Breed Help Please!!!

[henrietta101]

I am after 3 to 4 pullets. How would a silkie go with a cross pullet?

Also what cross breed would you recommend as good with children and decent enough for eggs?

RIR x RIwhite (isa brown)
RIR x New Hampshire
White leghorn/New Hampshire
Black Cross: Australorp/New Hampshire
Red Cross: Rhode Island Red/New Hampshire (light brown egg)


Was thinking about getting an australorp

would love a belgian d'uccle. do they only come as bantams? only found a breeder for a bantam
..

 

[galanie]

Best bet for the cross would be the australorp but it really depends on the bird. Calm nice birds come from calm nice parents

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not sure where you plan to get these specific crosses. Most won't come from a hatchery so you must have a private source. Galanie is right. Nice birds come from nice parent. Each flock has its own characteristics and traits.

Breeds do have tendencies, but each individual chicken has its own personality. Sometimes you can get a terror from the nicest of breeds or a real nice bird from one of the breeds with a worse reputation. But trying to pick a breed with the better reputation is the best way to go. It is not a guarantee, but it does help your odds. I have not kept a whole lot of different breeds, but the ones I'd suggest you look hardest at are the Australorp, Sussex, Orpington, and any of the Rocks. There are others that would work well too, I'm sure. Any of these should get along with a Silkie OK.

Just for the record. A RIR x RIW is not an ISA Brown. An ISA Brown is a commercial laying cross from two very specific lines of parents. You might look at the parents as two specific breeds developed over the generations to produce a cross that is commercial quality. I'm guessing they have some Leghorn in their background to get the large eggs and smaller body that gives them a good feed to egg conversion rate, but they are not just Rhode Island crosses.

Several hatcheries will give you a RIR x RIW cross as a Red Sex Link and at least one advertises them as a commercial cross, but they are not. They will lay very well and all that, but they have a bigger body and do not have as good a feed to egg conversion weight.

 

[henrietta101]

Thanks for the advice. I feel like I have so much to learn! thank goodness for backyardchickens.com!!!