The only thing I hate about chickens.....

[BarredBuff]

Is picking the breed. I know most of you keep multiple breeds in your coop but I want one breed so the newest saga in BarredBuff's Chicken Breed Trials when I took the BOs to my cousins huse today I really didnt want to give them up and then I saw he had a BO hen that was gorgeous so I fell in love with it so I have the newest set of questions devised to help me figure it out this between Dominique and Buff Orpington

1. Who would work better free ranging?
2. Who would be broody the most?
3. Who would be more cold hardy?
4. Who would be a better egg layer?
5. Who in your opinion would be more susceptible to predators?

It is just so hard to pick I like them both and I cant choose I was gonna keep the Australorps I ordered originally but change of plans again.....
I have researched the fir out of these breeds and nothing I read convinces me to which I should get

 

[Illia]

Let me warn you right now that this is going to turn into everyone else's "what breed should I choose?" thread - And everyone is going to say Orpingtons, Australorps, Sex Links, Delawares, RIRs, and Barred Rocks . . . Sooo. .

I'd say go with any of those common breeds. They're all hardy to any climate, they all lay very well, they're all easy to find locally or even at a hatchery, they all have broody tendancies (but remember, hatcheries like to breed that out) and they all are good free rangers. They're all the same about predators too - It depends on where and how you keep them.

The ones who are predator-food are birds like Leghorns, even though they lay a lot of eggs. They're also not broody at all.