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Welcome to Backyard Chickens!

Australorps would likely work for you. Usually they are very friendly.
 
Welcome to BYC...you're received a lot of good links, and they should keep you occupied for awhile! BYC is kinda like YouTube. You start out looking for a video on how to take apart your tricky vacuum cleaner to clean it out and end up still glued to the computer 3 hours later looking at humorous ballet performances. ;)

It's very hard to suggest breeds or hybrids for someone else. You've got a good start by having an idea what you want. Now you have to also consider cold and/or heat hardiness, whatever is best for your area, and how involved your grandchildren will be in their care. My grandkids were all over the chickens! I could leave my then 8 year old mildly autistic granddaughter, Katie, in total charge of the chickens when we left town for a few days at a time, and never even had to check on her. My grandson Evan, not so much! He'd take care of them, but he didn't care about them one way or the other.

Kendra, our littlest granddaughter, loved the chickens......if she wasn't out there helping gather eggs she was staring out of the open front door or on the couch at the window watching them, squealing "chickens!" and even calling some of them by name. She was 2 when we first got them, 4 when we started helping her handle them, and even more impressive was knowing that she has been in her wheelchair since she was 9 months old and is autistic and mostly non-verbal.

So as you can well imagine, we had to have chickens out there we could totally trust 100%. Kendra couldn't have gotten away from a nasty chicken even if she'd understood that she should try! That meant being willing and able to cull any aggressive chicken if we had to, even a favorite like "Scout". Chickens I can replace...Kendra, Evan and Katie deserved to feel safe at all times. I found the best ones for US in OUR situation - eggs, meat, overall temperament - were our Brahmas, especially our Light Brahma (Tank), our Orpingtons, and the kids all loved our Easter Eggers. The EEs didn't have a lot of meat on them, but they made up for that lack in their personality, appearance, and the different colored eggs. Lots of meat on the Brahmas....we actually had 16 of them. We had 8 Light Brahmas and 8 Buff Brahmas. When we processed them, Tank got a reprieve simply because of her good nature and bond with Kendra. Same with the Silkies - not much for eggs and meat, but eye candy to the hilt and most are so friendly.

Remember two things....they are chickens. They are living, breathing critters, not Pez Egg dispensers. Compromise is critical. Mediocre egg production is perfectly acceptable to me IF the chickens laying them are calm, steady, not disruptive to the flock, and I'm not trying to make a living off the egg sales. And the second thing to remember is that within every flock there are stinkers. While we can give you generalities based our own experiences, every bird has it's own distinct quirks. When I started out in chickens and was at the research point where you are now, I heard over and over again how wonderful Golden Laced Wyandottes are. Well, I couldn't get rid of the 5 that I bought fast enough! Bullies with feathers. Mine didn't fit the mold. So you see, generalities are fine, but guarantees are impossible. A mixed flock is always a good way to start!

Good luck, and welcome!
 
In our experience Orpingtons and EE as well as Dominique, Buckeyes, Brahma, silkies, are all great breeds and when handled gently and regularly as chicks generally enjoy people and being handled as adults.

Our Wyandottes enjoyed our company but did not like being handled at all. Nothing compared to a couple years ago when we decided to try two brown leghorn pullets though. Holy cow! Lol they had to find a new home because they changed the entire dynamics of our flock.

We have also had good luck with a couple Delaware, old English game bantams, cream legbars, red hybrid layers(Isa Browns especially, as well as Cinnamon Queens), Salmon Faverolles. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. LOL

We have tried a lot of breeds so far the ones we have invested more time and energy into(and indeed gotten more of them or plan to get more) are Orpingtons, EE, cream Legbars, Buckeyes, Dominique, and I'm sure this list will grow. LOL

We did later get some breeder stock silver laced Wyandotte and they are much different than our original group.

We love having a mixed flock. We do have mostly 3-4 breeds and then miscellaneous additions that we try out. If we like the small sample groups then we may add more.

Having a mixed flock is great for the different egg colors and different laying abilities. It's also great fun. We also enjoy being able to tell our birds apart. We do band our birds that may not be as readily distinguishable via looks alone.

I will say the biggest thing is handling then as babies, but don't panic if they go through a stage as juveniles where you are treated like Godzilla. Lol they calm down after a while. Also this stage is easier to handle if they already have a trusting relationship with you and is less of a problem if they have space (they won't feel trapped).

Chickens are great and it's wonderful to be able to try out different breeds and see what works best for you.

We've also tried speckled Sussex and like them, and we tried hatchery white rocks. They were okay but the pullets weren't very bright they kept wandering off alone and we ended up losing them all from predators. The males on the other hand were more savage than our other existing cockerals or roosters and both were culled. One had nice qualities for breeding and eating, his brother was scrawny but regardless without the pullets we had no reason to keep them.

We have tried Cuckoo Marans (hatchery) and they were okay calmer than our barred rocks but not the best layers. There was also a wide array of coloration from birds almost missing cuckoo markings to a very light barred pullet that we originally thought was male.

Hope this helps.
 

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