I ordered ten last year as day old chicks, but only ended up with two. The first batch arrived with four dead, and the replacements I think did not fare well being raised with a heating pad with larger breeds,. They had much more trouble than the other two breeds from the same shipment. If you were to order chicks, I would order them when it is good and warm, and raise them while tiny without larger breeds maybe. Or hatch out eggs?
So, one cockerel and one pullet...hard to say only the bad, because there is so much good! She laid early and well, but the eggs are medium at best. She has been a successful mother, so definitely broody. Great fertility, and all her brood, plus others incubated and then adopted by other broodies, have been really healthy so far. Her personality is calm and friendly. High hatch rate in the incubator.
The cockerel is selectively aggressive. He is totally fine with me in with the flock by myself, never ambushes me, but whenever I go in with someone else, he has to challenge, which I intercept, pick him up while he is trying to flog me, then carry him around for a while. I handled them a lot as chicks, maybe that helped create some of this? He is great with the chicks, and that selectivity with his aggression indicates to me more intelligence in general. He is gorgeous and so graceful. Hard to decide about him, he is so good as a protector, but I have been thinking about posting here to get more outside blood and hopefully a less aggressive cockbird.
So a lot of these negatives are positives, if you want a free range self sustaining savvy flock.
