After reading HeatherLynne's thread about her experience with faulty bred Marans, I'd like to suggest a new topic question: What surprises have you had in your flocks over the years? What breed of chickens have found it's way into your flock against your better judgement... that you didn't think you'd like... and you fell in love with that breed? Or, what breed was an "I gotta have it" breed, and once you got that breed, you decided that it was not at all what you were expecting it to be? Let's hear the good, bad and ugly about those birds. I'll start: Pioneer: I got 10 pioneers for meat birds this spring. Expected to raise them to freezer camp size and be done with them. I allowed one pullet to stay, and she was the first of my spring chicks to lay. She lays a nice large dark brown egg, barely missing a day. She's earned a permanent spot in my flock, and I'll not be surprised if she goes broody this spring. She has an ample skirt to cover a lot of eggs!
I'd have to say the EE mixes I've gotten have been my biggest surprises. Most were very fiesty and standoffish as chicks and young birds, but my older EE girls (I hated my rooster and he hated me. Glad he's gone now.) were very social and vocal when I would come out to check on the girls, feed them and collect their eggs. I figured as unfriendly as they were as chicks, they'd be the same as adults. Not so. My orphingtons are very standoffish and I would have expected the opposite from them.