Best chicken breeds for weed-eating?

[DavidILoveYou22]

Hello! My best friend is going to get chickens soon to eat all the weeds in her soon-to-be-garden, and I'm helping her figure out what kind of chickens she should get. Right now she wants Jersey giants and/or Silkies while her mom wants some kind of feather-footed breed. Anyone have any input?
Any replies are greatly appreciated!

 

[Judy]

Interesting question. I've had several large fowl breeds and they all foraged well. I tried researching this for a bit, and didn't find a lot of information. Some claimed American Gamefowl are the best or very good, but they also tend to roost in trees and hide eggs in the wild, and they tend to be broody.

Really, I'd suggest considering size as well. In general, it's fine to mix breeds, but mixing sizes causes many people some problems. Plus, as a crested (bantam) breed, Silkies are often picked on by others. The crest is actually a skull defect, and tends to attract pecking. If I wanted some, I'd house them by themselves. They are also well known as a broody breed.

 

[DavidILoveYou22]

OK, thank you! I'm sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been very busy. Me and my friend finally decided on 1 Jersey Giant, and either 3 Brahma's or maybe some type of Cochin.

 

[brahmabreeder]

May I just say you should go with the brahmas

 

[DavidILoveYou22]

That's what I've been telling her, and she's told me she and her mom now want to do 2 Brahmas + 2 other hens of different breeds. They keep changing their minds like crazy.

 

[missnu01]

That's half the fun...by the time I actually place my chick order who knows what might be on it...Lol. I have thought and thought and rethought, and calculated and researched, and recalculated and re-researched. I would like to say that I have it finalized now...but there is a good chance it will change again. I started out wanting to get an assortment, but then I realized there are so many different breeds I really want...so I started adding those a couple at a time, but a lot were the ones you might get in the assortment..so I took off the assortment and added the breed I wanted..but then murray mcmurray sold out of meat birds for the date I want...so I started looking at other hatcheries...found yet another that makes you get 5 of a variety...so I just picked 3 sets I liked.
Anyway, I am hoping I have it figured out now. I also hope that odds aren't against me the one breed I have to get straight run..what are the odds of 5/5 being male?

 

[DavidILoveYou22]

Not that good, I suppose. This is going to be my first time ordering directly from a hatchery; before this we always got our chicks from one/both of the two local feedstores. I'm getting them right from McMurray this time, I've heard they're a pretty trustable hatchery. We're getting 7-8 meat birds, two Turkens, and two Brahma's, a hen and a roo. Well, plus my friend's 4 chicks.

 

[15shenyl]

I have Salmon Faverolles, there very tame, have 5 toes, have beards and muffs, with a slightly feathered foot. They love to eat anything that is put in front of them. They keep the weeds down in my garden, plus eat my tomatoes... Faverolles are very calm and sociable. They follow me around and love to sit in my lap. I know this wasn't the point of your question, but I love my little Faverolles and would recommend them to everyone.

 

[DavidILoveYou22]

Yes, when me and her were talking on the phone earlier I was also looking around on McMurray Hatchery's Website, and I found those (she wanted to know what other feather-footed breeds they had besides Cochins and Brahmas) but she didn't seem particularily interested in them. I don't know why, they were quite pretty.

 

[missnu01]

I am ordering 5 faverolle pullets, and 1 cockerel from cackle hatchery. I figured cackle would be my best bet since I want them for the way they look and act. And I have heard that Murray Mcmurray and a lot of others the birds aren't always a terribly correct example of a breed. So my utility chickens are coming from welp (was going to be murray, but with no meat birds seems kind of pointless) and my looking at chickens are coming from cackle. Lol.