Polish

My personal experience with Polish hens:

The good- They have a great temperament when played with as baby chicks. We have one that loves to be picked up and will fall asleep in your arms. They are surprisingly good layers. We have had ours lay almost every day for close to 6 months through the winter even! (we do not use supplemental lighting at all either) They are so funny to watch and we have the greatest time just watching them around the yard. In all they are a good chicken to have especially if your looking for some fun poof heads to laugh at.
The bad- They DESTROY nesting boxes (kick ALL the hay, shavings whatever right out) and then they don't even lay in them! They can also be extremely flighty because they really can't see that good. It can be a pain the trim and keep their head feathers clean and keep them from icing up in the wintertime. One of our hens is probably louder than the rooster and voices her opinion a lot.
I really like my polish hens, but 3 is plenty and I probably wouldn't get more unless something happened to them.
Below is my buff laced bearded polish hen- Mrs. Santa Claus

I had 4 polish Hens. Gidget, Panda, Gibi, And Sleepy. We bought them from tsc, Sleepy died days later from being sick, Gidget got eaten by a fox, Gibi was eaten by a fox, and Panda got lost.

They were great though, i could pick them up, I had them whistle trained, And rhey always followed me EVERYWHERE!

I acquired a silver laced polish cockerel from the feed store while obtaining my spring meat birds and layer additions. They are fragile chicks and someone ordered one but they ship two just incase one doesn’t survive shipping. They both lived so he was a lone chick, so cute and adorable with a tuff on his head.

Pros: cute chicks, loved to jump up and sit on our lap in the backyard around the fire, as a rooster we can pick him up and he will fall asleep in your arms, he will find food and pick it off to feed the hens, though he has a big crest he keeps a good eye out for hawks and predators. He frequently makes a purring sound to calm the hens if they get anxious and at bed time. Seems to be winter hearty as we get -20 below at night and to date he is healthy.

Cons: he is a rooster and while hens are great around kids I don’t trust him, instead of an attack he pecks your feet to say get away from his hens, it is hilarious when he does this and I touch his crest he then screams like a person and leaps around. As chicks they can’t handle stress like other breeds, when picking him up he gets flighty or if startled, if he is separated from his flock he gets crazy, anxious and nuts. Running into stuff, higher probably of injury, pacing, unrational chicken behavior. In winter when he drinks out of an open dish his crest get wet and freezes into a head icicle so some give them a “hair trim” or tye it in a bunch so he doesn’t get frostbite or the use water nipples helps.

Over all we love our cockerel and he is top dog in his flock. The hens preen his crest at evening roost. He provides entertainment due to his nature for us year round.

Would love to add a Polish or two to my coop. Not sure if that would be a good thing though if they can't see too well through their 'headgear'.

i absolutely love this bird she is two years old adopted the other day my poor girl had a blind eye so that adds to her flightyness
The polish breed are sweet cause they are funny with their large poofs on there heads

I absolutely love my Polish pullet and two polish cockerels! Now this is different for every flock, but mine don't have problems with the others pecking their crests. My cockerels will actually lay down and when the hens come to them, the hens just pick gently as if to groom them. But they are gorgeous, completely lovable, and the sweetest of my flock. My pullet, Elvira, comes to me whenever the others pick on her (She's oddly small). Now I didn't put it in the cons, but Elvira enjoys

One con is just that when integrating my three polish, they didn't try to make friends or integrate as others have. But eventually, they got along and now have been living together for months. My other con is not actually a big problem for me but I thought I should mention that my cockerels are quite noisy. I'm not sure if it's because I have more than one, but like I said this isn't a problem for me but others should be aware.

I hope you get some polish soon!

My first experience with a White crested black polish has been nothing but joy.
This little chicken/roo will bring a lot of smiles to your face.

They are friendly and enjoy being talked to, One of my grandson's picked her up and and she fell right to sleep in his arms, enjoys being spoiled with love.

If you are like me you do feel a little bad that they cannot see as well with all that fabulous hair, she always checks out my feet when I come in the run to either feed them or hang out, she knows my toes and realized I am not a threat and that it is me as I always start talking to them when I am on my way to the coop/pen.
She will perch on my shoulder and head as high up she can see thing better below her.

When treats are given she usually is the last to figure out they are there but figures it out when everyone else is running (usually the ducks) to the treat plate.

I have put her hair up so she can see and she very much enjoys this she looks at everything like it is brand new. she will spend the longest time just viewing everything. She also get a little more brave.

There is no aggression I have seen in this breed. They would be a wonderful addition to any flock for eye candy and a sweet chicken companion.

you do have to make sure they are not under your feet when you walk as they like to be close and cannot see you stepping they are quick so if you are not paying attention you might step on them.

other thing one would need to watch out for is other chickens or other birds you have might think their hair is something they can peck at

I added more polish to my flock this year simply for my entertainment. They are pets and it is just a bonus that they "pay rent". I love to watch their tophats blow in the breeze and when they are wet it's even funnier looking. Mine are awesome foragers and they are always first to come running when I have treats. Due to their smaller size they are quick!

I’ve had many polish chickens. From my experience the roosters have all been aggressive and attacked me (except for my only bantam). They come in many colors so there is different kinds to grab your eye. They are docile and easy to pick up.

I got 4 from my neighbor and I loved them soo much. A bit after I put them with my flock I go check on them and to my horror I find my rooster dead and all my chickens trampling him. A few days later the 3 hens I had left died with no sign of injury. I did talk to my neighbor and all her Polish but one died. She had like 6-10 of them. They are amazing bird keepers so it is surprising that they died but lesson learned: NEVER BUY POLISHES!!!

In September I got 4 "wyandottes" but by the second day in the brooder, I decided they were polish instead. They were very nice chicks, they were friendly and loved cuddles.
But when it was time to kick them out into the coop, trouble started. My aggressive leghorns liked to pluck the crests and try to kill them. They even did kill one. Now they live in my basement again for the winter, and I will try to introduce them in the spring after the leghorns (who are all 6) are culled in the spring, leaving my docile friendly red stars and EE's to introduce them to.

I love my little golden laced polish to DEATH! Not only does she love to follow me around the yard, but she loves to talk! She's always rocking a new hairdo to impress the roos, and lays a tiny white egg everyday without fail. "Passiflora" responds to her name and loves to bring my kids things she finds cool throughout the yard. She'd be the perfect bird if she weren't such an airhead I've never seen a chicken run TOWARDS a hawk

These are amazing birds who love love love love people. What i mean by aggressive being a good or bad thing is because they might beat up the other hens, but that will protect them from getting their afro getting ripped out. They are fun to watch run around the yard. You don't need to worry so much about them being cold in the winter when they are younger since they become fully feathered at a very young age.

I have 4 polish chickens 3 hens and a cockerel all are bantam sized:
-Maggie a solid black hen- very happy doing her own thing loves being friends with other chickens.
-Dooffy a solid white cockerel - very dramatic, Very Silly, doesn't coo cooo doodle doo just squeaks every now and then & NOT very clever.
-Ruth a red black laced hen- happy doing her own thing, bit dramatic, doesn't like cockerels.
-Scabbers a frizzled golden silver lace hen- very very dramatic, feisty with other chickens, likes to be top dog even tho shes tiny, out of all the chickens I have shes the most scabby.

As a keeper of polish I love them. Very friendly and love lap sitting. Reasonable layers. Interesting to look at. Multiple colours make a nice flock.

Downsides are they need extra crest care. The crest can often attract unwanted pecking from other birds.
Some can be flighty if they don't know you are there.
Some don't mix well in mixed flock setting.

I have one large fowl silver laced Polish rooster. The other five didn't make it past a month. While the smallest bird I own at maybe 4 pounds, he's not the bottom of the pecking order in a six rooster hierarchy. His frequent crow is nevertheless adorable, shorter than most, of a higher pitch and a more bantam quality. He likes to fluff up nesting material for the girls. He doesn't eat much but adds a lot of charm and entertainment value to the chicken yard.

Crested breeds relatively prone to getting lice and to predation generally as crests block their view. Polish chickens, while generally viewed as cold intolerant have proven to be more tolerant than I'd expected. They're not an "eating chicken" but also don't eat much, unlike several other more ornamental, pet type breeds. I've heard they're respectable layers of tiny eggs.

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.