How has your opinion of chicken breeds changed from before owning them to now owning those breeds?

[HollowOfWisps]

As I walked into the barn this morning I stopped to pet my broody Welsummer before going about my chores. She gave me her usual greeting and allowed me to pet her (if you had told me in years prior to reach my hand into a nesting box with a broody hen I would have laughed at you). After my Maran, Orpington and Sussex all ran up to greet me. This made me start to think about how my opinion of each chicken breed I own has drastically changed from what I originally expected of each breed. My prior experience was only with production and meat breeds. Growing up (as I'm sure most of you who also grew up on the farm have experienced) chickens were a means to get fresh eggs or dinner. Nothing more nothing less. When I moved back to the country and got back into chickens again, I wanted different breeds to figure out which ones I preferred. When placing the order for chickens, I thought that my favorites were going to be the Faverolles, Brahmas, Barred Rock and Wyandottes. The other breeds I had purchased simply to try other breeds and add some more color to the flock. Looking back, I'm now laughing because my Welsummer, Jubilee Orpington, Speckled Sussex and Blue Copper Maran have become my favorites. I never thought I would enjoy owning chickens again this much and it's all thanks to my Welsummer, Orpington, Sussex and Maran. I think I may slowly switch over to only those four breeds in the future. With that all being said, what has your experience been with chicken breed expectations? Did your breeds end up being everything that you thought they would be? Have some they surprised you?

 

[JedJackson]

My experience is that there is more variation between individuals than breeds. For one thing, the breeds are made up of many different strains, and they can be quite different from each other. But more important than that is how a bird is raised both by the breeder and the person who buys chicks from the breeder. I've had Leghorns and gamefowl who were as sweet as can be and I've had Silkies and Cochins that were downright mean. Luck plays a part, too.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

I am a neophyte with all this so I have been reading, and reading, then reading some more. So, most of my "opinions" now are from reading other people's opinions and experiences. To get myself started on forming my own a lil over a month ago I purchased eight chicks from TSC (buffs and Ameraucanas). Well, yesterday I picked up my second batch (dark brahma, welsummer, maran, and dixie rainbow). For now I suspect brahmas of all kinds will be my jam.

Going forward I want to experience owning barred rock and something with an afro; i..e, polish, silkie, sultan. The black chicken, ayam cemani is peaking my interest as well. Hopefully 2023 I can get those breeds and see the to-do about them.

I predict it will be fun exploring the possibilities.

 

[DuckDuckSook]

I, too, have found its up to individual birds and not breeds. I thought I'd always be drawn to Easter Eggers, but the ones I have are more stand-offish than I had anticipated. I really like my Blue Australorp. My Cookies and Cream is another favorite. We have a Black Sumatran that is much more friendly and curious than I had thought she'd be. She isn't nearly as timid and aloof as I expected. I love the look of my Colombian Wyandotte, but she is pretty skittish. I might get more of that breed and see if it's just her personality. Previously, I had some Black Stars who I adored. I wasn't too crazy about my Brown ISA's. They are very similar in both looks and temperament to the Cinnamon Queens I have now. It's fun reading about and learning about different breeds and then adding them to the flock.

 

[3KillerBs]

I didn't expect to fall in love with the Blue AuShe's stralorps.

I had *intended* to get Delawares, which I'd had in my in-town flock. Also Dark Brahmas, which I had also had in the in-town flock. But neither were available.

So, instead, I got some Silver-Laced Wyandottes -- which are not really well-suited to my heat -- and these Blue Australorps.

It turned out that the blues exactly match my mental concept of "chicken". To the point that I sold a really excellent Black Langshan rooster so I could breed them pure.

They're active, curious, calm, no-drama, and take the heat very well. They're thriving in my climate and management system. They lay well and some of them go broody from time to time.

I also didn't expect to love my California White. She's active, independent, and smart enough to fly back in when she flies out of the run. She's always the first to investigate something unusual. I like her so much I bought more and I am keeping one of her Australorp X daughters.

I had wanted some Mottled Javas but hadn't wanted to order them due to not wanting 5 of them. I got some in an assorted pack and while one of them shows some promise as a broody, neither is a good layer and they don't stand out one way or another in personality.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I agree with other posters that a lot depends on the individual, but I will add the caveat that you can at least increase your odds of getting a certain type of personality by purchasing breeds known to have that type of personality. Not all individuals will necessarily be as the breed is reputed to be, of course, but many will. Their breed has that reputation for a reason.

To add to that, I don't think people who only ever own one or two birds of a specific breed and have bad experiences with them should write that breed off entirely, either, especially if that experience is far removed from the breed's reputation. Sometimes you just get oddballs. An example is that I love my Dorkings, adore them even, for their docility and sweet personalities, but my girl Kita is a weird one in that she's very high-strung and not much of a people chicken. Had someone only ever gotten one Dorking and it happened to be one like Kita, I could see getting the wrong impression of the breed. Sometimes certain lines are just weird, and trying the same breed from another source, or even a different variety of the same breed, can lead to a totally different experience.

This is one reason why I don't write off Orpingtons as well. I've only had a few, but only one was the sweet and cuddly individual that they're supposed to be. They were one of my favorite breeds because of her, but I've had a few more since and haven't had great experiences with those individuals, so it has kind of lowered my opinion of the breed. I guess that goes along with the theme of the thread. But that doesn't mean I won't try Orpingtons again at some point.

And more to the topic at hand, I was surprised that I didn't end up adoring my Silkies. People talk them up all the time, but I didn't find them to be that great, not even as far as broodies go, and I learned that I just really don't like larger crests so the Silkies really don't do anything for me. That said, they did spark a life-long love of silkied feathering that I thankfully can appease by keeping other silkie-feathered breeds.

Another one that stands out is my Fayoumi. I got a few different white egg laying breeds years and years ago to see if any of them stood out for their personalities, and one of them was an Egyptian Fayoumi. She was a bit of a wild child, all her life really, but once she was an adult she also became quite cuddly, something I hadn't really heard of before in Fayoumis. She's long since passed on and I haven't had another one since, but I was really surprised at how much I ended up liking her while I had her.

 

[3KillerBs]

To add to that, I don't think people who only ever own one or two birds of a specific breed and have bad experiences with them should write that breed off entirely, either, especially if that experience is far removed from the breed's reputation.

Well said.

For example, my most recent Brahma was such a dominant bird -- who wouldn't squat for me or for the junior cockerel -- that when given the opportunity to sell her along with the only rooster she respected I took it despite that leaving me Brahma-less.

She never went broody either.

Previous Brahmas have been everything the breed is noted for.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Here's a good one:

Ayam Cemani, the Lamborghini of chickens.

I searched and searched. Did my research, and was so excited when eggs arrived in the mail. Got 2 to hatch, a pair. A frizzle pullet and a smooth male.

I enjoyed them, but it just... didn't click. I decided that I wasn't going to get more, even after I lost my pair.


For me, a bird has to click to keep the breed. If I get that, I continue to keep them usually (and sometimes I keep them if they don't because I'm attached to an individual). But I've tried out many, many breeds, and some. Like the Ayam Cemani and Bresse, don't click. Others, like sebrights and marans, they click when I didn't really expect them too.

I thought sebrights would be these skittish balls of anxiety (or basically me in chicken form). I ended up with 3 girls. 2 were amazing and I still mourm the loss of Darling. Thankfully Honey still lets me hold her whenever I need to. Love is more skittish, but she isn't scare to wander close by when I don't try to grab her.

The marans I kind of expected to just be like a chicken. I bought them to sell as chicks and fill an order I needed minimum on. I decided I liked them so much, I'd rather move on a different breed I didn't fully click with (but had kept because of one individual I ended up losing to a racoon).

 

[Silexian]

As others have mentioned. Personality is based the individual chickens. Growing up, the farm flock was strictly utilitarian. Most of my family raised some sort of white dual purpose breed. My parents choice of breed were White Wyandottes. Even within those mundane, monochromatic flocks. There were standouts that were curious, friendly and more entertaining than the rest.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Here's a good one:

Ayam Cemani, the Lamborghini of chickens.

I searched and searched. Did my research, and was so excited when eggs arrived in the mail. Got 2 to hatch, a pair. A frizzle pullet and a smooth male.

I enjoyed them, but it just... didn't click. I decided that I wasn't going to get more, even after I lost my pair.


For me, a bird has to click to keep the breed. If I get that, I continue to keep them usually (and sometimes I keep them if they don't because I'm attached to an individual). But I've tried out many, many breeds, and some. Like the Ayam Cemani and Bresse, don't click. Others, like sebrights and marans, they click when I didn't really expect them too.

I thought sebrights would be these skittish balls of anxiety (or basically me in chicken form). I ended up with 3 girls. 2 were amazing and I still mourm the loss of Darling. Thankfully Honey still lets me hold her whenever I need to. Love is more skittish, but she isn't scare to wander close by when I don't try to grab her.

The marans I kind of expected to just be like a chicken. I bought them to sell as chicks and fill an order I needed minimum on. I decided I liked them so much, I'd rather move on a different breed I didn't fully click with (but had kept because of one individual I ended up losing to a racoon).

Clicking, that's the word I should have used and phrased my original post better! Your example is exactly what I was trying to portray. All of my breeds match their breed descriptions perfectly. Especially those that I thought would for sure be my favorites, but after owning them I just don't click with them like I thought I would. Traits I thought I wanted I don't. For example, my Brahmas are gentle Giants and are surprisingly very good layers, but that aloofness that I thought I would like I have realized just isn't what I want. On the other hand my Welsummer is friendly around me like all of my chickens, but can also be feisty and absolutely love that little bit of feistiness! My Maran will come up to me when she sees me, but generally doesn't like to be pet. Which is okay with me I have realized that I don't really want puppy dog chickens. She is also more aware of her surroundings than any of my other chickens and she is very independent. The two times I forgot her outside, when I came out in the morning she was up roosting in the open lean-to rafters (I thought she was inside the barn when I closed it). Most of my other chickens would have been coyote chow if I had forgotten about them. My Wyandottes probably would have ran right up to the coyotes I have also found that the Wyandottes aren't quite as weather fluctuation hardy as described. Which is fine, but I just won't get any more in the future. I thought that I wanted the super calm aloofness in my chickens, but it turns out I prefer the feisty independent ones that are friendly to a degree without being too docile.