Well, my girlfriend and I have been debating whether or not to purchase a 10 or so hens from, www.mypetchicken.com, and we're not really sure which breed would suit our purposes best. I know I'm asking alot from you guys, but here's a rundown of my situation: 1. have a large yard in So-Cal where our current chickens' (2 rhode island red hens, 1 EE roo, 1 banny chochin roo) free range during the day; 2. 15x15 coop; 3. just interested in egg production; 4. want a friendly, attractive breed Our intial choices: ASTRALORPS WYANDOTTE -any suggestions? thanks...
You got the pictures mixed up! Anyway, I think you should get Orpingtons. Friendly, cute and good layers too!
I vote Delawares! Good dual purpose bird- my chicks are SUPER friendly, and they are a beautiful bird-
I'd get Wyandottes. They are my favorite "layer" breed (althgough I havent tried them all yet) We ordered silver-laced Wy. chicks and ended up getting buff....... didnt realize it until about a mo. later (they were the first id ever had so I thought the silver feathers would come in later) Anyways, they were all friendly but there was 1 who would walk around your legs and when we put our hand on the ground it would walk into our palm. we could carry it around for a while and when we put our hand back down it wouldn't get out. We named her Snuggles, and they are all just as friendly now. And the Wyandottes (we have some silver now) are always THE first to get to the feed and the most avid foragers of all our chickens (and we have some Australorps & australorp/ game bird crosses) + there are many different varieties to choose from so you could have a multi-colored flock if that interests you. SO THERE, GO WYANDOTTE!
If you are mainly interested in egg production, I would suggest getting more RIR. You already have two and they tend to be pretty rough on newcomers . . . if you get a bunch of red heads they will probably have an easier time standing up to your Old biddies. If you are looking for more "color" in the yard Australorps a heavy producers and if you don't mind flighty White leghorns. Dunlaps hatchery has a cross they sell white leghorn X australorp - they are white with a few black spots calmer than WL and thriftier on food than Australorps.
