Kid friendly chickens.

[bb0029]

Hello all. I am totally new to the chicken scene. When I was younger my grandparents had some but in all honesty I stayed away from them because the rooster ruled the coop. The rooster hated me and often would attack me every time I got near the hens. When he kicked the bucket my grandfather had him stuffed and he sits on the hearth of the fireplace lol. To this day I can't stand that thing.

Anyways my oldest son is just about to turn 6 and we are looking into getting a few hens for him. Something he can take care of with our supervision and to give him a understanding that eggs come from chickens and are not made in the store. (Kids are funny)

Over the nest week or so I was going to build a coop and I guess what you would call a runner. I am shooting for maybe 3 hens total. I am still not sure on the number. I figure one by itself would probably get lonely. I have read a ton on the site and the more I read the more confused I get about the different breeds. I am looking for a chicken with some color to them, anything but plain white chickens.

I was looking at the breeds and was trying to decide what I should be looking to get. I know they all make noises but I don't want anything that bock's all day long. I would like to get some pretty good size eggs out of it as well. Nothing huge but nothing too small. Something like a grade A large you would buy in the store. The color of the egg really is not that important to me as well. I need them to be birds that don;t mind being handled and are not aggressive. I live near Athens Ga where it gets cold in the winter but does not get that bad. It gets real hot and humid in the summertime. I guess it needs to be something that will do good within the south. Everybody around me has these plain white chickens and I want to be a little different. I am not looking for show chickens, just something that is more appealing to the eyes. I have no desire to eat them, just something that will produce eggs and will be a loving bird.

I don't know how readily available these things are but this is what I was looking at:

Dominique I think this one is my favorite.
Faverolles
Holland
Sussex




Thanks

 

[paddock36]

How about Americanas or EEs. You could definitely find color variations in the birds and they will lay colored eggs like blue or green.

 

[underground chickenman]

The Red Stars and Black Stars are very friendly egg laying machines.

UGCM

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Well Ameraucanas are rather hard to find compared to Easter Eggers - But yes, I'd recommend Easter Eggers. They lay any color of egg, come in many different colors, and are available all over the place. Often very sweet too.

Another I'd say is really good on your list are Salmon Faverolles.

Holland are very rare.

 

[blacktailsmom]

I posted something similar and ended up ordering Buff Orpingtons and Silver Laced Wyandottes. We had Rhode Island Red's but they haven't worked out as well for us. I had EE's reccommended and then not reccommended. My chicks arrive tomorrow or Friday, we are all so excited!

I think this year was unusually cold for yall, wasn't it? I saw pictures of snow drifts and schools closed. Yikes.

 

[muddyhorse]

If you handle the chicks and teach them good stuff comes from the big two leggers you shouldn't have any problems. My daughter is 6 and handles all the birds, its cute to see the giant cochin roos wanting to be cuddled. you MUST post pics when the birds come. when they arrive let them rest for 24 hours before you really start to handle them, it is

 

[muddyhorse]

If you handle the chicks and teach them good stuff comes from the big two leggers you shouldn't have any problems. My daughter is 6 and handles all the birds, its cute to see the giant cochin roos wanting to be cuddled. you MUST post pics when the birds come. when they arrive let them rest for 24 hours before you really start to handle them, it is a good idea to give them some electrolytes in their water. good luck

 

[sovia]

Speckled sussex, buff orpingtons, delawares, easter eggers. My girls actually named the speckled sussex "Brownie" and 'Sugar' because the hens were so sweet and always trying to jump in our laps. However, it is so nice to hold one of those big fluffy orps!

Actually, now that I think about it, we got 7 red sex links this year and I have been surprised how friendly and quiet they have been. And, they lay like crazy. Not a bad idea to get those, either.

 

[bb0029]

Wow thanks for all the replies. I went to the feed store today and they had a wide variety of chicks. They had Silver Laced Wyandottes, Araucana, White Araucana, Rhode Island Reds, Hollands and your typical chicken house plain old white bird. They had about 5 more varieties but the owner told me the other ones were semi aggressive with his experience and he said said are more of free range kind of bird so I did not write those down. I plan on going back in the afternoon after work on Friday and picking some up.

I like buying from the local guys cause it supports the little guys and I can just go pick them up and nit wirry about shipping and all that mess.

I just cant make up my mind between the Wyandottes, Arucana and the the Hollands. I am leaning more towards the Wyandottes myself. He said they will be good producers and that is the main bird he has. He said his daughter can pick them up, lay them on their backs and rub on them. He also said that if I ever wanted to try to breed them that they would be easy to work with. he pretty much stated everything I have read here on the website.

They Silver Laced Wyandottes he has are a week old tomorrow and they seemed pretty calm. Some of the other breeds would group up and run away when you went near the bins while these guys all came to you. I don't know if that means anything but to me it kind of let me know they were the most social of the groups that they had.

Once again thanks for all your help and let me know what you think about the Silver Laced Wyandottes.

 

[sovia]

The SLW I have is the prettiest bird I own. Definitely stands out against the rest of the flock. Same is true for the golden-laced.