Good starter breeds?

[sandiatonimarie]

What!? No one mentioned Wyandottes as a good starter breed? American heritage dual purpose breed (meat and eggs), lots of pretty colors to pick from within the breed, calm and easy to handle, cold hardy, good light brown egg layer.

They go broody often which can be good or bad depending

 

[kidsnchicks]

Wow, thanks everyone! What exactly are Easter Eggers, Ive seen them mentioned a few times. We are mostly looking to get eggs and my oldest daughter is looking to maybe take a few to fair next year for 4H, but we will see. As for the ducks just pets but if they or the chickens decide to expand the family it would probably be ok,lol. I haven't looked into the ducks much, maybe I will check out a couple of hatchery sights to see what is what. Course when you get babies of about anything they are cute!

 

[Yessur Ebob]

an easter egger is the same thing as an ameraucana. they call them that because of the wide range of egg colors.

 

[chickenlover54]

Quote:
an EE is nothing like an Amaracauna, EEs are crosses that carry the green egg gene. They are a completely seperate caliber

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

The Barred Rocks make nice dual purpose birds (and our Barred Rock rooster is great), Orpingtons are nice, and tend to get broody if you're looking to have your chickens hatch peeps.

 

[kidsnchicks]

I think we are going to go to our local farm store and see what breeds they carry and see if any of them are what anyone has suggested. I really like the EE idea,lol, we will see! Can I keep the ducklings in with the chicks, do they eat the same feed and such?

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
an EE is nothing like an Amaracauna, EEs are crosses that carry the green egg gene. They are a completely seperate caliber

Well that sounds a bit snobby...

but is fairly accurate. EEs are mixes, not pure bred. Ameraucanas are pure bred, with recognized/accepted color standards. Folks do often confuse them, or lump them all together, but they are different. I had a roo who was of a pure Ameraucana mother AND father, but because of his color mix, he was considered EE rather than Ameraucana. But EEs are wonderful birds, friendly, funny, and lay beautiful blue, green, or pinkish eggs usually (since they are mixed, a few folks end up with brownish eggs).

This breed does do well in cold weather, because they have a smaller comb. Wyandottes (at least mine) also have smaller combs, so would make a good winter breed. I love my barred rock, australorp, and orpington too; As others have said, they're all sweet birds that lay well.

 

[Timmy]

look around here and get hatchery catalog and pick out something you like. just because I like Buff Orpingtons doesn't mean You will. For your daughter I would suggest you go to a show and find a breed and breeder there that she likes. The younger kids usually do better with the bantam breeds. She may not be able to show the Easter eggers because they are not a recognized breed. i would keep the chicks and ducks separated.

 

[kidsnchicks]

Well for ducks, does anyone have any Cayuga ducks? I like the looks of them but don't know much about them. Our list of chick choices so far are Blue Andalusians, Barred Rocks, Black Australorps, and Americanas. If any one has good, bad info please share, thanks.

 

[InsaneBreeder]

I vote for buff orpingtons.