Need suggestions, please

[uncle briggs]

I'm trying to settle on a chicken breed to start with next year. I would prefer the following qualities:

- dual purpose birds, good egg production preferred over size
- decent foragers
- reasonably easy to raise/work with
- sturdy

Now I have several obvious possibilities here. However, here's the quality desired that makes it trickier:

- reasonably easily bred/reasonably good sitter (I want to play around at raising my own the old-fashioned way)

I was thinking Rhode Islands or Barred Rocks, but apparently good sitters will be rare in these breeds. Suggestions/advice welcomed. Color/appearance doesn't really matter, other than I don't want just plain white. Thanks in advance.

 

[Becky_H]

Brahama? Cochins?

 

[uncle briggs]

Fast answer. Do the kinds with feathered feet require any special care/considerations?

 

[Becky_H]

Nope. As far as I know the only consideration with those two breeds is they tend to tolerate cold weather better than extreme heat.

 

[Judy]

Here's an article on broodies, which includes a discussion of broody breeds:

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

Trouble is, none of the good broody breeds are dual purpose. From the article I'd say find a good breeder of buff orps and see if you can get broodies that way. Just read on here an opinion that better lines of a breed are more likely to be broody.

I have a Kraienkoppe who is 1 yr old and just went broody for her third time. She is a good mama, too. She is not a bantam, but she is smaller than a leghorn. You wouldn't get a decent chicken sandwich off her, I don't think. I originally had 4 of them, all small like her.

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Orpingtons. Can't go wrong with orpingtons.

 

[Pampered Hen]

You could get a couple hens of the broody breeds as natural incubators. That way you have a larger choice for your dual purpose flock. I hear that Delawares are great for that purpose.

 

[SilverStar]

Australorps or Orpingtons

 

[dun chick]

orpingtons, barred rocks, sex links.

 

[Krys109uk]

Here's an article on broodies, which includes a discussion of broody breeds:

That site is brilliant.

Harvey writes such fascinating articles.​