Breeds: what would you do?

[LeslieRowley]

hey all,
We just hatched our own chicks including a barnyard mix, Ameraucanas, and lavender orpingtons. My older chicks we have some to find out are almost all males (I know I have 1 delaware, a mix, and an ameraucana hen out of 13 chicks). My lavenders just hatched so we have a ways of waiting. I started thinking about what I want my flock to look like, we plan on 16 hens and maybe 2 roos. So now my question. I plan on around 8 of our stock to be lavenders and intend to keep a rooster lavender. I want to add a few more ameraucana hens as well. Now I'm torn between adding in welsummers or marans. Which would you add and why? 2nd step to this, for my 2nd roo would you keep an ameraucana roo or welsummer/maran? My understanding is if I kept an ameraucana roo I would be producing pure lavenders, pure ameraucana, olive eggers, Easter eggers and a mix (orpington/maran/welsummer). Meanwhile if I kept a maran/welsummer roo I would have pure lavender, pure welsummer/maran, olive egger and simply a mix.

My goal is to hatch chicks to sell and have good laying breeds. Possibly will be selling hatching eggs. We do have kids so being docile is preferable.

Thanks in advance for the opinions ! As you can tell, I've been driving myself a bit crazy trying to weight this out.

 

[JadeFarms]

I love my Maran. They are so sweet and I love the color of the eggs. They are very docile and come in many different colors. My welsummer is way more skittish.

My ameraucana roosters are the sweetest chickens I have. I DEFINITELY recommend. They are also so pretty!! But it depends on you.

 

[LeslieRowley]

I love my Maran. They are so sweet and I love the color of the eggs. They are very docile and come in many different colors. My welsummer is way more skittish.

My ameraucana roosters are the sweetest chickens I have. I DEFINITELY recommend. They are also so pretty!! But it depends on you.

Yes I love the color variety in marans. How is the laying for you between the welsummer and maran?
I have a beautiful splash/light light blue ameraucana roo that I would love to keep. I think I'm leaning towards the ameraucana roo.

 

[Folly's place]

They all sound beautiful! Tough choices, and if you keep some cockerels, then you can eliminate any who don't turn out well as they mature, helping with your decisions.
If you want purebred chicks, breeds need to be separated three weeks before saving eggs to hatch, and it's a pain sometimes, at least here!
Mary

 

[JadeFarms]

They both lay a good amount of eggs. I think my maran did better with laying, but every chicken is different. Welsummers a lot of the time start laying before Marans though.

 

[LeslieRowley]

They all sound beautiful! Tough choices, and if you keep some cockerels, then you can eliminate any who don't turn out well as they mature, helping with your decisions.
If you want purebred chicks, breeds need to be separated three weeks before saving eggs to hatch, and it's a pain sometimes, at least here!
Mary

Thanks for the info !! I just looked more into it. I probably wouldn't specify them to be pure just a possibility or mix.