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Hello from Adkins
We have 9 americauna, 5 buff orpington, 2 barred rock, 2 silver laced wyandottes, 4 production reds, and 2 golden sex links ( my sexy chicks (they have no butt feathers)). Also have 2 turkeys and 3 guineas, and 7 cats. So far it seems that the americauna have the calmest personality (and lay blue or green eggs) out of all of the birds we have. They like to talk to us and to be picked up and carried around. The more you handle them of course the better they will be. We had started with 5 americaunas, and ended up with 4 more when the feed store had gotten another batch a few months later because we love the way their colors vary. We have no roosters, one of the turkeys is a tom tho but he is a gentle giant. I believe all of our guineas are hens but not sure. This combination has worked well for us. I think that if you keep the rooster away, unless you have a need for fertilized eggs, the flock stays pretty calm. I have had my production reds fly up at me, but they just wanted to land on my shoulder. I later figured out they were not happy when they did that. I added a few toys to their run like a few roosts a foot off the ground, a few bins they could run into and some hanging baskets to put treats in to give them something to do, and since then the reds have not attempted to fly onto me. I would also mention that the barred rocks seem to be really calm and have a good personality as well. They do lay the brown eggs and are also a pretty hardy bird.
Please ask any questions you may have, I will be happy to attempt to help. I am far from being an expert but have learned tons over the last 9 months. I even started a mealworm farm just over a week ago just to give my girls a bit of extra protein when they go into molt mode.
Jason
