If you had to choose one ... ??

[dekel18042]

For a heritage breed I'd go with my buckeyes. They can take any kind of weather and are good layers of large tinted brown eggs. (Brown eggs with a blush)
Of course for the same reason my absolute favorites are my EE's. They lay extra large eggs consistently, really cool colors and can take all kinds of weather. They have excellent egg to feed ratio, and have neat quirky personalities, but they aren't a heritage breed.

 

[Mrs. K]

@ dekel..... I am considering adding buckeyes this spring. How many do you have, and how long have you had them? Sounds like you are happy with them.

 

[dekel18042]

@ dekel..... I am considering adding buckeyes this spring. How many do you have, and how long have you had them? Sounds like you are happy with them.

At this time I have only three. but wouldn't mind having more. When I got chickens I got a real mix, one of these, two of that. I wanted to see what I would like.
We wanted cold hardy so my husband added chanteclers, but we like the buckeyes better. They're friendly, fit into the flock well, and started laying large brown (I call them pinkish brown. The color surprised me) eggs at just over five months.
The chanteclers are over six months and none are laying. This doesn't surprise me this time of year, but my EE's, hatched at the same time, and all are laying and started at just over five months also.
Both the buckeyes and EE's did fine over the hot humid summer while I lost four chanteclers. It appears those can take the cold but not the heat. And even in this weather I'm getting an egg a day from the buckeyes.
The best layers so far are my mixes (which I bred specifically for early pol, size of eggs and color,) my buckeyes and my EE's.
My marans either aren't laying or lay few eggs and my welsumer ay eight months hasn't laid yet either.
Next spring I'll take the information I've gathered and figure which direction I want to go in and what I want to add to the flock.

 

[Mrs. K]

To the original poster: I apologize for hi jacking your thread.

However, to Dekel18042 - Did you cross your EE and buckeyes? I love the EE's, but would like more weight on them. I too have a barn yard mix, and have tried many breeds.

Thank you for your input, these are going to be part of my flock this spring.

Mrs K

 

[dekel18042]

I don't have a buckeye rooster and haven't hatched any buckeye eggs. I had been keeping my EE"s separate but had an Ameraucana/Jersey Giant rooster I bred to my EE's and kept a son from that cross (3/4 EE) The offspring look like EE's, have pea combs and lay colored eggs, blue, green, light olive and what I call a mist and steel green.) While not real large, They are a decent size and have broad breasts on them.. They reach pol at a little past five months (My first EE's all started laying right at the six month mark). They lay extra large eggs almost daily.
If you can breed to something larger than back to the EE, you should increase size, but I don't want them too large as I want an efficient feed to egg ratio.
To get back to the original subject, while not a true heritage breed they are exceptionally both cold and heat hardy. Last winter it went down to -10 with wind chill factors even lower.
They were in the smaller less insulated coop than the one I have now and they all did fine, laying through the entire winter.

 

[Mrs. K]

I have read the Buckeye's are thrifty and good foragers.

 

[Naser]

Light Sussex
Good layers. good looking, not mean, very robust, very confident, friendly and dual purpose

 

[enola]

I liked Marans because of the egg color. But, i also was disappointed in the number eggs they layed. I also thought the cull roosters were very scrawny.

 

[JCavallaro40]

I love the sweet disposition of my barred rocks but my French Birchen Marans rooster and my Blue Copper Marans roosters are the best so I'm gonna go with marans.

 

[dekel18042]

I have read the Buckeye's are thrifty and good foragers.

They are....very......
For those of you who mentioned marans I'm interested in your opinion of them. I've seen some large BCM eggs, but others have said they are poor layers. At almost eight months, only one of mine is laying and she isn't a consistent layer, and her eggs aren't very large. Hope I don't have to wait until next spring for the others. I was hoping to make olive eggers, but with marans mothers, wonder how well they would lay? I need to rethink this.