assorted rare breeds = chicken pandemonium?

[kari_dawn]

I ordered 10 assorted rare breed chickens along with my normal docile, friendly, dual purpose types (2 EE, 1 BCM, 1 speckled sussex) to join my lone remaining blue orpington hen.

From the breeds I can determine so far, it looks like I am in for a circus going by their "typical" personalities...It appears I have a Sicillian butter cup (who is actually pretty darn adorable and outgoing, at the moment), a golden campine, and two silver spangled hamburgs. I also have a white leghorn in the mix.

It appears I have a Delaware, and a jersey giant in there, something blue/splash, and a handful of mystery brown/red chipmunk things that I can't hazard a guess at yet, but they don't seem to be as wild as the others are supposed to be, so I am not too worried about them.

Am I doomed to be chasing wild and crazy chooks out of my neighbors yards, or keep them penned up forever? Should I ditch them all (rehome) before they teach my other fluffy butts that roaming is fun? Someone please tell me you have experience with these breeds, and they aren't as crazy as they've been made out to be?!

side note-I have a half acre, so I am hopeful that will be enough to satisfy their desire to roam...but my last girls did like hanging out at my neighbor's place a lot...and they weren't even breeds known for roaming.

 

[Pyxis]

Don't panic! I keep a lot of the 'flighty' breeds and they are definitely not as bad as people make them out to be. One of my favorite birds was a leghorn named Yolk who would jump up on my shoulder for a ride around whenever I was outside. It all depends on how they're raised. And my leghorns never go wandering away from the rest of the flock. We have seven acres, but they seem content to stay in the yard around their coop and run. Farthest they ever get is the front yard, and they only ever go that far if I forget to fill the feeder for a day and they're looking for bugs.

 

[kari_dawn]

That makes me feel better. I just started counting up all the "flighty" breeds in my flock, and then realized I still have 5 birds of unknown breed, but out of the 5 I have determined, four of them are inclined to be flighty, plus my leghorn! I don't want them flying the coop all the time, and I don't want my neighbors upset with me! ha ha ha

I am a little excited to see how they turn out...These are breeds I probably never would have picked out on my own...

 

[toynutz]

I have two Campines, a boy and a girl... hand-raised since day two. He's a super great roo and she is the sweetest thing in the world... very tame and loving. I also have two Buttercups, both girls... just added a month ago. The older is tame and not flighty, but she had a bad leg mite problem when I got her, so I think that made a difference in her personality. The younger girl, also know as "crazy legs" is friendly but can be flighty. She flys into trees and loves to chase birds around but comes like a roadrunner if she sees you with bread.

 

[kari_dawn]

hm...I just finished reading some reviews on campines...it seems like everyone says they are super talkative escape artists...

 

[toynutz]

My Campines have no desire to escape. They love to be out of their coop but don't run away when free-ranging and easily go back to their pen for dinner. The roo crows every morning for 5-10 minutes and loves to talk or "mutter" to you whenever he sees you, which is cute. The girl is very talkative but she doesn't do the egg song for some reason. She has a big vocabulary and her favorite chicken word is honky-honk.

 

[toynutz]

I forgot to mention my girl Campine, Blondie, has crowed. About 3 weeks ago Blondie got sick with pneumonia so we brought her inside for 2 days to recover and get meds... on day 2 she returned Ru's crows with a couple of her own. She really belted them out! While not as long as his, they were almost as loud. Blondie hasn't done it since, so I'm sure it was just a separation thing.

 

[kari_dawn]

hm...chatty doesn't bug me too much (as long as it doesn't upset my neighbors), but I AM concerned they might start roosting in the trees...my last group of girls did that, and they slowly started migrating further and further from my property, even though their food and water was always available in the coop...I don't want to deal with that again...but on the flip side, it sounds like campines have such nice personalities...we will see how this turns out! I'm still a little nervous! I have kept chickens for a long time, but this is my first experience with a whole bunch of birds that aren't DPs.

 

[aromano]

Hi, I'm adrienne and I read your post, it sounds great. I think I want
backyard chicken. Maybe I'll start with rare breed assortment. I'm gonna
be moving soon so I have to wait until I get resettled. Would you mind telling
where your chicks from?

 

[toynutz]

Hi Adrienne... I got my Campines from a local mom and pop feed store when they were 2 days old. I'd recommend waiting until spring to get chicks... most local feed stores only carry chicks in the spring... and mail order chicks and cold weather don't always mix well. I think it's best to do bit of research on the different breeds and what might be available to you locally first... most of the feed stores here get several different breeds each week during spring and post what's available and when on their websites.