I was going to title this: Choosing layer breed for reason other than egg size?
I'm interested in hearing what the reasons might be for choosing a breed that does not produce large eggs (or at least medium) if you are going to be selling at all, even small-scale.
My reason for asking is this: I got my chickens (10 hens plus males for packing) a year ago this week (yay!) and am trying to decide what breed to focus on and get more of. In particular, my 2 roosters are Production Reds from Ideal, and they are lovely but if I decide to do any breeding at some point I'll want to focus on a real breed (or 2 or 3). We do have 3 pullets that are the offspring of those roosters and random hens (bad recordkeeping on my part as to which eggs hatched), but next time I might want to go with a purebred mating.
Anyhow, the reasons I can see for going for anything besides white leghorn are:
1) as mentioned, assorted colors. I'm all for this, though as far as breeding I'd need at least 3 roosters to get green, white, and brown eggs and keep them all fenced separately.
2) maintaining heritage breeds. I'm also all for this. I do not want sex-links or other "improved" hybrids (this rules out my current roosters, which I'm ok with) but there are lots of heritage breeds and I'm interested to hear why you would keep Hamburgs, for example. (just an example of a small-egged breed)
3) dual-purpose. I'm also for this, but again there are lots of dual purpose birds that lay large or largish eggs.
4) stuff like hardiness, heat & cold tolerance (we have extremes of both here in north Texas), etc
So I guess I'm looking for opinions on various breeds and why you love them. I've looked at all the charts & books & tables and I'm ready for some testimonials! Thanks!
I'm interested in hearing what the reasons might be for choosing a breed that does not produce large eggs (or at least medium) if you are going to be selling at all, even small-scale.
My reason for asking is this: I got my chickens (10 hens plus males for packing) a year ago this week (yay!) and am trying to decide what breed to focus on and get more of. In particular, my 2 roosters are Production Reds from Ideal, and they are lovely but if I decide to do any breeding at some point I'll want to focus on a real breed (or 2 or 3). We do have 3 pullets that are the offspring of those roosters and random hens (bad recordkeeping on my part as to which eggs hatched), but next time I might want to go with a purebred mating.
Anyhow, the reasons I can see for going for anything besides white leghorn are:
1) as mentioned, assorted colors. I'm all for this, though as far as breeding I'd need at least 3 roosters to get green, white, and brown eggs and keep them all fenced separately.
2) maintaining heritage breeds. I'm also all for this. I do not want sex-links or other "improved" hybrids (this rules out my current roosters, which I'm ok with) but there are lots of heritage breeds and I'm interested to hear why you would keep Hamburgs, for example. (just an example of a small-egged breed)
3) dual-purpose. I'm also for this, but again there are lots of dual purpose birds that lay large or largish eggs.
4) stuff like hardiness, heat & cold tolerance (we have extremes of both here in north Texas), etc
So I guess I'm looking for opinions on various breeds and why you love them. I've looked at all the charts & books & tables and I'm ready for some testimonials! Thanks!
