Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[ochochicas]

First, thanks to everybody for being so eager to help. The qualities we are looking for are pretty simple I think. We'd like good layers that are tolerant of Pacific Northwest weather, friendly (easy to catch), not too broody. My kids are 11&13 and it would be a bummer to have snobby, skittish birds. We also have a 1 year old lab that will be very slowly introduced to them over a period of time while on a leash. I've looked at all of the breeds and ratings on BYC and also some other sites and I made a list of the ones that sounded like a good fit for us. We'd like to have 6-7 birds and I'm not at all interested in chicks or future breeding. They will simply be spoiled pets that happen to provide breakfast.

Ok so here is my long list of possibilities:
(I starred the ones I'm leaning towards)
* austrolorp
*welsummer
*wyandotte
*orpington
*plymoth rock
*red star
Dorking
New Hampshire
Sussex
Dominique
Barred rock -bossy???
Sex link

Red stars are Red Sexlinks. They are one of my favorites. Very good layers, friendly and entertaining, but can be a bit bossy...not bad though.
Australorps are mellow and super friendly. They can be broody though. All of mine are broody (a lot) and they are from different bloodlines.
I love plymouth rocks. Big birds that are friendly. Fairly good layers.
Speckled sussex - I have one. She is very loud, lays small eggs. Great layers and by far the friendliest bird. She loves to be picked up.
My absolute favorites are Easter Eggers. Great colors and they are also good layers (not so much in the winter).
Not a fan of orpingtons. They are nice if you want a dual purpose bird since they are so big. My orpingtons are not friendly (and I raised them right along with all the other chicks).

 

[rbjacks2010]

Thank you @ochochicas! More much needed info and personal perspective!

 

[Cockatrice6420]

Thanks cockatrice6420! That's definitely useful to know so I don't look silly asking about them separately at a breeder!

Rbjacks, I checked out my pet chicken after reading some posts, they look right up your alley. They have day old chicks available until the end of the month. They have September as sold out. All sorts of great birds and hatching eggs too.

 

[BGMatt]

I got a black langshan from someone locally and 100% fell in love with the breed.  I'd like more, but preferably from a reputable breeder, and ideally blue, splash, or white.  Anyone in the area breed these creatures?

I breed Langshans and will have some very nice birds that will be available in the near future. Send me a PM, I do not have the Whites, but do breed both Black and Blue.

 

[FamFitz]

First, thanks to everybody for being so eager to help. The qualities we are looking for are pretty simple I think. We'd like good layers that are tolerant of Pacific Northwest weather, friendly (easy to catch), not too broody. My kids are 11&13 and it would be a bummer to have snobby, skittish birds. We also have a 1 year old lab that will be very slowly introduced to them over a period of time while on a leash. I've looked at all of the breeds and ratings on BYC and also some other sites and I made a list of the ones that sounded like a good fit for us. We'd like to have 6-7 birds and I'm not at all interested in chicks or future breeding. They will simply be spoiled pets that happen to provide breakfast.

Ok so here is my long list of possibilities:
(I starred the ones I'm leaning towards)
* austrolorp
*welsummer
*wyandotte
*orpington
*plymoth rock
*red star
Dorking
New Hampshire
Sussex
Dominique
Barred rock -bossy???
Sex link

Everyone I talked to said Austrolorps were their fav and I just had to get one. So I did. Not impressed. She lays good, but is super skittish and out of the 3 hens I've had go broody, she was by far the hardest to break.

I love my Welsummer. She lays well, average friendliness, egg color is super cool (darkish brown with dark speckles all over), but her best feature (and this could just be her and not the breed) is her vocalization. She's loud, which I don't mind, and often sounds more like she is laughing than clucking. And today she had my whole family cracking up as she was hopping around my blueberry bushes for a snack.

My oldest son is (almost) 11 and his favorite is the Speckled Sussex. They are super cool looking and super friendly. Anytime my hens are out free ranging and my son goes outside it is practically guaranteed that he'll have Dottie (the SS) in his arms or on his lap at some point. He has even gone over to my friend's house with me who also has a SS and he loves her too. My friend is actually planning on giving me her SS because she kept going up to my son and letting him hold her so much. =]

Out of all the breeds I have had as hens (9 so far) my favorites have been my Easter Eggers. They aren't on your list, but you should consider them. They are the most friendly, neat looking (especially since they come in such a wide variety) and are good layers of blue eggs (egg color can also vary between shades of green, blue, and even pink I've heard). I have two and they lay 10-11 eggs per week.

As for the rest of your list, I've had a Dominque & Wyandottes. The Dom was my smallest hen, not super friendly, but a great bug catcher. I've had several types of Wyandottes. They come in so many different colorings that they can really liven up the look of your flock. They are good layers and pretty friendly but can be super flightly. Not a problem for where I live/my set up, but my friend had several fly over her 8ft backyard fence and it didn't end well for the hen.


I thin it is super exciting picking breeds for your flock! Let us know what you end up with. =D

 

[FamFitz]

Had to get on and share my *eggciting* news!

Gathered eggs today and these lucky ones from our EEs are numbers 1,999 & 2,000 for all time! Whoo-hoo!!

 

[lindalouly]

Quick question to all of you in western Washington.... Are their breeds you stay away from because of our rainy season. First year with chickens. All my girls weathered just fine during our rain because they have plenty of options for shelter but my Minorca was stressed and hunkered down underneath a low table the whole time,not eating or drinking. I finally got her in the coop with treats and she ate. She was truly a chicken.

 

[ochochicas]

Quick question to all of you in western Washington.... Are their breeds you stay away from because of our rainy season. First year with chickens. All my girls weathered just fine during our rain because they have plenty of options for shelter but my Minorca was stressed and hunkered down underneath a low table the whole time,not eating or drinking. I finally got her in the coop with treats and she ate. She was truly a chicken.

The feathered legged breeds are hard to keep clean, especially if you free range. You'll end up with birds that have stubble on their feet instead of feathers.

That said, I have Marans and Faverolles that have/had feathered legs. They do fine, but usually have muddy feet all the time and eventually their feathers will break off and they won't have that many feathers left.

All the other breeds do well I've noticed. The bigger the comb, the more likely they are to get frostbite. It gets cold where I'm at and I do worry about frostbite in the Legbars and Legbars, and sometimes the Marans. So far so good.

 

[Cockatrice6420]

Quick question to all of you in western Washington.... Are their breeds you stay away from because of our rainy season. First year with chickens. All my girls weathered just fine during our rain because they have plenty of options for shelter but my Minorca was stressed and hunkered down underneath a low table the whole time,not eating or drinking. I finally got her in the coop with treats and she ate. She was truly a chicken.

I would say yes. Some have so little feathering that they just get too much humidity. Some that get big beautiful feathers won't here because of lack of sunshine, most of this can be worked around. Providing a full spectrum light in the coop can help, insulated walls, and floor in the coop, covered and wind broken out yard, etc. It just depends on how much time and money you want to invest creating micro climates.

 

[CarolynF]

Quote:
I've noticed over the past 30 years that our summer weather seems to go in cycles, which I think is natural. We'll get about 2-3 years of terrible tomato weather then about 2-3 years of good. Mother nature, like people, has her ups and downs. A few years ago I built a lean-to sort of covering for two tomato bushes that had lots of nice big green tomatoes that hadn't ripened before the cool weather set in. It worked to keep the rain off and trap the warmth of what sun we got. (I refuse to take tomatoes indoors to finish ripening... they are so tasteless, like store bought!) It worked pretty darn good.