Polish

My Polish is enormously funny, but she does seem to suffer from some problems, may of which originate from her signature "hairdo"

PROS:
She is the funniest-looking chicken. The laughs she provokes make the troubles that her feathers cause her not quite as bad.

I expected her laying to be much worse, as she is an ornamental breed, but it is actually quite good. She lays almost as much as my BR and is one of my most consistent layers. She took the shortest off-season of all of my girls during the molt.

She is one of my friendlier birds and one of the easiest to catch. She will ride around on my arm while I am gardening by choice.

She is full of personality. Sometimes, she will have small crazy moments wherein she will run around and attack my other girls. I have no idea why she does this, but it cracks me up and the other girls just put up with it.

CONS:

She is practically blind to anything that happens above her! This causes many of her problems.

She is vulnerable when she is free-ranging. She has a tendency to get separated from the others, and cannot see predators that well.

She cannot see her roosting perch, so I installed another perch to help her get to it.

She is pretty light and can fly really well. She could scale most backyard fences pretty easily.


Consensus: She is a great bird, but she has an unfortunate list of cons. I would recommend Polish to people who want to keep chickens as pets more than layers and who are willing to supervise free-ranging.

I purchased my first Polish for $5 at a feed store. She was an accidental addition, as the brooder contained Leghorns and Cornish Cross chicks. The store owners thought she was a Leghorn who had a brain tumor and said, "You can have her, but no refunds if she dies."

Little did THEY know I knew bettter. I could tell from the start, POLIIISHHHH

And so my addiction began.

Unfortunately at 4 months old, the chick, who I had named Dori, passed away due to a head injury. She had tried to fight my top hen and very apperently took a beating.

However this did not deter me from loving the breed. They were so curious, and docile and all around beautiful.

A few months later I was given 3 roosters, Buff Laced cockerels who I named after rock stars. Benetar, Bowie, and Mercury.

About a month after that, I was contacted by another chickener who couldn't keep her birds due to an HOA, and I was given yet anoth Polish, this time a buff laced bearded female.

I seem to be hoarding them, but no shame.

These birds are beautiful, docile, curious, and a hoot to watch runn around the yard.

I have had a number of Polish over the past three years and I can definitively say I will never get another one. I have a medium sized (25) mixed flock and the Polish were constantly being picked on. I had two Polish frizzles whose heads were picked clean by the other birds. When the winter came, they were just not hardy enough to withstand the New England cold, although all of my heavier breeds (Marans, Orpingtons, EE's) have had no problem with the cold.

A very nice breed to have, they are friendly nice and smart. they are very pretty. even though they will die because they froze from the water. you can cut their top notches.there top notches are open, so a couple of pecks and they will die. they have descent sized eggs.

I have one specific polish that I have owned for over five years now and she is still my favorite bird. She (and all of the other polish) will perch on my shoulder and will literally act like a pet cat. They even will make a purring sound sometimes! My first one did get leg mites but they were taken care of pretty easily. She is so tough, she now has to deal with not only her crest to barely see with, but she also has cataracts in her left eye as well! She also survived being chased by a dog. All of mine have never been picked on by the other birds or by each other. Only my first one got bumble foot and it was tiny! In winter she got icicles hanging from her crest and she didn't even struggle as I cut off her feathers around her eye area. These are some amazing birds and I count on getting even more in the future!
Here are some pictures of mine. The first one is Fountain (my 5 yr old hen), then Fleabite who is a new addition to my flock, and last is Ebony, my first (and amazing) male polish (I don't have a picture of him other than this and his name isn't "Snowy White", I re-named him after I found out that he was a guy!)!

cool birds to look at! mine are still chicks and am hoping one is a rooster! they are very friendly and have been perched on kids shoulders and never tried to peck!

I have a Polish hen that is mottled with leakage and not a recognized color. She is a friendly bird and always come running with the rest when I go outside. She is good layer. Her eggs are white and always seem to be a little torpedo shape. She is very dramatic, screeches all day long, walks with her wings out, and because of her top hat she can't see well so she gets spoked easily.

Polish are a beautiful breed
they are cuddly colourful and pretty
I have two Rafaela and Fabio
Rafaela is a buff laced flat feathered pullet
Fabio is a white frizzle cockeral
they are cute adorable little balls of fluff
even my cousins who are scared of
chickens like them they love egg
but every morning Fabio starts to crow
and i have to get out of bed to put his
no crow collar on and rafaela is meant to
be laying by now but no eggs yet but
i don't really want eggs
so they aren't good for someone
who wants eggs and no crowing
but for a cute different pet
Polish are perfect

I have one polish who can't see very well and she can't find her way out of the run when they get to free range. lol

A lot of you are not going to believe this review, but I am being quite serious. We recieved a polish chicken as our mystery chicken from Mcmurray hatchery with a bunch of Austrolorps. They are 11 months old now. He is the top chicken in the pecking order, has shown aggressive behaviour, and pecked a hole in my hen's head. But he was very tough being bitten by three dogs and survived. Overall I am not impressed with this breed and most likely will not get it again.

I love this breed they are so funny and timid they can not see very well though other than that they are amazing

Best chicken! I have many Tolbunt & Laced Polish and I love them. My hens get very broody and lay quite well. I've been pleasantly surprised by them. Who doesn't love that top hat?

I would never have chosen to get a Polish because I think the crest is just ridiculous, but I rescued one that had no home.
Her name is Quaffle and she is Golden Laced. As I said in the pros, she is sooooooo adorable and sweet and cute!
However she is 90% blind because of her crest, and I can't stand to see her like that so I keep the majority of the crest feathers
up using masking tape, and trim the rest around her face - she looks really silly (sorta cute I guess) and it's time consuming.
However personality wise (when she can see) she is really curious and sweet and I do love her lots.

I currently have 13 Polish chickens (one cockerel, 12 pullets). Every time someone visits I hear compliments on their "afros"! They are a joy to watch and great for shows! Not the best layers, but they get the job done!

I've had three polish hens and worked on a private farm with a flock of polish. These hens are beautiful and quite the characters. Currently my two hens will come charging out of the coop in the AM and fly all over the yard with each other at top speed! They're hilarious to watch and so full of life. Also very hardy, one of my hens was attacked and survived an open neck wound like it was no big deal.
The problem with these birds are they can't see and act very odd sometimes. One of my polish hens got stuck behind a box and instead of calling out or anything she laid there and died until I found her in the evening after work. They also roost in weird places. Instead of the roost bar they decided to roost on the trashbin, or up inside the leaf bag.

My brother and I have three one-month old Polish chicks whose names are Tulip (Gold Laced), Beth (Buff Laced) and Peaceful (White Crested Black), and they are all super sweet, and when ever I go into their pen and sit down, Beth and Tulip and their Brahma friend jump up onto my back or shoulder to rest or snuggle. They all will run into my hand if I call them! I love my Polish, and now they are one of my favorite breeds.

Here are pictures of them:

Tulip

Beth

Peaceful

I have had several Polish before, and two right now. A wc black bantam, Marian, and a wc black standard, Rebel.

Marian is sometimes skittish, but will peck your leg demanding for treats or will jump on you when you are sitting wanting to be pet. I got her a couple years ago from MPC as a chick. She started laying at 22ish weeks in the winter.

Rebel is a different story. I got her a couple of years ago from a fellow BYCer at 20 weeks. Rebel came from Meyer. Her poof never grew back from when I first got her, she hats being held and is hard to catch. She lays nice medium tinted eggs though.

The white poofs do get dirty in the spring and are impossible to clean. In the winter, they will freeze if the Polish drink wrong.

i have a buff polish and her name is beaker, she is very friendly, and docile, the other chickens tend to pick on her because she is so lade back. and she cant see the best..
but she is sooo sweet!!! she is not flighty and she is only jumpy when she hears some thing strange like a wood pecker or a squirrel.

here is a picture of her when she was a baby, she is the one on the right.

I purchased four buff laced polish from Cackle Hatchery. Let me say, I loved these birds. They are very unusual with their slate colored legs and top knot. They lay pretty well, about three to four eggs a week, but as chickens they need special care because they can't see well and can easily get lost. The hens are sweet but the males are very energetic and high strung. The breed usually gets bullied.
I would not recommend this breed to anyone just starting out with chickens. This is not a beginners breed.

Overall, a delightful breed!