Looking for the perfect chicken!

[the Pollo Loco]

Quote:
x2
perfect? not gonna find her...

 

[Beekissed]

White Rocks, New Hamps, Black Aussies....all are cold and heat tolerant, thrifty on feed, meaty carcasses and incredibly consistent laying. I've also had broodies of each of these breeds but not too much broodiness. Great mothers and healthy to the max.

 

[raykour1]

I am going to go with barred rocks on this one as a first choice, and second black australorps. This depends on your terrain. I live in the mountain foothills in Coloradoand we have had a couple of attacks on our flock. I have found barred rock hens up in pine trees post attach, but only because I see their comb because otherwise they aren't very obvious. Luckily, I have a bird dog who helps me flush them out of the brush otherwise I would NEVER find them. They blend in really well to the landscape. If you are in a really grassy or green area, I would try the australops because they will blend better in that environment. They blend in great here too in our area. I realize you are in Florida, but there is a lot of variation depending on where you are.

Both of these birds are reliable layers through hot and cold weather. They are good dual purpose birds and generally friendly and docile. The roosters get large. I get 5 eggs a week from my hens sometimes 6. Generally the hatcheries and such say they are not broody, but I have not found this to be true as I usually have a couple out of every batch that are very dedicated setters and mothers.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

In FL here, on N Merritt Island near the space center (NASA) we have RIR, EE, OE, Marans, Ameracuana, Black Austrolope, and a few adopted barred bettors. They ALL free range all day, we have 3 RIR roo's who are 2yrs old with the flock. We are growing out a selection of EE, OE, Marans and Ameracuana roo's currently. The roo's alert nicely, but our geese (African and Sebastopol) alert, spread their wings and charge unwanted guest. We also have two love stock guard dogs (Great Pyrenees) who patrol as well.

Anyways, all of the above mentioned breeds have been fine for us here FL. We have Live Oaks and palms and a big Cedar tree for shade. They seek it out during the hottest days. We also have pools and pans of water as well as run the sprinklers when it is stifling hot.

Shellie

 

[GBov]

Right now we have seven Silkies, two Black Australorps, two Americana's and two Rhode Island Reds. The silkies are a blast looks wise so far, (five out of seven are roosters and the last two look set to join them

) but are so small that a hawk would have em in a heart beat, the BAs are LOVELY calm nice birds, the Americana's are flighty nitwits that STILL havnt learned to go back to the pen without having to be caught and put away and the RIRs are stroppy bad tempered things.

All of them started laying late May and then stopped laying three or four weeks ago. Not the worlds best record for egg laying! Only ONE chicken is laying an egg a day most days, just one!

Bloody things eating their heads off and I have to BUY eggs!

All of them have been fine in the heat but only the BAs are like what I want, friendly and thrifty and smart enough to go home when I open the door.

But non of them have good meat on them. Nice legs and thighs but scanty on the breast. I buy roosters off Craigslist to try this or that breed for meat and while many chicken breeds are called dual purpose, they are all scanty on the meat side.

Is there a true dual purpose chicken or is it a case of great for eggs and yeh, you can eat them too because some meat is better than no meat at all?