Breed or Unique Personality?

[Country Birds]

Earlier this year I inherited two egg laying hens from my sister-in-law, an Americana and a Welsummer. They are friendly chickens that will let you pick them up, but they don’t necessarily enjoy human touch. This spring I raised 4 chicks to add to the flock and held them, talked to them, etc every day until they went to the coop outside. They never got very friendly and even though I still catch them and hold them, they prefer to keep a few feet distance between us. Two of them are Orpingtons, which I specifically bought because they were supposed to be a friendlier breed.
Fast-forward to now, I’m raising 50 Cornish X (4 weeks old at the moment) and I have to go in their pen daily to feed and water. Every time I go in there, one of the cockerels runs up to me and thoroughly enjoys being pet, picked up, etc. He will even spin in little circles while I’m petting him to get his head back under my hand, kind of like a cat. All the other 49 are skittish and act similar to the young egg-layers that I raised.
My question is, does the breed of chicken really have an effect on it’s friendliness? Or does it just depend on the personality of each specific chicken? I’m actually really sad that my friendly chicken is a meat bird that will have to be butchered and I would love to have friendlier egg-laying chickens, but I’m not sure how to go about that. Any advice or suggestions?

 

[nuthatched]

Chickens are individuals, blanket statements across breeds aren't always accurate.
Believe it or not, your cornishx is not friendly, he's bold and unafraid of you. This would be a bad thing if you weren't using him for meat in a few weeks, as this behavior *usually* turns into aggression.