Flock replacement- what are your thoughts

As some of you know I've had issues with picking lately. Along with a new addition to the coop, I want to replace some of the birds I've lost this spring. However when I look at the dozens of variety's available at Mcmurray or wherever, I get overwhelmed. I keep saying "I want some of those, and some of those, etc, etc." Eventually I end up wanting 50 chickens and defeating the purpose.

I know this is kind of a personal choice sort of question. But I'm just wondering how other people have decided in the past. What do you do? Do you have a whole bunch of different kinds? Or do you concentrate on one, maybe two breeds and try to raise them to the best of your ability?

 

Well, if the new york lottery comes through tonight, all this will be for not. I’ll have ten of each!!!! Just kidding.

My first intentions on the topic of keeping chickens was just a way to remember my grandparents and to sort of have a link to the past. Mom, Dad, and I miss them all very much. My mom often talked about being on the farm with her mother and how her grandpa used to come into the house with a his RIR rooster tucked under his arm. Dad would speak of how his father would keep all sorts of things like guineas, chicken, turkeys, ducks, and whatever else he could. Even though Dad isn’t real fond of the birds I had, I know he appreciates the tie they create to his parents and to my Moms. I was amazed to see Dad break down this past fall and help me process the Cornish X’s I raised. He’d never touched any of the chickens I’d had. But as he was helping, you could see him lost in his own thoughts, thinking back to the time when he was a boy. He explained how Grammie (had to distinguish between mom’s and Dad’s family‘s) and her sister Mildred would build a fire in the yard and heat up a big wash basin of water. Then they would go get the chickens, lop off the heads, and hang them on the clothes line. Dad went on for almost an hour about it. So I really feel he really appreciated the whole reason I got the birds to begin with.

When I chose the birds almost a year ago now, I did so with the only the three following criteria:

Cold hearty: This winter has been the nastiest ones I remember for quite some time, so this definitely needed to be a top criteria.

Calm, gentle disposition: They had to be calm, friendly, etc. I was in a friends hen house and his were wild, loud and I just didn’t like it. We have some kids who come around that like the birds. I didn’t want breeds who were notoriously mean or whatever pecking them to death or making them fearful.

Color and looks: I would say was the one other, but not as important. I love to paint. So color and shape were two things I looked at as kind of an expressive thing. Although one of the most nondescript looking hens, turned out to be my favorite.

This site helped me a lot.
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

When the time came to choose, I asked Mom what she wanted. Immediately she said RIR’s. So they were the heart of the order. But we ended up with: 5 RIR’s, 8BO’s, 3 SLW’s, 3 Dommies, 3 BG’s, and 4lt Brahmas. Unfortunately all the dommies and lt brahmas and one of the BG’s died shortly after they arrived due to that disease problem Mcmurray had last spring.

So I guess I’m just looking to retain the tradition. I'll have to make the choice and see how it goes. I’m making my list in my head as I type!

Thanks for the input!