Best chickens to start with.

[joebryant]

Lucy_R, everyone could help you more if you went to Profile on the blue line above, chose Personal from the list, and put in the city, state where you live. Climate makes a difference when choosing chickens.

 

[I-Have-Happy-Hens]

Silkies!!!!!!!!

 

[le neige homme]

Quote:
Most definitely.

Could anybody weigh in on how Buckeyes might compare to these breeds?

edit: spelling

 

[my4ladies]

Go to mypetchicken.com and got to menu on the far left, and scroll to the very bottom where it says FREE TOOLS. Each breed you click on will give you some information about it.

 

[PortageGirl]

Have a look over this chart it should help.

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

I can't actually think of any hens that aren't fine with children really, if they don't like children much they'll avoid the kids and the kids will get tired from chasing them, if the children are patient and nice to them, they'll be curious about each other. All around a good lesson for a lot of things in life if you think about it. Some may be calmer than others, but that's not always good. Very calm birds sometimes get hurt by children or pets etc. I prefer my birds avoid the neighbor kids for instance, the three year old is a terror!

 

[savingdogs]

We love the personality of our Buff Orpingtons. One of our rhode island red hens is our most friendly though. We raised her from a chick and handled her a lot, that seems to be part of it, how much they are handled as chicks.

We have recently added EEs because we are having fun with the egg color and it makes it easier for us to know who is laying by having different breeds.

 

[stilldeb]

My Silkie is spoiled (oh yeah, I did that!) but very sweet and easy to handle - too young to lay eggs yet, though. My EE is also very easy going and friendly.

deb g
KY

 

[GeeVee]

we have an australorp, and she is the sweetest hen in our little flock. she loves to follow us around and talk to us (in a quiet, calm way).
we have a delaware as well, and she is NOISY. she starts squawking and gets all the other girls going too. however, she may not be a good portrayal of regular delaware hen behavior, because she seems slightly hermaphroditic (she has spurs and a slightly deep voice). so as far as my advice goes, australorps are pretty, sweet birds to have in the yard

 

[luvchicks8]

barred rocks and EE's

 

[johny]

For meat and eggs, fairly quiet, freindly-at least when you bring treats, Orpingtons are good.
I have not wintered mine yet and I live north of Minnesota, but I think they'll do OK in my well insulated coop. They are heavily feathered and the pullets have small combs.