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

[Aunt Angus]

And then we realized when raising some leghorns for a neighbor... they're not so bad.
Quiet, friendly to each other. It makes me feel bad for all the times I wrinkled my nose at the Leghorn level of chickenness.

My son calls white Leghorns the "default chicken." Lol

later found myself surprised by how small and few the eggs were

My Silkies lay almost every day... when they're not broody. So, yes, so few eggs. Haha! Silly biddies....

 

[igorsMistress]

You never know…my Welsummer is quiet, sweet, & jumps up for cuddles daily!

Exactly my point lol.

 

[SueT]

I fell in love with Spitzhaubens at first sight. I have had several over the past 4 years and still love the breed. They are cute, quirky, friendly, and gentle. The hens are smallish but lay large eggs, they are excellent layers. Not a broody breed. I much prefer the compact size to big heavy hens I’ve had in the past.
My other favorite breed is the Sebright. I have just one hen. She is outspoken, feisty, responsive, super intelligent. She goes broody a LOT. I have let her raise several batches of chicks, including her own Sebright/Spitzhauben cross i call Sprights. I kept 5 Sprights. They are smaller than Spitzhaubens, larger than their mom, but just as feisty and smart. Excellent layers. 3 of them are compulsive broodies, however. (That gets old real quick.).
Spitzhaubens:

And a “Spright” below:

Mixed flock all together, a sea of black and white

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I fell in love with Spitzhaubens at first sight. I have had several over the past 4 years and still love the breed. They are cute, quirky, friendly, and gentle. The hens are smallish but lay large eggs, they are excellent layers. Not a broody breed. I much prefer the compact size to big heavy hens I’ve had in the past.
My other favorite breed is the Sebright. I have just one hen. She is outspoken, feisty, responsive, super intelligent. She goes broody a LOT. I have let her raise several batches of chicks, including her own Sebright/Spitzhauben cross i call Sprights. I kept 5 Sprights. They are smaller than Spitzhaubens, larger than their mom, but just as feisty and smart. Excellent layers. 3 of them are compulsive broodies, however. (That gets old real quick.).
Spitzhaubens:
View attachment 3233213
And a “Spright” below:
View attachment 3233218
Mixed flock all together, a sea of black and white
View attachment 3233291

Yours don't brood? Mine won't stop. They usually fail, but they certainly try

 

[blklangshandude]

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?

Lol My screen name is Black Langshan dude. I own zero Black Langshans. They are a worthless breed. It takes them forever to mature and they are scrawny as heck. It wouldn’t even be worth it to eat them. So many birds on the threatened or endangered list are on the list for a reason. They die in large numbers or they have no utility. I’m a big fan of the boring chickens now. Fancy or rare chickens are a red flag to me. If the chickens are cheap it means they are hatching a lot of eggs and they are all staying alive. In the chicken world cheap usually means better and not just in savings. Cheap means you are getting a breed that doesn’t easily die and it produces lots of offspring. An Ayam Cemani is a good example. They produce very few eggs. If they produced a lot of eggs the market would have caught up by now and you’d see those chicks for $3 a piece. Avoid expensive breeds. They obviously have problems.

 

[mldlm]

I have two blue Australorps, two white leghorns, one black australorp, and one speckled Sussex. I wanted egg producers. But, when I heard about the speckled Sussex, I had to get some - had two others, but turned out to be cockerels so they had to go. I will say that they are all sweet, however, the two legh can be a bit random with their bullying. And even one of the blues is a bit stalker-ish when it comes to bullying. But, I do love them all, but will probably not get any more leghorns.

 

[cubalaya]

I started off with Dominiques, RIR, barred rocks, oegb and easter eggers and now only have oriental gamefowl

 

[blklangshandude]

I have two blue Australorps, two white leghorns, one black australorp, and one speckled Sussex. I wanted egg producers. But, when I heard about the speckled Sussex, I had to get some - had two others, but turned out to be cockerels so they had to go. I will say that they are all sweet, however, the two legh can be a bit random with their bullying. And even one of the blues is a bit stalker-ish when it comes to bullying. But, I do love them all, but will probably not get any more leghorns.

There are few of us leghorn lovers around here. I’m one of them. I don’t need a chicken to cuddle with me under the blanket or be my friend. I need a tough chicken that can survive and lays a lot of eggs. I want to take every endangered breed and breed it with a leghorn. Meat production has already been mastered by the pros. People don’t like killing their own chickens anymore. The extra bulk is just extra feed cost. If you take the meat factor out of the equation then a leghorn is everything a chicken should be. They are the super chicken of the 21st century.

 

[Red Horse]

My golden comets are so grumpy!!! One is definitely worse than the other but I bought them because I thought they would be docile with other breeds. Nope. And they're smart enough to know now too that if I catch them chasing my barnevelder they get timeout so now they'll start to chase her and then stop and look at me.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I have two blue Australorps, two white leghorns, one black australorp, and one speckled Sussex. I wanted egg producers. But, when I heard about the speckled Sussex, I had to get some - had two others, but turned out to be cockerels so they had to go. I will say that they are all sweet, however, the two legh can be a bit random with their bullying. And even one of the blues is a bit stalker-ish when it comes to bullying. But, I do love them all, but will probably not get any more leghorns.

Oh that's so crazy cause one of my legh is the sweetest of all my EE,RIR,BA,ISA,Smokey pearl girls! I was so hesitant to get the legh cause I read they are so flighty. So my conclusion is it's random from bird to bird in a breed who's friendly lap chickens.