If you had to choose...

[ShrekDawg]

Out of your list, I would add Wyandottes. I have a silver laced and a golden laced. Neither of them are mean at all. The silver laced is a bit more skittish than some of my other chickens, as in, it is harder for me to get her to let me pick her up and hold her, but she has never done anything mean to other chickens that I have seen. My golden laced is one of the friendliest chickens I have, to me and other birds.

I have only had one speckled sussex and she, unfortunately "went missing" (read as "was likely eaten by a hawk") after only a few months of having her. She was one of the prettiest in my flock, but she was very skittish. I still would have gotten another had they been an option when I was picking out more chicks this year.

I have two cochins and they are very friendly and docile. The best rooster I have ever had is a cochin. He does very well at alerting the others about predators (and airplanes) and isn't too mean to his flock. He's only been a little aggressive with me, but never actually attacked, as some of the roos I've had in the past have. I adore buff orpingtons the most out of all chicken breeds, as they are most friendly. I have also found white leghorns to be very friendly. I have had two in the past and have one that is a couple months old right now. (S)he follows me all around the yard, just like my orpington.

I doubt I helped you narrow this down much, since I also have issues with narrowing down which breeds to choose. Overall, if you could only add three or four more, I'd go with a cochin, another orpington (because they are friendly and mine have always layed very well), some sort of laced wyandotte, and a leghorn.

Thanks for the help! Your birds all sound great.

If your looking for a friendly chicken Who just adores being fed treats well...
I suggest a barred wyandotte! This chickens are just adorable and will be a great addition to the family!

I've never heard of that one but I'll have to look into it!

 

[ShrekDawg]

I've been thinking maybe I should just build a hoop coop and get 15-20 chickens and have a separate layer flock so I can have all the breeds I want.

The reason I say 15-20 is because I was debating adding the leghorns and sexlinks or not. Want the super high egg production but afraid of reproductive troubles.

This is the list I was thinking of.



Let me know if anyone can't read it and I will make it full size.

Might add or remove some though, like not sure if I should get so many Rocks. Are White Rocks good layers?

And not sure if Brahma should be in a laying flock. Might separate Brahma, an EE, and add another SS and add the pet flock. But idk if I want to integrate. So idk. I guess I would still have plenty of eggs and would be feeding her either way no matter what coop she was in haha

And yes I have them in a cart... not buying them though, don't worry. At least not YET.

 

[Table4Six]

I currently have Welsummers and Gold Laced Wyandotte
My Gold Laced is my mean bird.

I'm going to vote for brahmas. Mine are SO friendly and lay very well. Their feathered legs are beautiful and I love the coloring of my light brahmas. My light brahma roo is absolutely wonderful! He's very respectful of my space, not mean at all and he's not overbearing with my hens.
Good luck!!

I vote brahmas too. I used to have a dark, light, and buff brahma hen, but now I only have my huge, lumbering buff brahma hen, because my other two died of old age. But they are the friendliest, gentle giants ever. Even the roos tend to be docile.

As for Wyandottes: they are typically very aggressive birds and the bullies of the flock. I have a GL hen who is friendly towards people, but not other chickens.

 

[CannedMonster]

I have 3 BL Silver Wyandottes and 1 red sex link. They’re 8 months old.

There are many factors to take into consideration when judging the temperament/personality of any animal.
How was the animal raised?
Did it have lots of human contact and handling?
My birds were raised by a broody and had no human handling at all. They won’t let me touch them. I can’t blame their breed for that.

Does it have enough space?
There’s a reason many hatcheries include whether a breed does well in confinement in the breed description.
If they don’t it means they’re going to need more space or you may have aggression/bullying problems.

It’s unfair to blame a breed for behavior that may be due to inexperienced human management.

Also different lines of the same breed may have better temperament than others.
If I really want a certain breed and haven’t had good luck with it, I will usually try it from another hatchery or line before giving up on it.

If you only get 1 of each breed it really doesn’t give you a good indication of what that breed is like.
Example: I’m currently raising 5 Naked Neck chicks and 1 bantam Cochin and 1 Silkie. They’re 6 weeks old.
Of the 5 NN, three are very bold, curious, aggressive, etc.
Two of them are more timid but of those two, one is extremely skittish and easily frightened while the other is curious but not dominant or aggressive.
See what I mean?
If I only had one Naked Neck instead of 5, I might judge the whole breed on an individual personality.
I too struggle with chicken math and trying to get as many breeds as I want within my budget but I’ve realized that I need to just try smaller numbers so I can really get a feel for what I like.
And I want to get at least two of a breed so I can see if they’re different.

My Wyandottes hang back way more than my sex link, Red.
Red is a hog, lol. She only cares about whether I have food. She’s the dominant hen.
She will follow me around the yard closely to see if I will turn over rocks for her to look for bugs and worms.
The Wyandottes will come close to me but not like Red.
One, Penelope, was the lowest on the pecking order and is now second, right behind Red.
Penelope has become a bit of a bully. She chases Coco and Pepper away from treats all the time. She also grabs them for no reason too. I’m not happy about that.

It’s hard to know how mine may have turned out different if they were human raised with lots of handling instead of broody raised.
It’ll be interesting to see the difference in my NN birds...

I’m attracted to breeds more for feather color than egg color.
I really want to get Speckled Sussex and Partridge Rocks!
Good luck to you and I hope you keep posting about how they turn out for you!

 

[Table4Six]

My Wyandottes were hand raised and had plenty of human contact. As I stated before my GL hen lets me hold her all the time and loves being hand fed treats. Also my birds are free ranged, so space was not a contributing factor to aggressive behavior. I've done research on this breed and for the most part they just tend to be domineering birds when it comes to other chickens.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I vote brahmas too. I used to have a dark, light, and buff brahma hen, but now I only have my huge, lumbering buff brahma hen, because my other two died of old age. But they are the friendliest, gentle giants ever. Even the roos tend to be docile.

As for Wyandottes: they are typically very aggressive birds and the bullies of the flock. I have a GL hen who is friendly towards people, but not other chickens.

Do you find any differences between the colors or are they all pretty much the same?

And hmm, I definitely don't want more bullies but they're also so pretty so idk.

I have 3 BL Silver Wyandottes and 1 red sex link. They’re 8 months old.

There are many factors to take into consideration when judging the temperament/personality of any animal.
How was the animal raised?
Did it have lots of human contact and handling?
My birds were raised by a broody and had no human handling at all. They won’t let me touch them. I can’t blame their breed for that.

Does it have enough space?
There’s a reason many hatcheries include whether a breed does well in confinement in the breed description.
If they don’t it means they’re going to need more space or you may have aggression/bullying problems.

It’s unfair to blame a breed for behavior that may be due to inexperienced human management.

Also different lines of the same breed may have better temperament than others.
If I really want a certain breed and haven’t had good luck with it, I will usually try it from another hatchery or line before giving up on it.

If you only get 1 of each breed it really doesn’t give you a good indication of what that breed is like.
Example: I’m currently raising 5 Naked Neck chicks and 1 bantam Cochin and 1 Silkie. They’re 6 weeks old.
Of the 5 NN, three are very bold, curious, aggressive, etc.
Two of them are more timid but of those two, one is extremely skittish and easily frightened while the other is curious but not dominant or aggressive.
See what I mean?
If I only had one Naked Neck instead of 5, I might judge the whole breed on an individual personality.
I too struggle with chicken math and trying to get as many breeds as I want within my budget but I’ve realized that I need to just try smaller numbers so I can really get a feel for what I like.
And I want to get at least two of a breed so I can see if they’re different.

My Wyandottes hang back way more than my sex link, Red.
Red is a hog, lol. She only cares about whether I have food. She’s the dominant hen.
She will follow me around the yard closely to see if I will turn over rocks for her to look for bugs and worms.
The Wyandottes will come close to me but not like Red.
One, Penelope, was the lowest on the pecking order and is now second, right behind Red.
Penelope has become a bit of a bully. She chases Coco and Pepper away from treats all the time. She also grabs them for no reason too. I’m not happy about that.

It’s hard to know how mine may have turned out different if they were human raised with lots of handling instead of broody raised.
It’ll be interesting to see the difference in my NN birds...

I’m attracted to breeds more for feather color than egg color.
I really want to get Speckled Sussex and Partridge Rocks!
Good luck to you and I hope you keep posting about how they turn out for you!

Thanks for the info, this is helpful. And I find you're right. Like my chickens were in pretty cramped quarters at first just cause we had bought a temporary thing for when they were chicks but then they outgrew it and we were building a new one. Anyway, now that they have more room, I find they are much nicer and get along better. And, besides the extra room, they also have more to do. Having been on the other run for 2 1/2 years, it was somewhat barren though I did try to keep them entertained. Now they have new ground to explore and tons of good dust bathing spots (the section we put them happens to have minimal grass, idk why, so they all just lay down in separate holes and sunbathe. It's so cute.

And yeah, that's a good point about getting only one of a breed and part of why I got 2 of each originally plus actually a Meyer Meal Maker which ended up being a 3rd BO but if I doubled all those that would be 30-40 chickens, plus my current 7, and I don't think I'm quite ready for THAT level of chicken math haha

I figure if I get one I can try a ton of breeds and see which ones I like and which ones I don't and decide if I want more later. And yes each individual is different so I could try different lines and stuff too and might but then at least I can know if I totally detest a breed. Might not be the most reliable results but still ha

Plus I figure with one each I can actually tell them all apart which I like.

But it still might be better to just get a few more for now but idk.

I thought I knew which ones I wanted to try but now having more opinions is actually making it harder rather than easier like I thought hahaha

It's cause they all sound good now!!

 

[ShrekDawg]

My Wyandottes were hand raised and had plenty of human contact. As I stated before my GL hen lets me hold her all the time and loves being hand fed treats. Also my birds are free ranged, so space was not a contributing factor to aggressive behavior. I've done research on this breed and for the most part they just tend to be domineering birds when it comes to other chickens.

I love the social aspect but a potential bully sounds disappointing :/

But do you think with the other strong breeds in the order it might not be an issue?

Like some of the others may be able to stand their ground.

I do worry about the couple gentler ones though

 

[CannedMonster]

My Wyandottes were hand raised and had plenty of human contact. As I stated before my GL hen lets me hold her all the time and loves being hand fed treats. Also my birds are free ranged, so space was not a contributing factor to aggressive behavior. I've done research on this breed and for the most part they just tend to be domineering birds when it comes to other chickens.

My post wasn’t in direct reference to yours. I’m sorry if it seemed that way
I was just trying to share my experiences and thoughts with the OP.

 

[Ducksandchickens]

Buff Orpingtons are my favorite !

 

[ShrekDawg]

My post wasn’t in direct reference to yours. I’m sorry if it seemed that way
I was just trying to share my experiences and thoughts with the OP.

I can see where they may have possibly thought that but even if it was directed at them (though it wasn't), I didn't see your post as attacking but rather educating

And I do appreciate everyone's input, both the good and the bad. It's good to get different opinions.

The Wyandotte thing is making me nervous still BUT my thinking is that if they were so horrible, nobody would buy them??

Buff Orpingtons are my favorite !

Orps are amazing!! I had 3 and now have 2. I can't pick favorites though haha

I love all mine for different reasons.

For example, my Orps are very friendly and curious and one in particular always comes running to see what I'm gonna uncover for her haha they also tend to hang together and are so cute.

But they are also somewhat stupid sometimes and not the most aware birds which isn't great.

Then my Barred Rock is very intelligent.

My EEs are very hard to catch but very curious and friendly.

My Australorps I can usually easily catch now but very talkative birds lol

Idk, I love them all haha