Mixed flock versus single breed flock - pros and cons? Which do you keep?

[woodmort]

I've always kept a mixed flock--other than when I was raising broilers in HS--mainly because I could. For one thing I keep chickens, primarily, for eggs. Not only does a mixed flock give you a colorful assortment but different breeds lay at different rates depending on age and time of year. Currently I have (or, hopefully, will have when the chicks arrive tomorrow) an even dozen different breeds of pullets/hens,. The only requirement I have is that the breeds need to be cold hardy and good foragers.

What I don't do is hatch my own since I'm not interested in hybrids excepting for EE's. My only roosters are EE's so if I want, I can distinguish which fertile eggs to use. At one point I was working to breed for blue colored eggs. Unfortunately a weasel put an end to that experiment after 3 generations.

 

[mountainchickens]

I currently have a flock of seven different hybrids, all from a nearby (ish) farm that has all kinds and crosses most of them. In the past we've always had mixed flocks, though there was one point where we had five Golden Comets, one EE and one orpington rooster. That was the closest I've ever come to a flock all of one breed.
Some of the people who have presented pros for the pure flock have great points, but since I'm keeping them purely as pets and a source of fresh eggs, I think I'll stick with mixed - some of the pros I've found are that you can tell them apart (very easily), that you get a colorful assortment of eggs, and that you can get a bunch of breeds at once to try out their temperaments, etc. If I was breeding I'd have a bunch of different coops, all with pure flocks. As it is though, I love having hybrids or an assortment.

 

[danceswithronin]

I've always kept a mixed flock--other than when I was raising broilers in HS--mainly because I could. For one thing I keep chickens, primarily, for eggs. Not only does a mixed flock give you a colorful assortment but different breeds lay at different rates depending on age and time of year. Currently I have (or, hopefully, will have when the chicks arrive tomorrow) an even dozen different breeds of pullets/hens,. The only requirement I have is that the breeds need to be cold hardy and good foragers.

What I don't do is hatch my own since I'm not interested in hybrids excepting for EE's. My only roosters are EE's so if I want, I can distinguish which fertile eggs to use. At one point I was working to breed for blue colored eggs. Unfortunately a weasel put an end to that experiment after 3 generations.

I really love the different colored eggs, but honestly I'm not a huge fan of the look of a lot of Easter Eggers or Araucanas, the muffs aren't really my thing and I like a more traditional body/face shape in a hen, not to mention a larger bird. Also a lot of the lower quality barnyard or hatchery Easter Eggers have a very "mutt" look to them, so you can't really anticipate what the adults will look like based on the parents or the appearance of the chicks.

So that kind of keeps me back from having a colored egg flock even though I think colored eggs are super cool.

We have exact opposite requirements in a flock - you need cold hardy foragers, I need (relatively) heat hardy breeds that don't mind confinement.

 

[Shadrach]

I thought it was mainly red junglefowl with a bit of grey?

It is currently but there are Asian breeds that have a different mix apparently.

 

[BantyChooks]

It is currently but there are Asian breeds that have a different mix apparently.

Good to know, thanks.

 

[Shadrach]

While I have noticed that often times birds of a feather stick together. I have not noticed any issue with my mixed flock. In order to produce a significant change in birds, you are talking 20-30 years of breeding. Over time, a lot of mixed birds will loose their productivity. But for a general flock of about a dozen or less, it is not worth worrying about it.

This rather depends on what you call a 'significant change'. From domestic to feral in one or two generations with breeds that have supposedly had broodiness and tree roosting inclinations bred out of them and are supposedly completely dependent on human care I would call a significant change.
Oh, and btw, chickens are not and never have been birds.
Current science has them as descendants of ground dwelling dinosaurs with arms where they now have wings.

 

[chrissynemetz]

I've had both single breed flocks and mixed. I've had ducks geese and guineas in with them. (As long as everybody had enough room there was never any real problems.) I currently have a mixed flock, I'm like everyone else who enjoys the variety of colors. But honestly the biggest advantage of a mixed flock to me is that it's easier for me to keep up with everybody. A missing hen is more noticeable if you have only two or three of any color, as opposed to having twenty or thirty who look the same.

 

[yickenscarf23]

I have all different kinds. Mostly because I like a lot of different colored eggs and I get so attached I like to be able to tell them apart and name them, ect. I have mixed breeds in the incubator right now and I can't wait to see if I get any crazy looking colors from the mille fleur Cochin too I had. I'm not interested in selling any or showing.

 

[Harmony Fowl]

It sounds like you and I are in similar shoes, OP. I have a flock of 30+ mostly mutt birds. Customers really do enjoy the multicolored dozens they get, I will say that. They are pretty and fun and I enjoy seeing what kinds of chicks pop out, but after two years of chicken keeping, I'm discovering preferences in myself I wasn't aware of before. I don't really care for the typical EEs, either. I've found that crossing them with Orpington or Brahma gives me nice, fat, fluffy EEs that make those muffs and small combs so much more appealing. The drawback is they still suck at laying and I have passed from casual chicken keeper to more of a focus on such production and however attractive the large EEs might be, poor layers don't have a place here, definitely not as breeding stock, anyway. Coincidentally, I bought a few more chicks over time to add to my flock and I was rather frustrated by how those purchased chicks outperformed my homebred ones. When I thought about it, why shouldn't that be the case? I took a bunch of cruddy layers and threw them together in the name of a "mixed flock." It worked like it was supposed to. All these breeds don't come by their popularity for no reason. They all exist to fill some kind of niche and the nature of my niche has changed. By chance, I found a combo of breeds that suits me, a mix I have a couple of already and who I'm absolutely delighted by in almost every way, but guess what? There's no space to bring in birds of those breeds to make more of what I like. Like it sounds you really want to, I'll be phasing out the others in the next couple of years to make way for what really floats my chicken boat.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some EE's I bred by mixing various hatchery breeds, Speckled Sussex, Black Austalorp, Delaware, Buff Orpington, Buff Rock, plus I got some Ameraucana from a breeder to get the blue egg gene. It took a few years of selective breeding but these hens laid a lot of decent sized blue and green eggs and practically every one went broody at least once a season, traits I bred for. EE's are not a breed. There is no SOP for an EE. They are going to take on the traits of their parents. I made mine to be the way I wanted.

Since playing with genetics was one of my goals, I had a lot more fun with my mixed breed flock than I would have with a purebreed flock. What works best for you, purebred or mixed, will depend on your goals and desires. What works best for me doesn't matter to you, it's your goals that should matter to you.