Are there any breeds like this?

[cocopuffs]

Hi, everyone!

I'm new to chickens and I don't have any yet (apartments aren't really conductive to chicken rearing, ya know?), but I'm in the planning phase, figuring out what I'd like I guess, in preparation for the big move and I was wondering if there were any chicken breeds that fit the criteria listed below? I've been researching and can't really find any, but maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places.

I'm looking for..

- Broody, good mothers. I am allergic to eggs (which makes me really sad), so egg production is a non-issue and from my understanding, breeds that lay a ton of eggs don't typically go broody, so I feel like I should avoid them for that reason alone.

- Good foragers. I'll have around nine acres and plan on providing homemade feed, so I'd like it if the chickens could help supplement their diet outside for at least some of the year.

- Cold hardy. It gets cold here.

Bonus if they have sweet dispositions and/or look pretty. They'd mostly be pets and sometimes meat, so I don't need a big, meaty carcass, fast growth or eggs. I just want to watch them raise chicks and free range and occasionally butcher a few. I'd like to avoid commercial feed for various reasons (plus not have to deal with incubating eggs and such), so while it would be amazing to have a quick growing bird like the cornish cross, it's not really realistic in this situation, so I'm willing to deal with much slower growing birds since meat isn't the main priority anyway.

I'm also from Canada so I don't really have access to really uncommon breeds. IF there aren't any common breeds that fit my criteria, do you think I could get to where I need to be eventually with mutts? I was thinking I could cross standard silkies (broodiness) with.. something else(?) and do a bit of selective breeding? Ahhh, help, I'm rambling and lost!

 

[theoldchick]

See if this works for you:


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...-breeds.html&usg=AOvVaw0pOGaW_7QTQ1k2q7ot4nQ2

Good luck and welcome to our flock!

 

[staceyj]

BUFF ORPINGTONS!
Beautiful, sweet, funny,
Great freerangers,
Broody as all get out.
(In my opinion)

 

[sylviethecochin]

You might like cochins. I love cochins. They lay about three eggs a week and the bantams are constantly broody. Can it be a bantam? I stole this picture off of the internet. She's a standard.

Also, Old English Game bantams (See my profile pic) raise their own chicks, don't lay many eggs, and (in my opinion) are very pretty.
EDT: They also come in standard.

 

[lazy gardener]

Welcome to BYC! I wish you the best with your new home and life style! You'll have a wonderful adventure.

Just for clarification: You want a flock, but don't eat eggs. Would you be selling your eggs? You are willing and able to process your extra birds, including cockerels to maintain a healthy flock and healthy flock size in accordance with your set up??

Broodiness is a hormonal state. While some breeds are prone to broodiness, there will be some in the breed who will never go broody. And other breeds not noted for broodiness may have a few who never read the rule book. And, they will go broody, and be fine mothers!

If you follow your dreams down the broody path, and allow nature to take it's course, you could very well be over run by chickens in very short order. Kind of like this:

Having broody hens and chicks is certainly entertaining, but there are also management issues that come into play. Often, separate housing needs to be provided for a broody and her clutch of eggs, and later her brood of chicks (for the first few days) to prevent harassment from flock mates. Cockerels reach sexual maturity before the pullets, so they will need separate housing to keep them from brutally gang breeding the pullets. And every one likes chicken. If you free range your flock, (and who wouldn't like to see mother Hen with her babies tumbling after her on a nice green expanse of lawn) word will get out among local predators, "The chicken nugget buffet is open for business."

None of this was typed to discourage you, but perhaps to paint a more realistic picture. You can follow your dream, but it will require management. YOU decide when a broody hen can hatch eggs, and YOU decide how many you will let her hatch.

IMO, the very best gal for this job is the Lovely Dominique. Super friendly, very pleasing to the eye, has a rose comb that is not prone to frost bite, her feathers are incredibly soft. She is a good brooder, and she is a wonderful forager.

Or, since eggs are not important to you, you might consider picking up some old gals who are nearing retirement age.

 

[lazy gardener]

Back to your original post, I tend to skip ahead of myself. Canada... you're gonna want birds with small combs. Look for Pea or Rose combed birds. I would also stay away from feathered feet. The Chantecler was bred in Canada and would suit your purposes. Or the Dominique. Consider the Buck Eye. Easter Egger is an other candidate. As for breeding your own back yard mutts. That is a wonderful idea. Choose breeds that you know will sell well.

While Silkie is a favorite in the broody department, I am not at all fond of them for a number of reasons: Many silkies have a vaulted skull. This makes them prone to neurological issues. They are dumber than a bag of hammers. They have feathered feet. Their "hairy" feathers make them prone to mite and lice infestations. Because they look so different, they can be picked on by normal feathered flock mates. Their head gear makes them particularly prone to predator attack. And they usually do not roost. And, IMO, the hybrid chicks will not sell well. I know I would not consider having a silkie or a silkie hybrid in my flock, but would welcome a hybrid produced from standard layers.

If you have a flock of barred or cuckoo patterned (DOMINIQUE!!!) hens, and put a dark colored (not white or barred) roo over them, you will produce black sex linked babies! My EE roo (avatar pic) has produced several generations of beautiful walnut combed sex linked chicks which lay aqua or olive colored eggs. What's not to like about that!!!

 

[MageofMist]

Silkies if they are available! Mine are the non-bearded type.

"- Broody, good mothers. I am allergic to eggs (which makes me really sad), so egg production is a non-issue and from my understanding, breeds that lay a ton of eggs don't typically go broody, so I feel like I should avoid them for that reason alone."
I have to take my hens off the nestboxes even in Winter, though mine lay an egg every day, usually silkies lay every two to three days. They also make super great mothers and papas.


Even as tiny chicks and scruffy half-growns, they are very maternal birds. Here are two pics of my baby boy Peep-Peep, him when he was a peeper with quail chicks, and then him when older with 3 of his younger siblings.


"- Good foragers. I'll have around nine acres and plan on providing homemade feed, so I'd like it if the chickens could help supplement their diet outside for at least some of the year."
You need those acres, mine plucked the yard clean of grass and bugs... They are now banned from it until it regrows. They are little gluttons, and despite the crests, I swear they can see a teeni spider from a mile away!

I heard they can have issues with coop ramps, and mine have no ramps... But they for sure can jump!

"- Cold hardy. It gets cold here."
I hear mixed things about the cold hardiness of Silkies though, some say they are, some say they aren't. So far my babies have been coping well despite the temperature dropping and have tantrums if I TRY to keep them inside due to the cold. If you are unsure, you could always add some heating to the coop.

"Bonus if they have sweet dispositions and/or look pretty."
They are super sweet, soft little featherballs. Even the roos are total marshmallows, even while I have 3 boys in my flock of 12, none of my hens are overmated or stressed out by them and the boys all keep each-other in check.
It can be fairly amusing to watch when Rooroo, the dad, and Peep-Peep, the oldest son, have an argument over a hen... And because she is still squatting, Scruff, the youngest, just walks up, sometimes even around the two roos in plain view, mounts her, mates, and then walks off while the two older roos square off. Their scuffles only last a couple of seconds, but that is all it takes for the young cockerel to do his job.

Also, I used to carry my babies around in my jumper when they were chicks to transport them... So they basically turned into joeys, wanting to snuggle up into my jumper and snooze. I had one with me in my jumper on Halloween and I had people ask if she was ok as they weren't used to chickens being so docile. Heck, whenever I took her out for a toilet break, she'd try and jump back on me!

Also a warning, don't sit down when silkies are around unless you want to be buried in floofbutts!

 

[MageofMist]

Back to your original post, I tend to skip ahead of myself. Canada... you're gonna want birds with small combs. Look for Pea or Rose combed birds. I would also stay away from feathered feet. The Chantecler was bred in Canada and would suit your purposes. Or the Dominique. Consider the Buck Eye. Easter Egger is an other candidate. As for breeding your own back yard mutts. That is a wonderful idea. Choose breeds that you know will sell well.

While Silkie is a favorite in the broody department, I am not at all fond of them for a number of reasons: Many silkies have a vaulted skull. This makes them prone to neurological issues. They are dumber than a bag of hammers. They have feathered feet. Their "hairy" feathers make them prone to mite and lice infestations. Because they look so different, they can be picked on by normal feathered flock mates. Their head gear makes them particularly prone to predator attack. And they usually do not roost. And, IMO, the hybrid chicks will not sell well. I know I would not consider having a silkie or a silkie hybrid in my flock, but would welcome a hybrid produced from standard layers.

My silkies haven't had any predator issues, likely due to the narrow crests on the boys. They have done alarms whenever they spotted birds of prey and the hens all run into the brambles or hideaway spots, and my goodness, my babies are VERY smart. They KNOW what a clinging plate or the sound of the food bucket is and come running and they even know their names! They also are very inquisitive birds, and while spooked by large objects at first... They will go over to investigate and then sit on it after a while.

And my silkies do roost, the youngsters huddle while the mature roos and hens all have their elivated roosting spot to sleep on. I have also only had lice and mite problems twice with them and due to how docile they are, they were super easy to treat.

 

[lomine]

I just want to throw this out there... Have you tried eggs from other types of birds? Not sure how important the issue is to you. I've read that many who are allergic to chicken eggs can eat duck eggs. I have ducks, chickens, and quail but my original ducks are still my favorite.

 

[lazy gardener]

Thank you Mage for a positive report re: Silkies to off set my bashing!