their babies.
What do you all think? How is my reasoning here?
I am trying to find the breed best suited to our circumstances and wondering if pekins might be that breed.
We live in a neighborhood with a large run space for the hens (100 square yards), but we have neighbors that live close by, so the quieter, the better! We also grow a vegetable garden and need hens that won't fly over the fence (4ft) into the vegetable patch or scratch too vigorously when we let them have full run of the garden before bedtime. Egg laying is good, but we don't mind hens that take breaks to go broody and would rather have a breed that lays less per year, but slows down more gradually over time.
I would say that quietness is the most important feature.
Right now, our flock is composed of:
- a sussex, a marans, a blue limousine (a French breed) (the three big girls are pretty quiet, but their egg song is loud and they can be talkative when I am out with them or when they want to be let out in the morning),
-a dear little silkie who honks,
-a dear little polish who crows like a magpie,
-and two bantam wyandottes who are quiet, but too shy and unfriendly for my liking.
Our two pekins are good layers, laying 4-5 eggs every week (even in the winter), except when they take a break for 2-3 months to raise babies. Many sites say that they only lay 80 eggs are year, but ours definitely lay more than that, probably at least double. And they are so quiet! I hardly hear a peep from them except when they are talking to their babies.
What do you all think? How is my reasoning here?
