Best broody breed?

[janiedoe]

Also, sorry it took me so long to respond to you all! I read all the responses and then forgot to reply...

So, my second question relating to all this has to do with heritage birds. I really don't like dealing with rehoming roosters because where I live, even my nice silkies take at least a month to sell! And I have only seen heritage breeders who sell straight run day old chicks or hatching eggs.

Does anyone have any experience with a hatchery that may sell more old-style breeds? I thought about My Pet Chicken, but I then read somewhere else that the Marans tend to have blood spots, and I have a Maran from them now (no, she is not consistently broody... ) who does just that! Big, beautiful, brown eggs, but I have to check each one before scrambling them for spots.

I would be most interested in Marans, or possibly Orpingtons, if that helps anyone out!

As for as hatcheries go, I have heard that Cackle has quality chickens. I do not have first hand knowledge of this, I have just heard from others. I've also heard through the vine, that Ideal hatchery bantam blue laced wyandottes are very nice looking. They are sold straight run though, as are all their bantams. If you are having a hard time rehoming cockrells this may not work for you.

 

[janiedoe]

I don't have any bantams @msiler but I do have standard orps, langshan, and cuckoo marans from ideal. Both of my cuckoos went broody last year, one out of three of my orps, and my one langshan (who is 3) has raised three broods so far and would raise more if I let her. One of my orps has never gone broody but she steals chicks from the other girls! My Cuckoo marans mixed rooster actually helped parent the chicks this year.

 

[AllenK RGV]

Also, sorry it took me so long to respond to you all! I read all the responses and then forgot to reply...

So, my second question relating to all this has to do with heritage birds. I really don't like dealing with rehoming roosters because where I live, even my nice silkies take at least a month to sell! And I have only seen heritage breeders who sell straight run day old chicks or hatching eggs.

Does anyone have any experience with a hatchery that may sell more old-style breeds? I thought about My Pet Chicken, but I then read somewhere else that the Marans tend to have blood spots, and I have a Maran from them now (no, she is not consistently broody... ) who does just that! Big, beautiful, brown eggs, but I have to check each one before scrambling them for spots.

I would be most interested in Marans, or possibly Orpingtons, if that helps anyone out!

I wouldn't choose mypetchicken my first order of sexed chicken was ordered through them, they were then drop shipped from https://www.meyerhatchery.com/ who actually conformed to SOP for Sumatra vs. what I have gotten from https://idealpoultry.com . My point here is mypetchicken is just the middle man, so suggest you cut them out.

 

[msiler]

I wouldn't choose mypetchicken my first order of sexed chicken was ordered through them, they were then drop shipped from https://www.meyerhatchery.com/ who actually conformed to SOP for Sumatra vs. what I have gotten from https://idealpoultry.com . My point here is mypetchicken is just the middle man, so suggest you cut them out.

Thank you! So if you had to do it again, would you go with Meyer or Ideal?
I have used Ideal before, but only for bantams, and the quality wasn't bad. My Silkie girls from them always go broody, even if they are quite ugly!

 

[msiler]

I don't have any bantams @msiler but I do have standard orps, langshan, and cuckoo marans from ideal. Both of my cuckoos went broody last year, one out of three of my orps, and my one langshan (who is 3) has raised three broods so far and would raise more if I let her. One of my orps has never gone broody but she steals chicks from the other girls! My Cuckoo marans mixed rooster actually helped parent the chicks this year.

Thank you! This is very helpful. I may have to give Ideal a try for their standard hens!

 

[Ted_Harrell]

I am a fan of Australorps, and their eggs are brown, just my two cents worth. Good luck, have fun...

 

[AllenK RGV]

Thank you! So if you had to do it again, would you go with Meyer or Ideal?
I have used Ideal before, but only for bantams, and the quality wasn't bad. My Silkie girls from them always go broody, even if they are quite ugly!

If I had to do it all over again the Sumatra quality was higher from meyers. If I REALLY had to do it all over again my first purchase would be an incubator. I would then source my chicken/eggs from a BYC'er who states they are NPIP, and conform to SOP. That incubator can turn an $8-25 dollar chick plus shipping into $1-5 per egg plus shipping(less for eggs) but with eggs you only get your straight run and in my case I don't mind culling via craigslist just never ask them what the recipient plans are for the birds.

 

[AllenK RGV]

Going back to why I recommend Sumatra or OEGB, I just put up a new post on this and most every weeks broody breaking routine. In the last 6 days I have had two separate Sumatra go broody and my OEGB had to be broken the hard way and is now off laying.

Post is here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-broody-breaking-routine.1334397/#post-21799942

 

[AllenK RGV]

Here is my log for the week of the 3 Sumatra I have in lay at the moment. The highlighted ones are the girls I have to break after they lay by means of a cold belly wash. This method is very effective breaking them on day 1, otherwise it will be chick prison until they stop camping out in the nests. BB and Hildy are the worst biters too.

I like Sumatra because I have yet to lose one from hawks and they near exclusively free range and steal catfood as needed. Overwinter down here for me sees the addition of 7 raptor species that are not our usual roadside hawks or caracara. I don't count the winter Osprey as they only eat fish.

 

[Rena9]

Maybe I'm trying to find a unicorn chicken breed, but here is what I am looking for!
Not just any old broody breed...
- Lay eggs that aren't cream/tinted colors
- Have a natural tendency to go broody
- Lay lots of eggs when they aren't broody
(The first two categories are 100% necessary, the third just desired )

I am looking for a breed of hen that I can keep with my Silkies who I can utilize to hatch out eggs, hence the need for the tendency to go broody trait.
The eggs need to be any color BUT cream, so I don't accidentally hatch out Silkie cross chicks! I currently have hatchery silkies as my broodies, but I can't tell whose eggs are whose and so I can't hatch out any chicks!! The third category is just for my own selfish benefit, who doesn't want a lot of eggs??
I don't care if they are standard breeds, as long as they aren't so big that they will crush the little Silkie eggs!

Let me know if you have any ideas, or if I'm living in a fantasy world!

You need a jersey giant hen. I've had a couple that were annoyingly broody. Like lock her out of the coop to free-range after getting the leather gloves out to not get bit while pulling her off the nest and she still walks around puffed up like a basketball all day broody. One of them gave her life defending the chicks from a coyote and the other adopted them. Sweet tempered brown eggs when not angry broody basketballs. And they laid nearly as well as my heritage reds