Want breed advice

[Pathfinders]

I just wrote this in another message thread, but will post here too:

My favorite large fowl breed is the Buckeye, (and they also come in bantam.) I like Buckeyes so much that I recently started a fully fledged breed club for them, the American Buckeye Poultry Club:

http://www.americanbuckeyepoultryclub.com

They are a nice dual purpose bird. They lay a good amount of medium sized brown eggs. They forage very well (even hunt mice!), get along with each other and humans (not flighty, almost too friendly, underfoot a lot!), and the extra males, with their wide breasts, dress out nicely.

They are the only breed of American chicken created by a woman (yay!), and the only American breed with a pea comb, which means no frostbite in winter (unless you live in Duluth or someplace like that.) They tolerate heat and cold well, some will go broody (if you prefer them to raise their own babies) but are not excessively so, and are just an all around perfect farm chicken, IMO.

I have some pics of Buckeyes on my website:

http://www.pathfindersfarm.com/services

And you can see a great website devoted to the breed by a member of the ABPC here:

http://www.buckeyechickens.com

Let me know if I can answer any more questions about them.

 

[Debbienmousey]

Wyandottes sound pretty good for you. We have two Columbian Wyandotte hens and 1 rooster. We got them from a hatchery as day-old chicks and hand raised them. They are gentle and fairly friendly. The hens will not run from you and will let you pick them up. They have fairly small combs, and although we don't get anywhere near as cold as you in the winter, our rooster's comb did not get any frostbite. (Whereas the older, single combed rooster did get frost bittten on his comb.)

At about 2 years old we had our first broody Columbian Wyandotte. Pretty late compared to the RIR which we got from the same hatchery and at 2 years old was going on her second brood. However, it could just be because she was bred from a hatchery. She was very easy to handle during the broody-period, hardly growling and never biting us. She is a wonderful first time mother to her little Araucana mix, Emily. (An only chick, spoiled rotten

) I have actually considered separating our Columbian Wyandotte hens and rooster to get more pure breds. They are good layers and I see my non-brooding hen in the nest box laying about everyday. (Every hen needs a day off here and there) The rooster is very big and although I've never weighed him I believe he'd be a very nice weight.

As for the other breeds, I have heard good things about the Cochins ability to set and raise chicks. For meat/egg/gentleness I would suggest the Buckeye and Dorking. I have never owned either of these breeds but I have researched the Buckeye a bit and I would be happy to add some to my flock if I ever got the chance.(They are also very cold-hardy, which would be good for you) I have also thought about adding some Dorkings because I hear they are quite good for meat and are very gentle.

As for Dominiques, I have heard they are very gentle too. I believe we actually got a free Dominique rooster with our first batch of chicks, but I never knew it until I posted his picture on this site. He actually adopted our first 4 guinea keets and was always very gentle to everyone, even us when we picked him up. I would definitely get another if it was going to be as sweet as our Mr. Cuckoo was. (Mr. Cuckoo was our Dominique rooster which I thought was a Cuckoo Maran!)

Ameraucanas are good but they do seem a little more flighty than the other breeds. They are very pretty and lay beautiful eggs, that's the main reason I have some. (Actually my two hens would probably be considered EEs, I don't really care I just want some hens which lay blue or green eggs.)

I think you've got a good start and sounds like your Wyandotte/Cochin plan will work well. (Although I might suggest having a Cochin roo too, even if he's not aloud with the laying hens or broodies all the time, when you "run low" on broodies you could put them in with him for a week or so and gather purebred eggs to hatch to replenish your broody stock. But I don't think you mentioned whether or not you free-range your birds?)

Good luck!