Breed suggestions

[niroha]

So I've been wanting to get chickens for many years now and I'm getting very close to circling the target. I'd love to hear some suggestions for breeds that fit my desires and requirements - I bet you guys can give me leads I hadn't even thought about.

I want a dual purpose breed.
I want a medium/large size.
I love color - I only want to get one breed to focus on so a breed that has a rainbow of colors that can intermix without discrimination.
Docile. I'm currently incubating my own human and don't want jerks. I'm okay culling out the occasional jerk. (hence, dual purpose)
Reasonably broody. I want roo's and expect chicks.
Brown eggs preferred but I'm not as firm on that.

I live in the pacific northwest so my climate is rainy but nothing extreme. Either temperature extremes are pretty uncommon and/or short lived.

I was looking at BBS orpingtons but I stumbled into some websites for rare, heritage breeds and thought, hmm. I need to do more homework. I found swedish flower hens and the more I read, the more I like. But am open to other suggestions before I commit to purchase the eggs

Thanks all!

 

[chickens r life]

Hi, I also live on the west coast. I am going to get bbs orpington sometime this year. So obviously I recommend those. I have a Jubilee orpington right now and she is a sweet girl.

Marans

Brahmas

Wyandotte

Plymouth Rock

 

[willow5038]

Hello! I live in the north-west, and would 100% recommend ameraucanas if you want to go for color. They are beautiful birds that come in a variety of colors (white, brown, blue, etc.), and the best part is that they lay MULTICOLORED eggs! They also wouldn't mind your climate... I just bought 2 more chicks, and suggest you get some as well

 

[3riverschick]

Icelandic chickens. they come in a rainbow of colors.

 

[niroha]

The icelandic chicken recommendation is an interesting one. Apparently the landrace breeds appeal to me because Swedish Flower Hens also fall into that category.

I might have to add some ameraucanas and marans hens just for egg diversity. And their eggs will be easy to tell apart from either of the two breeds mentioned above. Fun!

 

[niroha]

Today I brought home 5 marans (3 blue copper and 2 splash copper) and 1 welsummer. Might get 1-2 Americaunas this Friday. But still have high hopes for getting the swedish flower hens. I think that's the main breed I'm going to settle on. The eggs are very different so I shouldn't have a problem telling them apart.

My husband is pretty smitten. This was after he tried to talk me out of it.