Thoughts on my future flock?

[mchickies]

Just thought I'd pop into thread and mention something. I noticed you put Golden Comet in your list of hens. Since you seem to be putting together a flock of very pretty hens, I'm thinking these are more like pets? Golden Comets and any kind of Sex-links are extremely prone to reproductive disorders and death around the age of 2 years, due to their high productivity. If you want to keep your hens around 4+ years, I suggest you stick with the other breeds you listed! They will be hardier in terms of longevity.

 

[Ragfrey]

Just thought I'd pop into thread and mention something. I noticed you put Golden Comet in your list of hens. Since you seem to be putting together a flock of very pretty hens, I'm thinking these are more like pets? Golden Comets and any kind of Sex-links are extremely prone to reproductive disorders and death around the age of 2 years, due to their high productivity. If you want to keep your hens around 4+ years, I suggest you stick with the other breeds you listed! They will be hardier in terms of longevity.

You are correct. I would like very pretty hens with various colors of eggs.


Thank you sooo much for your suggestion. This is great information!

I think I have narrowed it down to these 11.

Black Copper Maran- dark egg
Welsummer- dark egg
Buckeye- brown egg
Spec Sussex- cream egg
Blue laced Wyandotte- cream egg
Golden laced Wyandotte- cream
Silver laced Wyandotte- cream
Starlight green Egger-green egg
Blue Andalusian- white egg
Easter Egger- ? egg
Prairie blue Egger- blue egg


Possible alternates are:
Australorp- brown egg
Ameraucana- blue/olive egg
Cream Legbar- blue egg

 

[mchickies]

You are correct. I would like very pretty hens with various colors of eggs.


Thank you sooo much for your suggestion. This is great information!

I think I have narrowed it down to these 11.

Black Copper Maran- dark egg
Welsummer- dark egg
Buckeye- brown egg
Spec Sussex- cream egg
Blue laced Wyandotte- cream egg
Golden laced Wyandotte- cream
Silver laced Wyandotte- cream
Starlight green Egger-green egg
Blue Andalusian- white egg
Easter Egger- ? egg
Prairie blue Egger- blue egg


Possible alternates are:
Australorp- brown egg
Ameraucana- blue/olive egg
Cream Legbar- blue egg

Oh, I'm drooling! You've got so many lovely choices there! I love the looks of the Wyandottes so much, but our brutal Florida heat has pretty much killed any dreams I had. I'm living vicariously through all your choices. I'm just gonna name-drop some more eye-candy breeds in here (it's a guilty pleasure of mine): Double Laced Silver Barnevelders, Swedish Flower Hens, and Splash Marans. Gorgeous!

 

[Ragfrey]

Oh, I'm drooling! You've got so many lovely choices there! I love the looks of the Wyandottes so much, but our brutal Florida heat has pretty much killed any dreams I had. I'm living vicariously through all your choices. I'm just gonna name-drop some more eye-candy breeds in here (it's a guilty pleasure of mine): Double Laced Silver Barnevelders, Swedish Flower Hens, and Splash Marans. Gorgeous!

Yes, I am in South Louisiana and it gets brutally hot here too but when I asked at our local feed store, that will order them for me, she said she has Wyandotte’s at her house. Said that they just need a lot of shade and coop ventilation….so I will try and see.

Thanks for sending those other choices!!

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

Just thought I'd pop into thread and mention something. I noticed you put Golden Comet in your list of hens. Since you seem to be putting together a flock of very pretty hens, I'm thinking these are more like pets? Golden Comets and any kind of Sex-links are extremely prone to reproductive disorders and death around the age of 2 years, due to their high productivity. If you want to keep your hens around 4+ years, I suggest you stick with the other breeds you listed! They will be hardier in terms of longevity.

To this point, starlight green eggers and prairie Bluebell eggers are essentially the same thing, production hybrid colored layers. I personally have tried to stick with more heritage or pure breeds (although I ended up with green eggers by accident ) but I believe the Ameraucanas and Cream Legbars would be an example of purebred chickens that lay colored eggs.

(Incidentally, I saw Lavender Ameraucanas for $45 per chick and Opal Legbars for $92 almost!??? Please don't pay that much for your chicks. That at the end of the day, are still hatchery chicks.)

That said, most any hatchery chick, even a "heritage type" as I understand it, because they come from a hatchery breeding process, may have a lot of the heritage strengths bred out of them. :/ So it is what it is. I personally hope to start purchasing more from local breeders, or shipped eggs in the future, but I understand not everyone is going to do that.

Ultimately, who knows how long your chickens will live, but if you have that concern about Golden Comets, I'm afraid we maybe could raise the same concerns about any of the other hybrids. Just food for thought.

 

[mchickies]

To this point, starlight green eggers and prairie Bluebell eggers are essentially the same thing, production hybrid colored layers. I personally have tried to stick with more heritage or pure breeds (although I ended up with green eggers by accident ) but I believe the Ameraucanas and Cream Legbars would be an example of purebred chickens that lay colored eggs.

(Incidentally, I saw Lavender Ameraucanas for $45 per chick and Opal Legbars for $92 almost!??? Please don't pay that much for your chicks. That at the end of the day, are still hatchery chicks.)

That said, most any hatchery chick, even a "heritage type" as I understand it, because they come from a hatchery breeding process, may have a lot of the heritage strengths bred out of them. :/ So it is what it is. I personally to start purchasing more from local breeders, or shipped eggs in the future, but I understand not everyone is going to do that.

Ultimately, who knows how long your chickens will live, but if you have that concern about Golden Comets, I'm afraid we maybe could raise the same concerns about any of the other hybrids. Just food for thought.

1000% agree! I recently experienced rampant reproductive infections in my own flock of Barred Rocks (just as they reached 2 years of age), and hatchery breeding has been the death of some of my favorite hens. It was just a rabbit hole that I wasn't going to go down for this discussion... Golden Comets are the most offensive in the reproductive problem category, so I only mentioned those. Thank-you for chiming in on the Starlight Greens and Prairie Bluebells; I assumed those were fancy names for olive egger type mixes.

For my own flock, I actually am only going to buy from responsible breeders, going forward. My chickens are pets that I want to live a long, happy life! And, no! You absolutely DO NOT have to pay $92 for an Opal Legbar (looking at you Meyer Hatchery ).

 

[mchickies]

Yes, I am in South Louisiana and it gets brutally hot here too but when I asked at our local feed store, that will order them for me, she said she has Wyandotte’s at her house. Said that they just need a lot of shade and coop ventilation….so I will try and see.

Thanks for sending those other choices!!

View attachment 3523568

Ooooohhhhh! That's gonna be a nice set-up! And you have a lovely yard, if you're planning on doing some free-ranging.

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

1000% agree! I recently experienced rampant reproductive infections in my own flock of Barred Rocks (just as they reached 2 years of age), and hatchery breeding has been the death of some of my favorite hens. It was just a rabbit hole that I wasn't going to go down for this discussion... Golden Comets are the most offensive in the reproductive problem category, so I only mentioned those. Thank-you for chiming in on the Starlight Greens and Prairie Bluebells; I assumed those were fancy names for olive egger type mixes.

For my own flock, I actually am only going to buy from responsible breeders, going forward. My chickens are pets that I want to live a long, happy life! And, no! You absolutely DO NOT have to pay $92 for an Opal Legbar (looking at you Meyer Hatchery ).

Yes! I love my Australorps, but I plan to get a well bred sire to hatch chicks out with and improve my (hatchery) stock. I just hope they all say healthy in the mean time. I really only want to use my best hen, and see how it goes. Sigh. Whenever I finally get my Dominiques, I know of a local breeder, Marans as well, and colored layers. I found a good breeder of Welsummers, too, I would probably get chicks or hatching eggs from down the line, but I have a short list of breeds I'm interested in. I don't feel the need to try every trendy designer chicken, and obviously those are not bred for longevity, anyway. :/

 

[mchickies]

Yes! I love my Australorps, but I plan to get a well bred sire to hatch chicks out with and improve my (hatchery) stock. I just hope they all say healthy in the mean time. I really only want to use my best hen, and see how it goes. Sigh. Whenever I finally get my Dominiques, I know of a local breeder, Marans as well, and colored layers. I found a good breeder of Welsummers, too, I would probably get chicks or hatching eggs from down the line, but I have a short list of breeds I'm interested in. I don't feel the need to try every trendy designer chicken, and obviously those are not bred for longevity, anyway. :/

Honestly, after careful thought myself, breeding mutts in my own flock would probably be a good idea. I've noticed that purebred dogs, cats, etc have waaayyy more problems than your average pound mutt. I Australorps by the way! They have such beautiful, dark, soulful looking eyes that I can't stop looking into...

For myself, I will breed further down the line when my Barred Rocks have proven themselves hardier. I'm still within the three year window for reproductive stuff. Last year was pretty hard with losing a bunch of hens within months of each-other. Really heartbreaking as they're my pets at this point...

 

[mchickies]

You are correct. I would like very pretty hens with various colors of eggs.


Thank you sooo much for your suggestion. This is great information!

I think I have narrowed it down to these 11.

Black Copper Maran- dark egg
Welsummer- dark egg
Buckeye- brown egg
Spec Sussex- cream egg
Blue laced Wyandotte- cream egg
Golden laced Wyandotte- cream
Silver laced Wyandotte- cream
Starlight green Egger-green egg
Blue Andalusian- white egg
Easter Egger- ? egg
Prairie blue Egger- blue egg


Possible alternates are:
Australorp- brown egg
Ameraucana- blue/olive egg
Cream Legbar- blue egg

I guess the bottom line of the discussion above is, if you're going to buy hatchery birds, probably go with the Cream Legbar and Ameraucana instead of the Starlight Greens and Praire Blues. A better bet in terms of reproductive health. I wish you the best with your future flock! You're going to love your girlies so much, just you wait and see !