I have RIR and they are large/X-large brown egg laying machines. They are all a little stand offish except one who will jump in my lap looking for treats. RIR roosters can be absolute terrors of the coop, that why I don't have one.
A friend of mine has buff orpingtons and black austrolorps, which are actually black orpingtons bred in australia. They both lay large brown eggs. His hens are so friendly and docile they can actually be a pain and trip you up or fly up on the table while you are eating. He has a HUGE austrolorp rooster that is beautiful, shiny black with green florescence, and so tame his 4 year old son picks him up and carries him all over and puts him in his wagon and takes him for a ride.
Another friend has only barnyard cross breeds of brown layers. He started with the brown egg variety from one of the hatcheries and kept the RIR and Delaware rooster. He has been hatching alot of strong healthy brown egg laying machines that lay mostly large eggs. I've hears that the plymouth and barred rocks are normally large-jumbo eggs layers, but not as productive.
I used to like only pure bred chickens, but I'm starting to like my friends mix. While I can't really quantify it, it does seem that his mixed breed flock produces more consistant, less down time during molt, less problems. He has several of his first generation hatches that are 4-5 years old and don't seem to really slow down in production. My RIR really slow down by year 3, and are only giving me 1-2 eggs/week by then. I normally hatch a new batch during the second year so when the older one really slow down, the young guns step up and take their place and the older ones are off to retirement.
Hope this helps,
Cory
say what ya want but my leghorns are calm and eat out of my hand .i think its got alot to do with the way they are brought up .if you work with them alot they will be friendly. no matter the breed.
