Broody hen and what breed to bring in

[Henniezues]

Our hen has gone broody again and she is a great mama. We dont have a rooster so after a lot of research my best bet is to get her some hatching eggs on ebay. My question is: We currently have her ( easter egger-which I love) and 4 Sexlinks. Any recommendations on what type of breed to have her sit on? Ive looked at Cream Legbars and have seen how much many people like their bantams and silkies. I just want to set them all up to hopefully get along good and be a good fit together. All of our current hens are friendly and pretty laid back. Thanks for any advice!

 

[CrazyCochin]

Sexlinks and EE's are pretty much calm breeds, so it shouldn't matter what you hatch out, as long as they aren't an aggressive breed themselves, to other chickens or people.
Cochins are a good calm breed, and they come in Large fowl and Bantam size, but can grow up to be very constant brooders. If you don't mind brooders, it shouldn't be a big deal, unless you want hens for egg production.

Austrolorps and Buff Orpingtons are great breeds!
Speckled Sussex is a great breed too, they also come in other beautiful colors! And as a bonus, they will also lay through the cold weather, but there are other breeds that can accomplish that.

The best way to find the right breed for your flock is to read on the internet! This might help you!

The Top 10 Friendliest Chicken Breeds of 2021​

Sorry for the lengthy post! Best of luck!

 

[3KillerBs]

What fun!

I've never hatched eggs myself, but I have read that shipped eggs can have unreliable results so the more local the better if possible. Beyond that,

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/go-ahead-pick-the-prettiest-chickens.76277/

I have a great partiality to feathered feet, but if you live in a wet climate on heavy, poorly-drained soil they would need extra attention. (You can put your general location in your profile so that people can give better advice when climate or other local conditions vary).

Do you want a particular egg color? A particular feather color or pattern?

 

[Sally PB]

I have never had a broody, but a lot of people here have reported success with slipping day old chicks under a brooding hen, and having her raise them as her own. That way you would circumvent the shipped eggs, and have more control of the sex of the chicks.

Of course, there is the magic of hatching out eggs.... Good luck!

 

[Henniezues]

Sexlinks and EE's are pretty much calm breeds, so it shouldn't matter what you hatch out, as long as they aren't an aggressive breed themselves, to other chickens or people.
Cochins are a good calm breed, and they come in Large fowl and Bantam size, but can grow up to be very constant brooders. If you don't mind brooders, it shouldn't be a big deal, unless you want hens for egg production.

Austrolorps and Buff Orpingtons are great breeds!
Speckled Sussex is a great breed too, they also come in other beautiful colors! And as a bonus, they will also lay through the cold weather, but there are other breeds that can accomplish that.

The best way to find the right breed for your flock is to read on the internet! This might help you!

The Top 10 Friendliest Chicken Breeds of 2021​

Sorry for the lengthy post! Best of luck!

This is great information thank you. The only thing I didn’t think of was having a more broody chicken. We prefer not to have more chickens if possible so having a less broody breed would be great!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Any recommendations on what type of breed to have her sit on? ..... I just want to set them all up to hopefully get along good and be a good fit together.

How much room do you have? Will you allow her to raise them with the flock or will you isolate the broody and her chicks until they are so old you'll have to integrate them yourself? I find that how much room you have and how you raise them are both tremendously more important in this regard than breed.

having a less broody breed would be great!

Then stay away from bantams and stay away from the decorative breeds. You want production type chickens. I'll include a couple of links that might help. Henderson's Breed Chart is someone's opinion of breed characteristics and you can find pictures of a lot of them in Feathersite so you can see what they look like. These only contain certain breeds, not all, and they do not contain crosses or hybrids. Your EE and your sex links will not be there because they are not breeds.

Henderson’s Breed Chart

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

Feathersite

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html#Chickens

I don't know where you are located. If you can find a way to chat with your neighbors you may fid that they have eggs that will work for you. If you can find your State or Country thread in the "Where am I" Where are you!" section of this forum and it is active you can chat with your neighbors. If you can pick the eggs up yourself and cushion them well when transporting them you can avoid a lot of the issues with hatching shipped eggs.

You will almost certainly get boys when you hatch. Hopefully you have a plan for what you will do with them.

As your EE and sex links are not breeds you might be OK with a barnyard mix. No specific breed but a mix of chickens. Some of those will go broody a lot but some hardly ever do. If you can chat with the owner and they will be honest with you about them these might be OK for you.

Good luck!

 

[Chickassan]

Faverolles, they're beyond docile and make wonderful layers.
You also get the bonus of being able to sex fairly early and reliably.

 

[Henniezues]

What fun!

I've never hatched eggs myself, but I have read that shipped eggs can have unreliable results so the more local the better if possible. Beyond that,

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/go-ahead-pick-the-prettiest-chickens.76277/

I have a great partiality to feathered feet, but if you live in a wet climate on heavy, poorly-drained soil they would need extra attention. (You can put your general location in your profile so that people can give better advice when climate or other local conditions vary).

Do you want a particular egg color? A particular feather color or pattern?

Thank you for the information, we live in North Georgia ( Dahlonega) Ill add it to my profile! I love the bluish eggs my EE lays and would like something different than the brown eggs =)

 

[Henniezues]

Faverolles, they're beyond docile and make wonderful layers.
You also get the bonus of being able to sex fairly early and reliably.

Great, thank you

 

[Mrs. K]

A white egg layer, can really add a beautiful contrast to an egg basket.

Once, I was in your position, and I started calling people, which led me to more people. Finally calling a person whom, I didn't even know. I said, "Hello, I am a crazy chicken lady, and I understand you might have fertilized eggs." We agreed to meet, and those eggs hatched well.

I have not had good luck with eggs hatching from the mail, but I only tried it once. I have had good luck slipping live day old chicks (less than 3-4 days) under her.

Depending on the age of your EE, you might want at least one that might have a tendency to go broody, they don't live forever. But I would not get the bantam breeds, often times when mixed with standards, they get picked on.

Ridgerunner brings up two very important points - how much space, what are you going to do with the roosters? While people with very large flocks can manage multiple roosters, the odds of managing multiple roosters decreases dramatically the more roosters you have. Giving them away is an iffy solution.

Mrs K