Okay, so I want to get my chicks... in April I should have my pen by then....
My son in law wants 'different colored eggs' I'm like oh my stars
I just want plain friendly chickens to lay nice eggs.
So what can I put together to make us both 'happy'?
okay, well he only WANTS ONE CHICKEN.................... can I get ONE bantam with another breed? will they get along?????
Are you buying from the local farm store? If so, you can look for
White Eggs: White Leghorns
Green Eggs: Easter Eggers (also sometimes labeled Ameraucana/Araucana) (some will say blue eggs and pink eggs, but usually you get green)
Medium Brown Eggs: New Hampshires (better chance of being friendlier than Rhode Island Reds which also lay a medium brown)
Other Brown Layers that are usually friendly: Red Comets, Red Stars, Red Sexlinks, Black Sexlinks, Buff Orpingtons, White Rocks, White Orpingtons, Speckled Sussex, and others
Dark Brown Eggs: not usually available at the local farm store
If ordering from a hatchery like Ideal Poultry, you might be able to get a different type of white egg layer, although many hatcheries are running low on rare breeds at this time of year. They still have White Leghorns, though.
If ordering from a hatchery, you might still be able to get some dark brown egg layers, like Welsummers, but they are probably out for the season. Marans also usually lay a dark brown egg, but hatcheries are usually out of them for the season.
I haven't had a great number of bantams, but they have always done just fine in a flock of standard-sized layers. They were raised with the other layers from the time they were chicks. My bantams have never laid well ... it's more of a sporadic thing with them ... and not through the winter. This spring is the best my little d'Uccle has ever laid. She's been laying for about 3 weeks now and is going to be 5 years old in a month or two!!
I've noticed that the White Leghorn will lay an extra large egg to a medium egg depending on what specific hybrid a hatchery gets from their supplier. If you go to the Shaver/Babcock/ISA web sites, you'll see (with a little hunting) that they have hybrids that specifically lay an extra large egg and some that specifically lay a large or medium egg. I have had extra large White Leghorns from one hatchery and med/large egg laying White Leghorns from another hatchery. And there was no way I could have known what I was getting beforehand.
