Looking into new breed for our backyard flock - what do you think?

[ecocheapomom]

We are about to get a batch of chicks to begin to phase out our current flock of New Hampshire's. Although their egglaying, health and cold hardiness (we are in NH) has been good we have had a major problem with them pecking each other and generally being agressive towards each other. So we want to get a breed that will definitely be more laidback, but not flighty and can tolerate a mixture of free ranging and some confinement in the run during the winter. We would like to stick with something with very good egglaying abilities, but also considered "dual purpose". Of course, we need a cold hardy bird and one that is easy to handle. Here are a few I am thinking of, plus I am open to suggestions.

Plymouth Barred Rock
Dominique
Silver/Gold Laced Wyandotte
Australorp
Delawares

Thanks for any input!

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Brahmas are nice, calm birds that are great layers of large brown eggs. They also have pea combs, so they shouldnt get frostbite, unline single comb breeds.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

All I have are Delaware's. I get an egg a day even from the rooster!!

ok, maybe not from the rooster... Anyway, When we had an ice storm, they quit for about a week. I had eggs all winter out of my girl's. My 12 yr old DD and 5 yr old neice's have no issue with playing around and with any of them. They are great bird's, but you have to get some from a good breeder to get true Del's with these charachteristics. Hatchery stock won't be the same! Just sayin

Plenty of folks on here have good lines, including myself, so if you go the Del route, I'd buy from a BYC'er with good lines.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can check them out on Henderson's Breed Chart.

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html#w

The Dominique's and Wyandottes would be the most cold hardy of your proposed breeds because of the comb, but Henderson's Breed Chart lists Dominiques as flighty and Wyandottes as can be aggressive. This is a statement about trends in a breed. Certain individuals can be different. You might check the chart for New Hampshires and see if you agree with Henderson's accessment of them.

The only ones I have on your list are Delaware and Australorp. I can certainly recommend either of them. If I had to choose between them, I'd probably go with the Australorp as they are slightly better layers for me. That means they lay a few more eggs and the eggs they lay are a little bigger. However the Delaware have more personality and, if you pluck, have a prettier carcass since they don't have those dark pen feathers. If you want a broody hen, I'd add Orpington to your list. If you don't want a broody, I'd leave the Orpington off.

The Brahma are slower to mature and are quite a bit bigger, which means their feed to egg or meat gain ratio is not great. That won't matter much if you free range them but could come into play during the winter when you feed them. From what I've seen on posts about them, they meet your laid back criteria.

Good Luck!!!

 

[stuckinthecity]

I was also going to encourage the Buff orp, but considering your list, the Australorp and Delaware seem like the best choices for a good, laid back-calm, laying flock. Just like Ridgerunner has said