A Bielefelder Thread !

[Eggscoozme]

Is a small flock a trio? Greenfire farms is very close to me. I got my Bielefelders from a woman that had GFF birds. She sold pullets for $20 but if you took a cockerel too then you paid $10 for both. I always took the 2 for $10 deal! LOL I have been told that all the breeds are less expensive around here.

2:1 or 3:1 depending upon the situation, supply, and demand.

Eggs go for $50-60 dozen

 

[chickendreams24]

Well I have to say I haven't had bielefelders yet but we want to try them. We have however had quite a few silkies. I think just like any breed it's all about the strain. For instance we had one boy that was extremely docile and sweet. Once when he got into some bird netting and was all tangled up he was super calm and let me untangle him. He also adopted some chicks after his favorite girl and our favorite silkie was killed by a predator. He never attacked or anything. He was a complete gentleman sadly a few weeks later he gave his life protecting a buff Orpington from the same predator that had taken his girl Ginger. His hatch mate on the other hand did test me a few times when he matured but never did any damage and was put in his place. He was later rehomed BC he was fighting with our other boy over the girls and went to a home where he became bffs with a young girl and he has never done anything in his new home.

We now have two confirmed silkie cockerals and two more that may be. None of these boys have ever shown any aggressive behavior towards anyone. So don't give up on silkie cockerals we have had some amazing silkie pullets and hens we have also had one girl that when broody was very rough. It all depends on the individual birds and their line. We won't breed aggressive roos so as to not pass it on. Of any breed. We have a large mixed flock that contains multiple roos/cockerals including Orpington, silkie, Oegb, silver laced wyandotte, cream legbar, and a few mixes. While we are working to decrease male numbers all the boys get along and are good to the girls. They all free range and live together peacefully. Very seldom do they ever challenge each other and there is almost never any fights just posturing. While we do plan to separate them for breeding pure breeds the rest of the time they live together and this is how we want it. We won't breed cocks that are too rough on the girls(although we do give them a grace period to learn after maturing) or that are too aggressive to other cocks, and of course to people or our dogs. I believe it is because of the temperaments we strive for that our flock is as peaceful as it is. We also have never had any trouble with cannibalism even if a bird was molting or injured in some way. They are very accepting of new flock members and chicks although we do take precautions just in case. IE the look but don't touch method of introduction.

We now have too many cockerals and are processing a bunch from last year that were hatched for that purpose so they are separate so as to not overwhelm the girls. However before they all matured last summer we had at one time about 30 young cockerals free ranging with our flock and our nature OEGB(yet another breed that I think line and temperaments greatly matter) roo kept them all in line. Lol

That gives  me hope should I decide to get back into Silkies.  I did love watching the little balls of fluff in the yard.  I especially liked the partridge color.

Thank you for the informative post!  I want to live on your farm!  

Lol well thank you!

It means so much when I hear other chicken people say they want to live on our farm with our flock. Funny because I myself have said that about others too. Lol

Yes I'm proud of our flock many people who've visited are amazed by our flock. Not only our variety and how tame they are but also how good they are with each other. Of course everyone also loves the tiny little Oegb, the blue and green eggs from the EE and CL, the huge fuzzy orps and the fluffy little silkies.

They're all such individuals and I love each of them, although of course I have my favorites.

Lol we never planned to have this many birds but chicken math will be chicken math. Lol

We started out ordering 5 buff orpingtons within that first year our number got to 33 that we overwintered. Last year hatching was insane. We couldn't hatch enough chicks lol

The greatest thing though is hearing back from customers about how calm friendly and gentle our birds are.

Last fall we also added four guineas and coturnix quail. This year we were going to add ducks but I think we'll wait. We will also be adding heritage Buckeyes this spring which I'm interested to know how they'll fit in the flock dynamic. They are DH2B's choice as an endangered breed so I hope they fit in well.

 

[Eggscoozme]

Lol well thank you!

It means so much when I hear other chicken people say they want to live on our farm with our flock. Funny because I myself have said that about others too. Lol

Yes I'm proud of our flock many people who've visited are amazed by our flock. Not only our variety and how tame they are but also how good they are with each other. Of course everyone also loves the tiny little Oegb, the blue and green eggs from the EE and CL, the huge fuzzy orps and the fluffy little silkies.

They're all such individuals and I love each of them, although of course I have my favorites.

Lol we never planned to have this many birds but chicken math will be chicken math. Lol

We started out ordering 5 buff orpingtons within that first year our number got to 33 that we overwintered. Last year hatching was insane. We couldn't hatch enough chicks lol

The greatest thing though is hearing back from customers about how calm friendly and gentle our birds are.

Last fall we also added four guineas and coturnix quail. This year we were going to add ducks but I think we'll wait. We will also be adding heritage Buckeyes this spring which I'm interested to know how they'll fit in the flock dynamic. They are DH2B's choice as an endangered breed so I hope they fit in well.

We have 2 guineas, and am considering giving them up. I can deal with the noise. They can be bullies though. I really didn't think they were going to make it as long as they have without getting eating by predators. My other ones never did. This pair is pretty hardy. They rarely go in the coop, but roost in the red pines which offer little coverage. Even in the snow. I think I have 2 boys, too, as I've had them for nearly a year and no egg. They stay on our property and nearly eat out of hand. Never had any get that close before. They were eating outside the coops, once, and I even petted it and it didn't move away!

We had a buckeye once, but never made it to adulthood. I Love their deep mahogany color, just LOVE it!. Suppose to be good mousers too! Okay, now I have to check and see if MPC has any LOL Would love some Swedish flower hens too, but don't think I have the coop space. I have 3 breeding flocks along with misc, and can only mix stuff up to a point.

Do your guineas go into the coop or ?

 

[Faraday40]

@chickendreams24
Hi! I want to live on your farm too!!

I feel good about giving you our "extras" because at least I know that they'll have a good enjoyable life up until their last day. I do wish we could keep them all, but sadly, our flock must remain small.

Breeding Bieles didn't work for me, so I stuck with my orps. However, I do love my Biele, "Hen Solo", very much. She doesn't demand attention like our overly spoiled orps. She's never been a bully nor does she allow herself to get picked on. She's a quiet, hard-working chicken, who's not needy, skittish, or in my way. She seems to enjoy lap time and doesn't run away when you bend down to pet her. Thankfully, she doesn't try to fly up onto my shoulder like our Sebright or stand on my boots like like my bantam orp or hang out all day by the food dish like some of my lav orps. I have no Biele roo, so the best I could do is giant orp x biele mix. (Which you may already have from our last hatch. LOL) Both the English Orps & Bielefelders do not handle heat very well. I noticed that Hen Solo had a very tough time when the summer days went into the mid 90s. Even at night when it went down to 80, she was panting with wings spread. Thankfully, we don't get too many of those days. On the flip side, she had no problems with those -20'F nights we had in Dec. Other than the dog days of summer, they seem to be a good breed for our area. I'm not trying to tempt you, but I do know of someone about 30 min from me that sells Biele hatching eggs.......

Oh, and I'm pretty sure DD will talk us into hatching silkies in the very near future. DH & I both call them useless chickens, but so many people speak so highly of them. DD's been wanting one for over 3 years & she's wearing us down. I'll have to share with you some of her more entertaining arguments about why we NEED to have a silkie.

 

[Sylvester017]

So, I'm getting fed up with my biel boy. He's been giving me way too many dirty looks, getting in my way when I walk, hollering at me when I touch his girls, etc. Two days ago was the clencher though--my 2 year old spooked his hens and he body-slammed her and knocked her flat on her butt! So he's got to go.
Honestly, I was hoping that bielefelders would be friendlier... They've always been very standoffish. They really hate being touched.
My mom just bought some silkie chicks (impulse buy at a chicken swap, she didn't even know what a silkie was!), and they are so very sweet and they really like being cuddled. I think silkies are the chicken for me.
So could anyone tell me how much I should sell my roo and 3 hens for? They're about 27 weeks old, not laying yet but should be really soon.

So sorry your Bielies didn't work out for you but we all have to decide on what breed(s) works best for us. In 6 yrs we've been through 14 chickens until we are down to the two docile breeds we like best -- bantam Silkies and the docile Breda (a lightweight gentle large fowl that gets along well w/ the gentle Silkies). We've had our Silkies the longest and are our gentlest - they've outlived and stayed with us longer than any other breed and they lay surprisingly large eggs for a little bantam. They go broody a lot but we take them off the nest a couple times a day to eat/drink/dust-bathe/and exercise before they run back to their "empty" broody nest. After 2 to 3 weeks of brooding they return to the flock like normal again.

Kids or visitors who are scared to death of chickens will love holding one of our lovable Silkies and go home wanting chickens of their own.


Docile Cuckoo Breda - a good lightweight large fowl breed that mixes well with Silkies


Blue Breda gentle around the Silkies


Partridge Silkie - our oldest


Black Silkie - our next oldest and a real clown and lovebug!

 

[Sylvester017]

We had a buckeye once, but never made it to adulthood. I Love their deep mahogany color, just LOVE it!. Suppose to be good mousers too! Okay, now I have to check and see if MPC has any LOL

Buckeyes aren't the only mousers -- any assertive confident breed can be a good mouser -- our alpha White Leghorn would find the baby nests and shred them to pieces. However, the Silkies and Blue Wheaten Ameraucana were cowards and ran away from the scurrying rodents!

Hope you get some good Buckeyes!

 

[Sylvester017]

Oh, and I'm pretty sure DD will talk us into hatching silkies in the very near future. DH & I both call them useless chickens, but so many people speak so highly of them. DD's been wanting one for over 3 years & she's wearing us down. I'll have to share with you some of her more entertaining arguments about why we NEED to have a silkie.

I'm on DD's side! The only thing I would worry about is introducing new/juvenile Silkies to an existing mixed flock. Our two Silkies are the oldest birds and have been abused by a few heavier or dual purpose breeds in our past and we've re-homed the bullies. We finally found the purebred Blue Wheaten Ameraucana and Breda the best docile non-combative breeds to have with the Silkies. Larger, heavier, dual-purpose, or laying breeds were too assertive toward the littles. Bigger large fowl even if gentle-tempered can still be tempted to bully smaller docile breeds if they can get away with it -- I hate it but chickens are not always nice to each other! Orps, Brahmas, LF Cochins are gentle giants but new Silkies added to the flock may still get picked on by the big gentle giants. I didn't heed the advice of owners to avoid mixing Silkies with large fowl and learned the hard way. Now we only keep Breda w/ the Silkies. Breda are about 4 to 5-lbs,non-broody, docile, and are very good layers of MED-LG white eggs -- our Blue Breda layed for 10+ consecutive months without stop last year. We couldn't have asked for better than a productive docile lightweight LF breed that also gets along well w/ Silkies.

 

[chickendreams24]

Lol well thank you!

It means so much when I hear other chicken people say they want to live on our farm with our flock. Funny because I myself have said that about others too. Lol

Yes I'm proud of our flock many people who've visited are amazed by our flock. Not only our variety and how tame they are but also how good they are with each other. Of course everyone also loves the tiny little Oegb, the blue and green eggs from the EE and CL, the huge fuzzy orps and the fluffy little silkies.

They're all such individuals and I love each of them, although of course I have my favorites.

Lol we never planned to have this many birds but chicken math will be chicken math. Lol

We started out ordering 5 buff orpingtons within that first year our number got to 33 that we overwintered. Last year hatching was insane. We couldn't hatch enough chicks lol

The greatest thing though is hearing back from customers about how calm friendly and gentle our birds are.

Last fall we also added four guineas and coturnix quail. This year we were going to add ducks but I think we'll wait. We will also be adding heritage Buckeyes this spring which I'm interested to know how they'll fit in the flock dynamic. They are DH2B's choice as an endangered breed so I hope they fit in well.

We have 2 guineas, and am considering giving them up. I can deal with the noise. They can be bullies though.  I really didn't think they were going to make it as long as they have without getting eating by predators. My other ones never did.  This pair is pretty hardy.  They rarely go in the coop, but roost in the red pines which offer little coverage. Even in the snow.  I think I have 2 boys, too, as I've had them for nearly a year and no egg.  They stay on our property and nearly eat out of hand.  Never had any get that close before.  They were eating outside the coops, once, and I even petted it and it didn't move away!

We had a buckeye once, but never made it to adulthood.  I Love their deep mahogany color, just LOVE it!.  Suppose to be good mousers too!  Okay, now I have to check and see if MPC has any  LOL  Would love some Swedish flower hens too, but don't think I have the coop space. I have 3 breeding flocks along with misc, and can only mix stuff up to a point. 

Do your guineas go into the coop or ?

I've heard great things about Swedish flower hens and would like to try some. Also Hedamoras because we're in southern Wisconsin and they also come wooly(aka silkie feathered)

Our four guineas do go in the coop at night. I was a little worried BC they were about 6 or more months old when we got them. A friend and customer of ours got them to get rid of a tick problem but never let them in the barn. They were almost completely wild and had to be caught with a net. She gave them to us BC her DH said he couldn't take their calling anymore.

Lol I know we have 2 females by their calls I think we may even have 3.

I thought for sure they would run when we first let them out. We put them in a covered run for quarantine and then moved them to the coop after a month. It was hysterical. The chickens flipped BC they had seen these things through a fence but had no clue what they were. They in turn caused the guineas to predator call which set off the chickens all over again. Lol the first day or two were very noisy. Lol

However the guineas seem to have bonded to the flock and go in every night. The other day when a fox showed up they were even standing just outside the coop door with the head English orp roo predator calling. I was impressed by that.

The guineas have calmed down a lot and more and more I can sneak a pet in here or there. They like to follow us sometimes and come for treats but mostly the reason we have them is for protection for the flock since guineas are so observant of new things in their territory. We haven't yet had them for a breeding season and I'm curious to see how they'll do. I have heard breeding season can make them more aggressive to chickens.

They do occasionally like to chase the chickens especially free ranging all of a sudden all four guineas take flight and the chickens scatter in front of them. Lol it's hysterical. The guineas then make a huge fuss and you can swear they're laughing at the chickens for being "chicken". They break up fights in the flock or if a cockerals is too rough with a pullet but they are more territorial than our chickens and do badger the newbies a bit more.

They're funny birds and I enjoy their strange looks and sounds but if I had to choose, the guineas would go hands down. Sometimes they remind me of feathered armadillos the way they kind of hunch over the ground when they walk. Lol

@chickendreams24

Hi!  I want to live on your farm too!!


I feel good about giving you our "extras" because at least I know that they'll have a good enjoyable life up until their last day.  I do wish we could keep them all, but sadly, our flock must remain small.

Breeding Bieles didn't work for me, so I stuck with my orps.  However, I do love my Biele, "Hen Solo", very much.  She doesn't demand attention like our overly spoiled orps.  She's never been a bully nor does she allow herself to get picked on.  She's a quiet, hard-working chicken, who's not needy, skittish, or in my way.  She seems to enjoy lap time and doesn't run away when you bend down to pet her.  Thankfully, she doesn't try to fly up onto my shoulder like our Sebright or stand on my boots like like my bantam orp or hang out all day by the food dish like some of my lav orps. I have no Biele roo, so the best I could do is giant orp x biele mix. (Which you may already have from our last hatch. LOL)  Both the English Orps & Bielefelders do not handle heat very well.  I noticed that Hen Solo had a very tough time when the summer days went into the mid 90s.  Even at night when it went down to 80, she was panting with wings spread.  Thankfully, we don't get too many of those days.  On the flip side, she had no problems with those -20'F nights we had in Dec.  Other than the dog days of summer, they seem to be a good breed for our area.  I'm not trying to tempt you, but I do know of someone about 30 min from me that sells Biele hatching eggs.......

Oh, and I'm pretty sure DD will talk us into hatching silkies in the very near future.  DH & I both call them useless chickens, but so many people speak so highly of them.  DD's been wanting one for over 3 years & she's wearing us down.  I'll have to share with you some of her more entertaining arguments about why we NEED to have a silkie.

Lol well come on up

Ya know I really think you were made for a farm my friend.

*subliminal messaging* leave the Windy flat lands leave the Windy flat lands leave the Windy flat lands. You want cheese you want cheese... You want to live in the land of cheese.

Lol I'm glad you feel good about giving us your extras. That's what we want especially BC we love them so much. Yes it's true(sorry if it offends anyone I know it's a hard thought) we do process our extra cockerals but you're right we do give them the very best life possible right up until the last moments.

I love that we can provide for ourselves but I don't care much for having to do it. If we had the space, could afford it and if the boys wouldn't badger the hens we would keep them all but all of those things are a no.

That's how it's easier for me if you've ever seen a group of just matured cockerals all try to grab a hen and fight over her one after another well that's how we know it's time to separate out the grow out boys.

Of course they all tend to have a phase like that. The I'm an idiot phase. We give the ones we like some time to learn and having a mature roo in the flock that's good to the girls helps BC the boys tend to learn from him. Unfortunately we didn't have a mature large fowl roo last year after May BC he died to save a broody chick. Mickey did well keeping them in check until several matured all at once and got moved to the grow out.

That may be a way for DD to look at it that could make it easier for her when it's time to process.

Now onto happier things of course only the spare cockerals around here get processed the girls for the most part stay or if we are over capacity or just aren't bonded to a pullet we may rehome them. I'm super picky about who gets the though. Lol I could feel badly but I don't I've had people walk away(so to speak) because they didn't want to answer my questions. The other thing I always try to do when someone comes wanting birds is I try to match the people to the bird's personality. This is sometimes hard to do and there have been a few times where I let a bird go and then regretted it later, still I know they went to an amazing home.

Lol don't tempt me with the biele eggs lol althouh I might be interested sometime. DH2B was talking about them the other day, so if it's his idea they don't count towards my flock numbers lol

You guys should try silkies sometime but I would recommend introducing at least two into the flock BC otherwise you may find that the one that's different will get picked on badly. (This is also my excuse for not getting one of those pairs of Cochins on the Illinois thread - one is frizzled, but man am I dieing to. I really love the looks of them. Which I didn't used to that and what would I do with yet another boy?)

Silkies are great and they're really not such terribly useless chickens okay you have Cookie as a broody but still you can't beat a broody.

Also I have to say that I love love love watching the silkies stand up to the bigger birds. Some won't but most will and when broody look out! Lol one of our girls Lovey the gray hen is very timid but when she's broody she's beat the snot outta a large fowl rooster even two if she has to. Lol. I saw her yesterday (she has a large crest that gets in her way) when she was out of the nest box another bird accidentally stepped on her foot feathers. She didn't see and I think probably thought one of the cockerals was grabbing her and she beat them up until I picked her up lol. I just picked her up laughing and soothing, "Easy there killer."

Lol silkies with so much fuzz always look like a little ball of dryer lint blowing across the yard to me. And they have the cutest little gallop. They can't fly but sure try and don't let their looks fool you those things are fast!

I'm on DD's side!  The only thing I would worry about is introducing new/juvenile Silkies to an existing mixed flock.  Our two Silkies are the oldest birds and have been abused by a few heavier or dual purpose breeds in our past and we've re-homed the bullies.  We finally found the purebred Blue Wheaten Ameraucana and Breda the best docile non-combative breeds to have with the Silkies.  Larger, heavier, dual-purpose, or laying breeds were too assertive toward the littles.  Bigger large fowl even if gentle-tempered can still be tempted to bully smaller docile breeds if they can get away with it -- I hate it but chickens are not always nice to each other!  Orps, Brahmas, LF Cochins are gentle giants but new Silkies added to the flock may still get picked on by the big gentle giants.  I didn't heed the advice of owners to avoid mixing Silkies with large fowl and learned the hard way.  Now we only keep Breda w/ the Silkies.  Breda are about 4 to 5-lbs,non-broody, docile, and are very good layers of MED-LG white eggs -- our Blue Breda layed for 10+ consecutive months without stop last year.  We couldn't have asked for better than a productive docile lightweight LF breed that also gets along well w/ Silkies.

While we do have some silkies more timid than others I wouldn't say they get bullied much at all as a whole. They generally get their fair share of treats and feed and all sorts of things. We've never had a problem with frost bite in them(fingers crossed) they don't seem to get too hot and are pretty cold hardy in a draft free coop.

I do have to occasionally help one or two of them find their treats BC well their crests of course. We haven't trimmed ours' crests. We have always planned to but I am a bit worried about cutting close to their eyes. Some lines of silkies though don't have huge crests.

They are quite the sight when it's rainy or if they dust bathe in mud lol

I've heard BC they don't shed water and don't dry out fast that they can be in a little trouble if they get real wet. We keep an eye on them but none of ours have ever had a problem. We do try to tempt them inside if it's rainy but most of them don't care to be out in it. Then there's the few that come in looking like drowned rats. Lol.

 

[Sylvester017]

@chickendreams24
Many flock owners don't have problems mixing their Silkies with LFs but we haven't been so lucky. With a limited zone ordinance of 5 hens/no roos and a small suburban yard we have a different flock dynamic. DH loves his Silkies so we have two Silkies as companions. We've had Marans and Leghorns for more egg layers but they are too assertive to downright mean to gentles like Ameraucana, Silkies, or Breda.

This is the damage a Marans did to one of our Silkies before we realized the Silkie wasn't molting but being eaten alive on the roost -- and when the Marans started cruelly beating up a 2nd Silkie we immediately rehomed the Marans:



The Silkie has grown back and recovered her feathering but her comb has been permanently chewed off by the Marans


We had a decent alpha White Leghorn who was nice to the Silkies for a couple years but as a mature 3-yr-old hen she started to abuse all the flock members and she had to be rehomed. Our Buff Leghorn became a bully to the timid Ameraucana and Silkies at only one-year and was rehomed. Not a good track record w/ LFs. People recommended Orps as gentle but my friend's Orp was assertive so I decided against a heavy breed Orp for my group.

We kept the Ameraucana because she was non-combative and not aggressive and when we added the docile Breda we had a good compatible temperament group who weren't afraid to be around each other.


Just when we had a nice compatible group we lost the two LFs to heat-related issues in our brutal SoCal summer. Back to square one -- we were left w/ the original two Silkies. After our summer losses we added back a docile Breda pullet to the Silkies.


Later this year we are adding a 2nd Breda pullet. I loved our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana for her non-combative temperament and pretty blue eggs but she was so heavily under-downed she never took our brutal heatwaves very well in spite of water-misters, ice cube water, wetted-down soil, etc, so we won't invest in another heavily-downed breed or dual purpose breed. Our climate is too brutal to the heavier or fluffy breeds -- only the hardy little wispy-feathered Silkies have managed well in our zone. With our State drought on the mend hopefully our next summer will not be so brutal and hopefully the two newest lightweight Breda's will do well in our climate with the tried-and-true old Silkies.

 

[chickendreams24]

@chickendreams24 Many flock owners don't have problems mixing their Silkies with LFs but we haven't been so lucky. With a limited zone ordinance of 5 hens/no roos and a small suburban yard we have a different flock dynamic. DH loves his Silkies so we have two Silkies as companions. We've had Marans and Leghorns for more egg layers but they are too assertive to downright mean to gentles like Ameraucana, Silkies, or Breda. This is the damage a Marans did to one of our Silkies before we realized the Silkie wasn't molting but being eaten alive on the roost -- and when the Marans started cruelly beating up a 2nd Silkie we immediately rehomed the Marans: The Silkie has grown back and recovered her feathering but her comb has been permanently chewed off by the Marans We had a decent alpha White Leghorn who was nice to the Silkies for a couple years but as a mature 3-yr-old hen she started to abuse all the flock members and she had to be rehomed. Our Buff Leghorn became a bully to the timid Ameraucana and Silkies at only one-year and was rehomed. Not a good track record w/ LFs. People recommended Orps as gentle but my friend's Orp was assertive so I decided against a heavy breed Orp for my group. We kept the Ameraucana because she was non-combative and not aggressive and when we added the docile Breda we had a good compatible temperament group who weren't afraid to be around each other. Just when we had a nice compatible group we lost the two LFs to heat-related issues in our brutal SoCal summer. Back to square one -- we were left w/ the original two Silkies. After our summer losses we added back a docile Breda pullet to the Silkies. Later this year we are adding a 2nd Breda pullet. I loved our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana for her non-combative temperament and pretty blue eggs but she was so heavily under-downed she never took our brutal heatwaves very well in spite of water-misters, ice cube water, wetted-down soil, etc, so we won't invest in another heavily-downed breed or dual purpose breed. Our climate is too brutal to the heavier or fluffy breeds -- only the hardy little wispy-feathered Silkies have managed well in our zone. With our State drought on the mend hopefully our next summer will not be so brutal and hopefully the two newest lightweight Breda's will do well in our climate with the tried-and-true old Silkies.

I'm so sorry you had such bad luck but I do think a lot of the problems you faced had to do with the Leghorns I noticed you kept getting them I'm guessing for eggs. Leghorns have a reputation as being a much more domineering breed. I know some people have had good luck with them but I don't think they are very well suited to a small docile flock that doesn't have a lot of space. I told you about our two brown leghorns. We have one cuckoo marans and she is a bit more dominant but not a bully either. I don't know what was up with that bird. Perhaps it was just a bad egg or went completely nuts. Lol Anyway that being said I don't think that large fluffy orps would do well in your South California temps they are very high in the summer correct? We broke 100* here multiple days here last summer with up to 100% humidity and our girls were miserable. They pulled through it like troopers even when I was worried we'd lose a bird but their size and fluff does make it more difficult. Perhaps something like a Buttercup, campine or something along those lines?