How many different breeds do you breed/work on

[Cloverleaf Farm]

I have 2 breeds that I seriously work with, and have them both in large fowl and bantam - Ameraucanas and Faverolles. I have one variety of each in LF, and b/b/s in each of bantam, and a few other varieties in the Favs. I also have a few other birds for "fun", nothing that I am serious with...Chanteclers and Seramas, I've also been trying to get a trio of bantam Sumatras. But the main focus will stay with the 2 main breeds, and I will not sacrifice their quality in favor of more variety elsewhere.

 

[Stephanie739]

Quote:
Ooohh I have 2 CA whites and LUV them! They lay me an egg a day and other than there first skip day after first egg. Plus they give you that traditional looking store bought egg. Have a couple family members who willonly eat "normal" looking eggs that are white.

My kids didn't even want to eat brown eggs last year! I like the leghorns because they lay a lot of eggs, sweet little birds too, pretty and submissive, but I'm biased. Leghorns were one of my first breeds. I like my comets too and my 3 week old babies also tug at my heart (random brown egg laying assortment from my pet chicken!) I'm sure I will have some breeding experiments lol

 

[draye]

Mostly with Easter Eggers. I love the different colors/patterns they come in. Loe picking the roo that I want to go with my hens, hatching our babies and seeing allt he neat colors that I get from the pairing.

 

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

I don't know...let me count:

1. LF Orpingtons in BBS
2. LF Cochins in BBS
3. Silkies in BBS
4. LF White Leghorns
5. LF Buff Leghorns
6. Bantam Orpingtons in Black (only have one blue hen right now so I won't count her)
7. Bantam Orpingtons in a project color.

SEVEN...I have seven, lol.

 

[Pyncheon guy]

I have raised tons of different breeds/varieties pretty much most of my life. I'm now down to just two Bantam breeds: Pyncheons and Silkies. I have the Pyncheons in Mille Fleur, Porcelain, working on Silver Mille Fleur, Blue Mille Fleur, White, and Golden Neck. In the Silkies I have Black, Blue, Splash, and Buff. I also raise Scottish Blackface sheep and Dahlias. best regards, Rusty Hart (Irish Acres) One of my Pyncheon pullets.....

Some of my sheep.....

 

[chickendales]

Quote:
you can work on as many breed as u what as long as you have the $ to buy quailty birds and feed them, and room to house them it is kinda nice to have 2 or 3 breeds to play with that way ur have lil veriety in ur life

 

[LilQtBear]

Very fun...
Yea I'm also getting into breeding nigerian dwarf goats, mainly for milk but I generally buy some of the best quality I can in my area too.
So I will start working on building breeding for seperation and pick a couple to start with, only have one right now.
Definitally starting with the LF BBS Orpingtons, getting ready to order my Lavs and Lav splits eggs as well. I will start with those... maybe I will look into the 2 different size cochins, but I only have one black bantam hen and one LF blue rooster, I do have 5 mille fuer bantam cochin eggs in bator I just stumbled upon recently by accident and needed to try out new bator..seems like a fun color project if I can learn more.
I do have a dozen EE but I never thought about breeding them, I just loved there eggs and one in perticular is so super in my pocket sweet.
Ooo so many choices

 

[LilQtBear]

Quote:
Ooohh I have 2 CA whites and LUV them! They lay me an egg a day and other than there first skip day after first egg. Plus they give you that traditional looking store bought egg. Have a couple family members who willonly eat "normal" looking eggs that are white.

My kids didn't even want to eat brown eggs last year! I like the leghorns because they lay a lot of eggs, sweet little birds too, pretty and submissive, but I'm biased. Leghorns were one of my first breeds. I like my comets too and my 3 week old babies also tug at my heart (random brown egg laying assortment from my pet chicken!) I'm sure I will have some breeding experiments lol

Most people say the leghorns are flighty, that's why the CA Whites were "better" as not to be as flighty...mine are super sweet they can be bullies of the flock but I do luv there egg production so far.

 

[Illia]

Well I DID have Buff Ameraucanas, Duckwing Araucanas, project Ameraucanas, Cuckoo Araucanas, Blue Wheaten Marans, Tolbunt Polish, Shamos, and Olive Eggers but now it's just Buff Am's, Shamos, and Polish.

Did the Araucanas because they're such hardy birds, very rare and unique, lay blue eggs, very good foragers and moms, and make excellent dual purpose birds who don't eat much but still fill out nicely.

Did the Ameraucanas for the same reasons (minus the uniqueness, and they're more common, and not as good of foragers honestly), but in a different bird, one with a tail and less fertility issues plus there's the beard/muffs, also, they come in Buff which is an awesome color in serious need of more breeders.

Did the Polish because they are awesome, and come in some amazing colors like Tolbunt and Silver Laced (which is different from the lacing found on Wyandottes) plus they're super foragers, great layers of honestly rare white eggs, they don't eat much, they're very friendly, and at least mine are very smart and tough too.

Did the Shamos because they're an amazingly shaped very old and rare breed with super intelligence, foraging ability that is unbeatable, a very tough nature one can't mess with, but also they are THE most reliably friendly, non-aggressive out there, and they're also so neat to look at and make some good dual purpose crosses with heavy breeds.

My random crosses and Olive Egger hybrids are for dual purpose (sell the pullets, eat the cockerels) as well as neat experiments and education. I learn so much in color genetics and the sort when crossing birds here, plus I have quite a few neat crosses I find surprising good uses for. And most of my mutts are one-of-a-kind that you likely won't find elsewhere.

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

I have a bunch of different breeds, but keep the variety of production birds just for eggs. As far as breeding goes-
Australorps~ These are my favorite. Good disposition, productive, and tasty.
Ameraucanas- Blue/Black (Once upon a time, before a raccoon wiped out my buff, silver, and wheaten possibilities, I wanted to breed other colors)
Wheaten Marans~ None of my girls have laid yet but my fingers are crossed that I'll be breeding these soon
Jersey Giants- Blue, Black, Splash. I like how these lay large speckled eggs, but with such a tight gene pool I'm getting some unsatisfactory combs. I'm trying to decide whether I want to find a good pair of Black exhibition fowl at the show in a couple of weeks to breed more or if I'll just keep what I've got and not breed them anymore. They're nice in that they're calm and obviously they're big, but they grow verrrry slowly.

I can make EEs for fun, so I'll probably do that with my remaining Buff Ameraucana rooster and the two production-type Buff Orpingtons I have. My mom loves the golden cheer of buff plumage, so maybe I'll give her some of the resulting chicks so she can take a rainbow basket of eggs to show off to her preschool classes.