Does difference in breed color affect personality?

[mich17mak]

Hi - I tried to do a websearch on this but couldn't find an answer. Does the variation in chicken color for each breed affect their personalities? For example, Buff Orpington is usually very docile. Will a Lavender Orpington also usually be very docile? (I know personalities within a breed will vary, but I'm asking "in general"). ...so will *all* Orpingtons, in general, be docile and have similar personality traits, or will they be noticably different according to what color you have? More examples are: Will the personality of a Rhode Island Blue be much different that RIR? And Blue Rock vs Barred Rock? Hope my question makes sense.

Thanks!

 

[sourland]

Most likely selection on the part of the breeder will have a greater impact than color of the birds.

 

[Alpine Bobwhite]

Hi - I tried to do a websearch on this but couldn't find an answer. Does the variation in chicken color for each breed affect their personalities? For example, Buff Orpington is usually very docile. Will a Lavender Orpington also usually be very docile? (I know personalities within a breed will vary, but I'm asking "in general"). ...so will *all* Orpingtons, in general, be docile and have similar personality traits, or will they be noticably different according to what color you have? More examples are: Will the personality of a Rhode Island Blue be much different that RIR? And Blue Rock vs Barred Rock? Hope my question makes sense.

Thanks!

Not sure if this is what you want, but I was once told that brown peck harder than white chickens. Not sure if the colours are the right way round.
They might just have been two different species.

 

[Iluveggers]

Same breed different colors should have similar personalities overall (individuals all have differences, but in general).

The Rhode Island Blue and a blue Rock are actually hybrids, so they aren’t the same “breed” as a Rhode Island Red and a Plymouth Rock. But buff & lavender Orpington should act similar, Barred, Partrdige, Buff, White rock etc should act similar.

 

[Amer]

Well, a Rhode Island Blue is not a pure breed, so of course it will be different. Same with the “blue Rock” that hatcheries sell.
The behavior of strains and who selects the birds is most important.
Standard bred birds are usually mellower than hatchery birds.
Often, the varieties I raised did have different personalities.
My blue d’Anvers and quail d’Anvers were different, because they had different breeders.
But they weren’t radically different.

Not sure if this is what you want, but I was once told that brown peck harder than white chickens. Not sure if the colours are the right way round.
They might just have been two different species.

Considering chickens aren’t typically classified as just “brown,” somebody just made it up.
All chickens are the same species.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Not sure if this is what you want, but I was once told that brown peck harder than white chickens. Not sure if the colours are the right way round.
They might just have been two different species.

Same species. This is the equivalent of people who say that brown eggs taste better or have more nutrition than white eggs.

 

[mich17mak]

Same breed different colors should have similar personalities overall (individuals all have differences, but in general).

The Rhode Island Blue and a blue Rock are actually hybrids, so they aren’t the same “breed” as a Rhode Island Red and a Plymouth Rock. But buff & lavender Orpington should act similar, Barred, Partrdige, Buff, White rock etc should act similar.

You're right, those examples are hybrids so it's not the same as comparing the Orpington examples. Thanks for catching that!

 

[Alpine Bobwhite]

Considering chickens aren’t typically classified as just “brown,” somebody just made it up.
All chickens are the same species.

They may have been Rhode Island Reds and Whites, it was true actually the white ones were not so viscous.

 

[ShaunJ421]

Every chicken has their own personality. Regardless of breed. Just like every person has their own personality. Some are nice. Some are jerks. My friendliest chicken, by far, is my Buff Orpington. But I'm sure there's some people out there had the opposite experience with their Buff Orpington. Some roosters are friendly, some are aggressive...

I think how they're raised. Their other flock mates. Their environment. Their diet. Amongst many other factors, will determine the personality of any given chicken. Same can be said for any person.

 

[Tervuren]

Well it’s going to partly depend on if a breeder or hatchery is selecting for temperament in their breeding stock and what they’re selecting for. Some will accept aggressive rooster behavior, while others cull for that strongly. Another point is how the color varieties developed. White is a color that pops up as a ‘sport’ in several breeds and then can be selected for over time to create a white variety. So, for example I would expect Black and White Langshans to have the same temperament. This does not hold true for Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites though! According to the Livestock Conservancy the Rhode Island white was developed “by crossing White Wyandottes with Partridge Cochins and Rose Comb White Leghorns.” Compare that to the Rhode Island Red where “its ancestors include Malay (hence the deep color), Shanghai, Java, and Brown Leghorn chickens.” Given the different breeds used in their creation you can expect the two Rhode Island breeds to have different temperaments.

TLDR- You’ll have to research how different color varieties were created. If new breeds were used to introduce a color, you might expect different temperaments to come with the color.