My new chicken breed criteria: Dual purpose, Brown eggs, & UNFRIENDLY

[petrel]

My family and I are new to chickens. We figured we'd get eggs, fertilizer, and eventually meat when production fell off and we introduced fresh stock. Now it has become obvious that this entire flock will get to die of old age! They are pets with names and individual personalities who are giving the family dog a run for her money! It is hard to compete with a pet that is beautiful, runs to you, jumps in your lap if you sit, has an entire vocabulary of different sound for communicating, and dutifully provides the foundation for breakfast and a host of other goodies almost every day.

We have to start another flock as a "production" flock. I'm looking for a dual purpose, brown egg layer, that isn't so darned endearing! Surely there are some good, meaty, prolific layers out there that are naturally aloof and suspicious of people. It would be great if they were mean and ugly too! We've taken a vow to not make pets of the next flock, it would help if they do their part. I welcome your thoughts on the subject.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Personally I think you are out of luck. What you want doesn’t exist. Even the naked necks are so darn ugly they are cute.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Personally I think you are out of luck. What you want doesn’t exist. Even the naked necks are so darn ugly they are cute.

X2, Sadly, I seem to be able to make a pet out of about anything. Looks like you will have to work on making them hate you from the start.
Do you have a pattern or color you don't like, or what is your least favorite? Will you be breeding your own?

 

[cluckcluckluke]

x2 on Ridge's post.lol.


The personality of a chicken depends on the individual and on it's up bringing.

If you raise chickens from chicks yourself and make sure they don't get a heap of human contact then they won't be as inclined to bond to you. Although in saying that, the individual thing comes in and there will always be a few that will become real friendly.

I suppose you could go more to the 'gamey' side of chicken breeds but again they are not 100% going to hate you.lol.

Hopefully some more people can come in with some better ideas.


You could always scare your chicks with a 1.5 metre long lizard!!!

 

[lularat]

Good luck. I agree with Ridgerunner...will be hard to get all your birds to not like you. I personally think all chickens are cute, but not all are equally as cute. From your avatar, it appears as though your birds like you very much. I agree that you can't bond with them and limit contact with them. Maybe you can get family members who are least likely to bond with them to do most of their care.

 

[2DogsFarm]

Murphy's Law of Poultry:
The more you don't want your chickens to like you, the more they will

IIWM, I'd just resign myself to the fact that any critter living with me is a pet & look for some home-raised meat birds elsewhere.

 

[petrel]

Thanks for the responses. I was afraid that would be the consensus.

 

[Bean789]

I cannot be of any help with the meat bird option. My 34 yo daughter along with my 3 granddaughters rescued, as many as they could get their nets around, tadpoles in the pool that had turned green. They captured and then dumped them into a nearby pond. That was at the old house.

At the new house on barely over an acre, we now have the original 2 dogs, a rescued dog, and a new puppy as well as a rescued feral cat, and the little girls family cat.

Then we got 8 baby chicks in April 2014 for egg production only. Then we got 6 more baby chicks, "I want a blue Silkie, I want a Splash Silkie" and I wanted more chicks for more eggs and to raise with some guineas for pest control and in lieu of a rooster for an alarm system for the chickens.

All of the above mentioned 18 fowl will hopefully produce enough eggs to offset their long lives at our house. Otherwise, I need to buy the neighbors house with acreage so I can have more chickens.