Diverse Flock??

[Bullitt]

Illia, I see your avatar picture and was wondering about something. What breed of chicken laid the pink egg? At least it looks pale pink in the picture. It is between the white egg and the very light brown egg.

 

[neilgal]

Diversity, is great specially if you like different colored eggs.
I have 12 chickens all together. Brown eggers; 2 Red Stars, 2 Black Stars, And 2 Road Island Red. Dark brown eggers: 2 Black Copper Marans. Blue / green eggers; 3 Easter Eggers. White egger: White Leghorn.
There is no problem with them most of the time but some time specially during the molt or when I introduce new hens to the folk they get a little aggressive. However, most of the time they pretty calm.

 

[Pico de Gallo]

I've been getting into one new breed every year, idea being to have successive cadres so I can keep track of hens' ages.

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

From my experience, you can mix as many breeds as you like but keep in mind the old adage "Birds of a feather flock together." If you only have one light-colored bird (splash, barred, white) it my be targeted and picked at by the other birds. I found this to be true when my Barred Rock hens started dropping off from old age. The last one got chased about so badly by her own flockmates I had to put her in a pen by herself. My mom has just one Splash Marans in her flock and the Black Sex-link hens chase her mercilessly.

 

[kari_dawn]

In my research when looking for breeds of chickens, personality traits and looks came first, egg color second. I have also found that if they were raised together, generally, they get along very well. I have also had great sucess integrating new flock members to the old ones.

What I ended up with is a bunch of dual purpose brown egg layers for the most part. It seems like in general, mediteranian breeds (that also tend to be the majority of the white egg layers) tend to be more flighty, small bodied birds. I wanted big cuddly docile birds, so really, I did not end up with any white egg layers. I LOVE my buff orps, and my easter eggers. They are fantastic birds. I also have some blue laced red wyandottes, which I have heard people say are standofish, but in my experience, they are regal, calm, and approachable. Maybe not cuddly in your lap like my buff orps, but still very amiable and sweet.

Since most white egg layers that I know of tend to be flighty, have you considered a cream colored egg layer? I think salmon faverolles lay cream colored? (Im not sure on this, mine hasn't started laying yet!) They are super sweet, and very inquisitive and full of personality (as are speckled sussex), besides, it makes for a beautiful flock of birds!



Back to front, left of screen to right, easter egger (they come in all kinds of colors), splash blue laced red, front and center is my salmon faverolle (notice her five toes? She also has feathered feet, and they are generally easy to sex after they feather because males have very different coloration than females), and in the front, my speckled sussex (RIP), and a blue phase blue laced red wyandotte.

 

[RThomas]

We have a very diverse flock. We currently have 26 chickens of approximately 15 different breeds. We get eggs of nearly every color available. For white egg layers, I highly recommend White-face Black Spanish. They are consistent layers of nice sized white eggs. They are one of the heavier Mediterranean breeds and ours have never been flighty. They are also very attractive birds.

We also have LB Leghorns. They lay a nice sized egg and aren't nearly as flighty as they're made out to be.

Where are you in TN? For the last few years I've gotten most of my birds from a guy out of Franklin. He either raises or can obtain just about anything you want. I can forward his info to you if you're interested.

 

[Tnchickennewbie]

Thank you to everyone for the great info. I can see that I have definitely found the right place to find out anything that I need to know. Rthomas we are located in Culleoka, TN so we are only about 30 minutes away from Franklin so I would like to have his info. You can send it to me in a message if you would like. Thank you again for everything. I think that we are definitely gonna go with a few of the easter eggers because our daughter is in love with those. We have plenty of room here though so we can try several different breeds til we really land on what we like.

 

[RThomas]

I've sent you a PM with the info.

Now that I'm home I also wanted to add a few pics of our WFBS. In the first pic, the WFBS hen is with a Black Star (aka Black Sex-link) hen. The Black Stars are very good brown egg layers and are friendly. The second and third pics are of our WFBS roo.

 

[Bullitt]

Wow, those White-Face Black Spanish chickens have very striking features.

I had not heard of that breed before. About how much do they weigh? Are these considered dual-purpose chickens?

 

[MomToTheZoo]

We LOVE our Faverolles! This is my first year with them and we are getting a great egg production Plus they love the kids and follow them around like little puppies I go out and talk to my girls and they are always there first listening to everything I have to say lol
But all of the breeds we have, have been raised since bitty chicks and they are all friendly