Joining this forum may have been a bad idea....im awaiting my chicks in october...and I already want more...My husband just joked that I caught chicken fever..or bird flu. How do you guys handle all the choices? I feel like there is so much variety and beautiful birds, and I keep saying...I will use all the eggs...I have a useless cat....but chickens can actually do me some good...They are beneficial to my garden (under control)....I love to cook...so eggs are great...I just keep making more excuses to have more. I didn't even want chickens to begin with. I only started my research because I was pressured into getting some ...now I feel like its a drug...I am spending my days and nights combing through chicken books and on the web. The librarian thinks I am crazy because I have been there four times in one week for chicken books.
So now I have to ask....if I decide to add four more to my flock.....before it ships out to me....what would your favorites be for this area? I am in southern ny. I cannot have roosters where I live, but being here makes me want to move lol....
Help
Well, I'm just like you and I have bunches of breeds because they all look nice and are all a little different. These are the breeds I have and what I like about them:
Light Brahmas: Oh I do so love my light brahmas. They're very friendly and laid back. My roo is watchful of the hens and while he prefers not to be touched and definitely isn't what could be defined as cuddly, he's not mean either, and never shows me aggression. My hen is a sweetheart and loves to picked up and carried around and petted. She jumps into my lap if I sit in the yard with the chickens. These guys come in bantam size too. They're also very cold hardy and are dual purpose, meaning the hens lay decently well and the roos get nice and big for eating, which I don't do but I know some people like.
Buff Orpington: My only buff orpington is a roo and boy is he a sweetheart! He likes to sit in my lap and be petted and have his comb stroked. He's still learning his way around the ladies and is second in line to the light brahma. The hens lay well and are known to be friendly.
Red Sexlink: My first hen was a red sex link and I acquired her on accident. My younger one is very sweet and lets me pick her up. She also lays me lots and lots of brown eggs.
Polish: She was another accidental hen. She's okay but sometimes she acts a little odd because her crest gets in her eyes. She's pretty friendly and I'm sure had I raised her from a chick she'd be much friendlier. These guys also come in bantam size. She lays me medium white eggs pretty regularly, although laying can be hit and miss with polish girls.
Leghorn: My leghorn girl is pretty flighty, although that's a good thing if you want to free range your birds. She's still pretty friendly and lays large white eggs - lots of them! I just ended up with another one from Meyer hatchery (the same place you're getting yours from) and have her inside right now. Cute little chick.
Silkie: I have a silkie sitting on five paint silkie/showgirl eggs and four more silkie/showgirl eggs in the incubator right now! Why? Because I love love love these chickens! My first ever chicken was a black silkie roo I adopted from some friends who wanted him gone or they were going to cull him because they had too many roosters. He was a real sweetheart and he lived with my two pet ducks I had at the time until he left me for a neighbor who had some ladies he could enjoy. My current hen is a sweetheart too and though I didn't raise her, I still like her. She's not really very friendly because she wasn't handled much as a chick but she's gentle. They are very broody, though - my hen has been broody three times this year and this time is the first I have her on fertile eggs.
Old English Game Bantam: I cannot say enough about this breed. Maybe my hen is unique, but she is, hands down, the friendliest chicken I own. She's tiny, and very cute. She was a
TSC mystery bantam bin chick. I was worried she'd be easy prey for a red tailed hawk or raven but she she's okay so far. Walk into the yard and she'll fly up onto your shoulder to hang out until you have to go back in. She loves to be petted and carried around and really, if I had the space, I'd get her her own rooster and a few more hens and have a little flock of just these guys. She lays really tiny eggs - I doubt she herself weighs much more than a pound or so - so as far as egg laying goes they're not really the best. I don't think MPC offers these guys, though. I do wish I had gotten a few more when I bought her. But, hindsight is 20/20, I guess.
I also have a sultan chick growing up with the leghorn right now and she's really friendly and tame, but she's still a baby so I can't really say how she'll be when she grows up.
I also have a cochin, but she was an accidental chicken and I can't really say much about her, 2 accidental barred rock pullets, a mixed rooster of some red variety, and 3 easter eggers who are all nice. The accidental chickens all resulted from one of my oh so wonderful neighbors but I've already written a small novel here so I'll leave that for another time. Oh, and with an 8x10 coop, you could keep 20 hens pretty comfortably. Just throwing it out there
