Help me pick please!!!

[rodriguezpoultry]

Alright.

I would choose a breed that you like. One that will fit your moods, preferences, feeding preferences, habitat and temperature fluctuations.

Bantams don't eat as much as largefowl birds, but you lose the meat abilities with the roosters. Bantams are in demand now since the feed prices are still really high.

As for me, I will go with the biggest breeds I can get my hands on...

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Go with a breed you love, it will give more pleasure!

We will have 50 Bantams at our county fair this weekend, and far fewer large fowl. I think they said 28 ducks and 11 broiler trios (the champion can be auctioned at the livestock auction and the broiler chicks were donated to the kids by the local industrial chicken farm)

I do not know what it is like in your area, but banties do well with chicken fanciers if they are of exceptional quality. Not many want a mediocre banty, except for fly control in pastures. You can eat them, but there is a lot of processing for the meat.

I can always find a place for a mediocre *looking* large fowl if it will also produce something useful, like decent sized meat and eggs for reasonable amounts of paid feed.

 

[Goose and Fig]

As for me, I will go with the biggest breeds I can get my hands on...

I second that! But the big breeds are more appropriate for our family & land. You need to take your climate and predators into account too. Never underestimate a racoon!​

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
Silly ol bird. I meant they don't produce eggs I can SELL (when people want medium or large brown eggs) or that are RECIPE size! Better??? I love my banties. Tell those Araucana that I'd like some blue eggs for my bator some day. geesh. go all touchy on me. For that you get buns in yer face

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
You can stop showing me those gorgeous huge langshans any day now, I don't need another addiction.

To the OP -- really find a breed or breeds you love, be prepared to be flexible - loving a picture can turn out to a bird not doing well in your situation. Change should happen then, don't feed what you don't enjoy living with.

Stick with one or two breeds, you learn more about their tendencies and care. Give a breed a year or more to see if it fits, many won't mature until then and some later.

At maturation you may love or hate a bird in ways much different then when they were young and cute.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

idk....what's one more addiction right???

My best Barred Pullet is laying eggs!

The eggs are the size of a somewhat normal hen...but I haven't tested fertility yet!

I just thought you'd like an update!

 

[walkswithdog]

Go BARRED girlies!!! I'm putting new addictions off for a few years. The dentist just claimed every penny for ten months at least. Those huge black buggers of yours will have to wait.

 

[Pathfinders]

My favorite large fowl breed is the Buckeye, (and they also come in bantam.) I like Buckeyes so much that I recently started a fully fledged breed club for them, the American Buckeye Poultry Club:

http://www.americanbuckeyepoultryclub.com

They are a nice dual purpose bird. They lay a good amount of medium sized brown eggs. They forage very well (even hunt mice!), get along with each other and humans (not flighty, almost too friendly, underfoot a lot!), and the extra males, with their wide breasts, dress out nicely.

They are the only breed of American chicken created by a woman (yay!), and the only American breed with a pea comb, which means no frostbite in winter (unless you live in Duluth or someplace like that.) They tolerate heat and cold well, some will go broody (if you prefer them to raise their own babies) but are not excessively so, and are just an all around perfect farm chicken, IMO.

I have some pics of Buckeyes on my website:

http://www.pathfindersfarm.com/services

And you can see a great website devoted to the breed by a member of the ABPC here:

http://www.buckeyechickens.com

Let me know if I can answer any more questions about them.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

The Buckeyes are very interesting, and the DS wants a red chicken, but they would be in the same class as Delawares at our local fair...must talk youngest DS into showing the Dels and then can get Buckeyes for the older DS....Yes! Yes!

 

[Pathfinders]

One of the nice things about showing in ABA/APA shows is that siblings can show together. My daughters do so, and it means they are not competing with each other, which is a real plus. They just put both their names on the entries and mail them in that way. County Fairs and 4-H shows are different, and you generally can't do that though.