MJ's little flock

[WhoDatChick]

Thank you,. Where is @WhoDatChick to defend the EE too!

EEs are tha bomb!!!!! My favorite by far! So gorgeous! Colored eggs.. maybe .... Great layers! Gorgeous! Friendly... mostly! Gorgeous! I think maybe all I really had to do was post a pic of everyone’s favorite....

 

[RoyalChick]

EEs are tha bomb!!!!! My favorite by far! So gorgeous! Colored eggs.. maybe .... Great layers! Gorgeous! Friendly... mostly! Gorgeous! I think maybe all I really had to do was post a pic of everyone’s favorite.... View attachment 2473989

Claudine!!
What a great way to start the new year.
I see Trump looking rather grand in the background - is he behaving himself?

 

[CrazyChookChookLady]

EEs are tha bomb!!!!! My favorite by far! So gorgeous! Colored eggs.. maybe .... Great layers! Gorgeous! Friendly... mostly! Gorgeous! I think maybe all I really had to do was post a pic of everyone’s favorite.... View attachment 2473989

STUNNING

 

[Ribh]

You are a shameless enabler! Indeed that would be the most logical approach and would take me close to my maximum flock size. I am thinking 8-10 in total (better 8 than 10) so everyone has loads of space because it seems that reduces squabbling.
But now I am wondering whether to not add anybody at all this year and follow Shad's advice to leave a nicely settled flock well alone.
There is more than usual uncertainty in the flock given Maggie's lash eggs in September. Assuming she survives the start of spring I wouldn't want to stress her out. But on the other hand she seems to enjoy chasing the road-runners and I think likes not being at the bottom of the pecking order.
If I went with three I would get another Legbar (but a golden crele one) and two Wyandottes (one blue and red and one black and silver). That way I can tell everyone apart.
As you can tell I am deeply undecided what to do!

You have plenty of time to decide. I'm a Wyandotte fan, especially of the silver laced... so I say: Good choice. Legbars aren't easy to come by here or I think I'd be tempted. They sound like my sort of chicken: flighty nutters.

 

[WhoDatChick]

Claudine!!
What a great way to start the new year.
I see Trump looking rather grand in the background - is he behaving himself?

Thank you! He sure is!
And speaking of EEs.. I gotta go get a pic of Daffy since she has molted.. I’ll do a before and after... her color has changed so much!

 

[WhoDatChick]

Here is before and now of Daffodil....

 

[Ribh]

I think some of the more physical characteristics might be determined by breed, but even then you get the oddballs.
What I don't believe has anything to do with breed is personality.
If it were true, then it seems reasonable that it would apply to all species and that includes us. It doesn't though.
The other thing that should make one doubt the breeds personality stuff is right here on BYC.
Set up a poll on which chicken breed was the most friendly for example and get enough responses and it looks more like a coin toss.
It's a bit like the dangerous dog by breed debate. Once a particular view gets established then people buy that breed and train it to be dangerous and the myth rolls on.
Treat the dangerous dog in another way and you are likely to get a different dog personality wise.
It doesn't make any sense for a chicken to be any different to any other animal in this respect and there is no evidence to support such views.
Getting a similar size; yes, lots of evidence that this works.
Getting chickens that look similar; yes, lots of evidence for this as well.
Some chickens are better at evading predators then others; evidence for this to.
Some make better foragers, yup, evidence for that.
One breed is inhernetly nicer than another; zero evidence and lots of anecdotal stuff that shows the opposite.

Shad, did you ever seen the Russian experiment into the domestication of Black Foxes? I think, from memory, they were trying to see how domestication of wild dogs first occurred. They were breeding for just one trait: friendliness/human approachability. All the non friendly foxes were culled. What happened, which is fascinating in & of itself, is that spontaneous mutations started happening, long wavy tails, spotted coats, short curly tails, snout changes, size & shape of the fox all began to change. It is worth noting they were breeding for friendliness alone ~ so it doesn't seem improbable to me that the same thing is possible in chickens. They did it with the ragdoll cats too ~ & possibly other things I'm not aware of. Just a thought. I'm not a scientist so I probably missed something but it has always stuck with me because it was such an obvious sort of experiment with quite bizarre results.

 

[RoyalChick]

You have plenty of time to decide. I'm a Wyandotte fan, especially of the silver laced... so I say: Good choice. Legbars aren't easy to come by here or I think I'd be tempted. They sound like my sort of chicken: flighty nutters.

The picture of Claudine ( ) reminded me that in all my fussing about what new chickens to add to my flock, I forgot about my obsession with black chickens.
None of the chickens I am thinking about are black.
The problem is the farm near me where I am hoping to get the chickens doesn't have any black ones and I really don't love the idea of getting chicks in the mail.

 

[Shadrach]

I haven't seen it or read about it. I know a women in Sweden who is studying the behviour of wolves but she's not breeding for any particular charactaristics.
I'm not happy about humans breeding for anything. We don't know enough to be doing it. Leave it to nature is my view.

 

[MaryJanet]

The picture of Claudine ( ) reminded me that in all my fussing about what new chickens to add to my flock, I forgot about my obsession with black chickens.
None of the chickens I am thinking about are black.
The problem is the farm near me where I am hoping to get the chickens doesn't have any black ones and I really don't love the idea of getting chicks in the mail.

I don't like the idea of chicks in the mail. They're so vulnerable.