Barred rocks vs black giant

[lablover]

I plan to add to my flock of EE's, and the local store has a quite a few breeds. I recently had a problem with internal laying in my red sex links, so I want to stay away from RIRs, BOs, and other "production" birds. Barred rocks and black giants are two other breeds they have, and as I do not know much about them, are there any pros and cons?

 

[Kelsie2290]

Out of the two, BR are more popular and I think lay better than the JGs, but they would also be on my almost a production bird list since they are so popular and hatcheries have been breeding them so long.
Have you checked out the reviews of the two breeds on the BYC Chicken Breeds Reviews?

 

[lablover]

Yeah I skimmed a few of them, but most of them talked about their personalities. I need to go back a read some more though.

 

[lablover]

I did read some reviews that mentioned the barred rock as a good production bird, but mainly that they were bossy. I have to also keep their size in mind because the barred rock and the black giant will be a bit bigger than my small EE's. I looked at the breed profiles on my pet chicken and the black giant lays about 3 eggs a week, the barred rock lays 4, and the sex links lay 5. I could probably get one of each, but will they get along well with the EE's?

 

[Kelsie2290]

This is strictly my experience with hatchery birds 5-10 giants from (McM, SandHill, Meyer), and BR from McM & Meyer. The BR laid better and bigger eggs than the giants, I would have said the giants were 3 eggs week, and the BR 4/5 normal/laying well. The giants were most definitely more likely to go broody. I actually do not find the BR that bossy, red sex links are bossier (and RIR tend to be even more bossy). The BR were quite people friendly. The giants were pretty mellow with the other chickens, don't remember them causing problems, they were rather skittish around people when they were younger, with mine, a lot of the pullets seem to go though a spooky stage before they start to lay. Since the EEs are older you can probably integrate any of the breeds into the pen as easily as any other. Size wise, the BR are going to be closer in size to your EEs if they are small, the hatchery giants are not as big as breeder birds, but most are bigger than BR etc. If you are looking for a black bird, do they have Australorps?

 

[lablover]

They do, but not in the fall it seems. Right now they have red sex links, production reds, black giants, barred rocks, and maybe a few others that are either 3-4 months old, or 5-6 months old. I would rather get older pullets anyways since the weather is getting cooler. I'm not necessarily looking for a black bird because I actually have a black Ameraucana in with my EE's. I'm just picking from what they have currently.