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You see their true beauty lies in their functionality. They were bred to be a dual purpose fowl and they lay eggs as well as any other dual purpose bird plus if you raise them for meat there is 50% less feathers to get rid of which leaves a smoother more eye appealing dressed bird.
The hens will go broody and the ones I have had will raise any chicks and they often raise the chicks as a community
NNs are naturally disease resistant (although I have yet to find a list of which diseases) and I have never lost a chick to Cocci.
In cooler climates their feed conversion rates drops off but in climates that are hot they outperform things like broilers or layers by leaps and bounds.
I've only had NN's for a couple of years now & must agree wholeheartedly with Les's evaluation of NN's. They are great layers and very hardy. I think the only one we've ever had die was an egg-bound hen.
As for pretty NN's, we're working on that .... those frizzle NN's are so cute & cuddly! I've got to get some glamour shots of them one of these days that I'm not stuck at work for 10 hours.
If only they laid blue & green eggs too .... hmmmm .... I think I need to cross some with my araucana! I want some Rumpless frizzle EE NN's!!!!
Carla, I have an NN roster that has muffs. He is out of an EE hen (no muffs) and an NN roo. I am taking him to Les at Shawnee.