If You Could Only Have 6 Chickens...

[perchie.girl]

I would have Six Guinea fowl.... Um Oh... I would have six Wellies... Good sturdy birds pretty eggsies too.

 

[SKYLINE]

I’m starting a small flock! If I could have 6 I’d go:

• 2 Easter Eggers
• 1 Barred Rock
• 1 Wyandotte
• 1 Leghorn (all white)
• 1 Rhode Island Red.

But in reality I’m just buying 5 Easter eggers because that’s all my local feed shop has and I can’t order less then 8 until April online.

 

[Peepsi]

Six chickens is exactly what I ordered for my first batch of chickens, coming this July. Here is what I ordered, and why:

1) Black Copper Marans - Beautiful dark brown eggs. I am drawn to dark brown eggs for some reason, even though I know they taste the same as other eggs, and have the same nutritional content that eggs laid by other breeds do, under the same feeding conditions. But I still love those dark shells.
2) Silver-Laced Wynodette - Very pretty bird, and cold-hardy.
3) Gold-Laced Wynodette - Very pretty bird, and cold-hardy.
4) Buff Orpington - My designated lap pet. I've heard orpingtons are super-friendly, and I wanted a chicken that liked snuggles and petting and sitting in my lap. Also, cold-hardy.
5) Australorp - Friendly, cold-hardy.
6) Easter-Egger - Ok, I got this one just for the eggs. I think it would be fun to get green or blue eggs. I know, they only lay one color for their whole lives (which was sad for me when I learned that, LOL!) I'm hoping for a pretty jade-green egg, or a pretty sky-blue egg.

Because this is my first batch of chickens ever, I wanted to have six different breeds, so I could tell them all apart, and see the personalities of each breed.

I wanted mostly clean-legged breeds. I have this (weird) phobia of dirty feet. Heavily-feathered footed breeds such as cochins are cute when they're all clean, but ewwwww.....dirty, poopy, feathered feet would gross me out. Clean-legged birds don't have a problem with poopy feathered feet. I know, the Marans chick I got will have feathered legs, but most of the ones I've seen aren't too heavily feathered on their feet.

I needed cold-hardy birds. I live in northern Utah, and the weather here is awful. I needed birds that could survive in our cold snowy winters.

It will be fun to see the contrast in personalities in these hens (I ordered all females). I want to try to train them as well. I'm hoping to teach them how to read simple English words, such as "Worm", "Water", "Feed", etc. by labeling items in their run with both the word, and a picture. Then, when I ask them to get a worm, they can run over to the correct trough and get one. I think chickens are pretty intelligent... I want to see HOW intelligent they are. (Yeah, good luck with this project).

 

[ThreePumpkins]

Barred Plymouth Rock
Speckled Sussex
Appenzeller Spitzhauben
Easter Egger
Welsummer (or Cuckoo Marans)...I love them equally!
Buff Orpington

We have a pet flock, and these breeds always end up being our favorite hens...cold hardy, amiable, and kid friendly...colorful eggs basket too!

 

[Hoytman]

We chose...

2 Buff Orpingtons
3 Buff Brahma (one rooster)
2 Rhode Island Red
2 White Leghorns
2 Golden Laced Wyandottes
2 Black Jersey Giants
2 Black Australorps
2 Barred Rocks

Of those, if I could only choose six ... considering our environment ... friendliness ... hands down Brahma's and Barred Rocks (then Buff Orpingtons). Leghorns are laying machines and pests to the others (peckers) and are flighty and skiddish which isn't a bad thing out on the farm because they watch things like a hawk and watch for the hawks and anything else.

All of my birds have proved winter hardy to -27*F with no frostbite and WITH wind protection.

We will be adding Silver Lakenvelders, Light Brahma's, more Barred Rocks, more R.I.R's., Speckled Sussex, Welsummer and Barnvelders, Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and a few of their white and black brothers and sisters, some green and blue egg layers...more roosters... some ducks...some lambs...some mule foot pigs...some upland birds...some ducks...err...umm...I'm getting carried away now.

Kidding aside, we really like having a mixed flock ... they keep each other warm too being a mixed flock ... that I am sure is why my Leghorns had no frost bite. Even if would do not add the other breeds mentioned ... at the least we'd like to increase the numbers of each hen per breed that we have, along with a few more roosters so we can be more sustainable rather than having to buy chicks all the time.

 

[TLCMidMichigan]

More Black French Copper Marans.

 

[Frostette]

I would have Delawares

 

[Helen_Jayne]

We actually can only have six due to the small space and then only bantams so we chose 2 silkies (one is a cockerel but they're well worth having for the comedy value), 2 welsummers and we are hoping to get a couple of easter eggers. I would love some polish chickens but I don't think we can stretch to 8!