Reviews by countrygoddess

Our Patridge Cochin, Meatball, was the bonus chick McMurray added to our chick order and we think he has been just wonderful! He towers over the rest of our chickens and when he runs, he sort of lopes in long strides. It makes us laugh to watch it! He's extremely docile with my children when they scoop him up to hold him, and he's very well-mannered with our other chickens. A friend says he grew up with Cochins as part of his family's flock and he said they were always extremely calm and friendly. Cochins are very slow-growers, so at 25 weeks, Meatball still isn't as feathered out as I expect he will be next year, and he has not yet begun to crow.

I received my first flock of Dorking chicks in April and haven't been disappointed. They are docile and sweet, gorgeous, and taste wonderful. The hens lay 4-5 eggs per week and the only time during the winter that laying stopped was when the temps dropped down to -11 at night and 3 during the day for a week. Within 2 weeks, they were all back to laying their medium- large shell-pink eggs. The cockerels have a lovely, throaty, smooth crow which is a pleasure to hear at at the crack of dawn and so far none have been aggressive at all. My flock is allowed to free-range during the green times of year, and they do a great job feeding themselves while not straying too far.

I have had Barred Rock hens twice in the past and loved them. They're friendly and calm and lay very well. Now, however, I have 15 6-wk old cockerels for meat and they're really aggressive, both with each other as well as with my female and male Dorkings and female Marans (all are 6 wks old). I feel like taking people's wagers, I've got so many cock fights going on! LOL One little guy even has an eye injury from their fights. I had planned on butchering them in August, but it looks as though I may butcher some of them sooner rather than later just to thin them out a little to give my calmer birds a break.

Oh, I LOVE my Mille Fleur d'Uccles! We have one hen and one cock. We had another hen but a raven came out of nowhere and snatched her up out of the yard last year. =(

Both the hen and the cock are relatively easy to catch and struggle only initially when held. The cock doesn't crow excessively like our Golden Sebright cock but when he does, it's a less strident sound. As far as aggressiveness goes, he only postures once or twice a month. The rest of the time, he couldn't care less if a human comes near him. My friend once said he looks like he's wearing fancy shoes; those feathered feet are so cute! They do make it a little difficult for the d'Uccles to get around in tall grass or the snow, though.

Our hen is my favorite of all our birds. She's just so sweet and unassuming. She lays small, white, very tasty eggs when she's not being broody and when she is broody it doesn't take too much work to break her of it. Maybe just a week or so of pulling her out of the nest and putting her outside. We have invested this year in Dorkings to breed (for meat and eggs) and I plan on using my little d'Uccle to brood eggs if a Dorking girl decides she's not up to the task.

I highly recommend d'Uccles as pets!

We got our Ameraucana girls from Murray McMurray and they were great the first full year that they laid (except all we got was khaki green and tan). They are super-sweet girls and not too difficult to catch. When being held they are very calm.

After their first year of laying, however, their productivity went WAY down. This will be their second full summer and I would say that each girl is now laying maybe one egg a week (and no, there's no possibility they're laying outside the house somewhere). We've always used lights on a timer to keep their "daylight" consistent to encourage laying throughout the year and they have ready access to a large electric-fenced yard, plus I occasionally let them out to wander our property and graze on grass and bugs (with supervision--too many predators). Our other breeds that we got at the same time are still laying great.

Also, this past winter was extremely mild for Vermont. It was more like a Pacific Northwest winter (I grew up out there). However, we lost 3 girls. Their house was well-ventilated (actually the winter was mild enough to leave it open much of the time) and didn't smell bad, the girls didn't have mites or upper respiratory infections, they were not attacked by predators, they didn't have diarrhea... They just... died. I think they just reached the end of a very, very short life. Not very hearty at all.