Chicken Flocks: Mixed or All One Breed?

[nekker57]

I am starting with just one breed Dominique. My Father always loved this breed and I plan on raising them possibly to show. How been away from chicken raising for a few years and since I retired my granddaughter and I are growing to start a small flock, mainly for egg production.

 

[ehoneybee]

I can't imagine just having one or even two breeds; how dull! We had/have RIR, BAust, EE, Wyands, BO, and BR. The Wyand and EE are our faves in terms of likeability so far, but man the BO lays some big eggs. Can't even close the carton!

 

[Starwise]

All mixed breeds here too. Easy to identify and can also tell them apart just by what kind of sounds they make. Love the variety of eggs too. I try not to assume personalities by their breeds, as those can vary by individual birds as much.

 

[buffyfluffy17]

I have a flock of 17 chickens;16 hens and one rooster. They are all mixed together, made up of different breeds. The variety of feather and egg colors makes for a very interesting and entertaining flock. I have 3 Golden Laced Wyandottes, 2 Speckled Sussexes, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 Red Sex Link, 1 Black Australorp, 3 Welsummers, 2 Buff Orpingtons (one of them is the rooster), 2 Ameraucanas, and 2 Blue Andalusians. I really enjoy having a wide variety of breeds, and always look foward to getting new chickens.

 

[dogkahuna]

I get as many breeds as possible, so only one bird each. This way, I'm operating with as big a gene pool as I can get my hands on.

 

[PotatoWaffles]

I like having a mixed flock. There are so many cool breeds that each have their own unique traits. Some are extra cold hardy, some lay blue eggs, some are more docile, some are bomb egg layers. I want a few of each to the get the best of all worlds plus I like being able to tell my birds apart , lol.

 

[Abriana]

Mixed breed flocks often do very well. Even small bantams with large birds (I have one bantam with 13 large ones, soon to be 16 large birds, then maybe 18, and three ducks too lol) can work out fine. However, ornamental breeds such as polish and silkies (especially the bantams) may get picked on since they can’t see/have feathers that may be fun to pick at. If you have large birds as well as ornamentals that are regular sized/bantam, you should be prepared to separate them if needed.

 

[kittycat1356]

Mixed! I also love rare/ish breeds so sometimes when I’m getting a chick,chicken or hatching eggs I get odd looks like, You’re buying WHAT for your hooligan flock? Now I have cut down on a lot of my chickens since I’ve moved (hate it here wanna leave as soon as I have the chance) and I have more of an egg laying flock now, but in my prime, I had silkies,frizzles,sizzles, Polish, Sebright bantams, porcelain duccle, Millie fluer duccle, old English game bantams, brabanters, appenzellers. All in the same general pen, there was the occasional big rooster on tiny hen and vise versa, but the little hen in particular that seemed to always be the preferred one, would crouch for him, and if she didn’t want it she would just fly off. I had some crazy looking babies from them.
Though almost all my babies were from the banty hen mentioned above. She was my best layer, hatched her from barnyard mix eggs off eBay, she’s black with brown on the neck, so most of her babies were somewhat boring but ended up being midsize bigger than her but smaller than the dad.

Now I’m stuck to more standard eggy breeds like RIR, jersey giant, EE, same hornball Banty hen and Speckled Sussex, but I’m getting the freaks at every chance I get!

 

[Whittni]

I never had any issues with mixed flocks. The pecking order is a well established principle and I've even had tons and tons of roosters in my flocks before. Just spend some time with the chickens before you purchase them, maybe a half hour, and get to know their personalities before adding them to your flock. Another example is being given a crowing hen can be fixed by adding her to a flock with a rooster. You'll get an eye for their behavior, it just takes time!

 

[nekker57]

I want to try and help rebuild the Dominique breed. I will in time get different breeds for laying purposes.