Mixing breeds?

[wishful]

I'm still several years away from being able to get chickens but that hasn't stopped me from thinking about 'em a ton and the more breeds I read about, the more it seems like everyone has a different opinion about what breed is great. Right now I'm starting to think I may just go into a feed store and grab one from each bin. That or order an assortment from hatcheries, to try the different ones out. But what I'm wondering is, would that give me an accurate representation of the different chicken personalities? Like will I see which breeds are flighty, which are more personable, etc? Or would the chickens all just form a flock mentality and be some odd mishmash of personality, with the flighty ones making the docile ones a little more flighty, the docile ones calming down the flighty ones a bit, the aggressive ones making others mean, etc? If I get a bunch of different breeds, would that be a good way of seeing what I like, or is that just going to leave me utterly confused about chicken personality, do you think?

Thanks.

 

[pkeeler]

I started with a hatchery rare breed mix, and have always just added 2-3 other breeds. One advantage to having a couple of 10-12 different breeds is that it is very easy to tell the chickens apart. You can then more easily pick out different breed behaviors. My Lakenvelders are still flighty, the rocks and wyandottes are friendly and easy going. I don't think them mixing really changes breed behavior at all.

 

[wishful]

Thanks for the quick reply! That's good to hear; takes a lot of the decision-making out of it if I can just get a variety. Plus, like you said, it'd make it easier to tell them apart and I think I'd like to be able to do that since they'll be pets at least as much as they would be egg-makers.

 

[smarsh2]

of course personalities vary within breeds too. You can make general asssumptions about breed characteristics, but there will be the exception.

 

[djmb74]

I have 12 chickens, 10 different breeds and they all have different personalities even the few I have that are the same breed...

First figure out what you are getting the chickens for, such as eggs for breakfast get a few that will fit that role. Then look for breeds that you find interesting and go from there. We got a few that we knew would be good egg layers and then a few that we just thought were interesting looking breeds. We have a list of breeds we are going to add a few each year...