What’s everyone’s favorite breed, and why?

[Ladybird CA]

Well I do feel sorry for the Cornish crosses, they die from broken legs, heart attacks, at just a couple months or so.

Stars and sex links I’ve heard only live about 3 years

With some breeds you gotta be careful when breeding them...2 frizzled chickens together will give you an almost bald chicken. 2 short legged Japanese and 1/4 of the chicks won’t hatch...same goes for Araucana except it’s two rumpless that result in some dead chicks. Modern game bantams can be hard to hatch. Class A serama bantams can get heart issues and die before they reach a year old if they are really tiny. 2 golden pearl button quail parents I think can result in chicks that won’t hatch. Then there’s the breeds not suited for foul weather thing. Silkies and frizzled can’t perch. Some breeds are loud.

My chicken obsession has turned me into a negative Nancy. Aye. (No offence to Nancy’s, I like that name)

But there are exceptions to everything. Since game birds have been used for cock fighting I didn’t think they’d be friendly but some of my Old English game bantams were very friendly.

 

[Ladybird CA]

Oh I take back that part about silkies and frizzles not being able to perch. Most actually do but if the perch is low from the ground. I did have one hen that was able to perch in a tree.

 

[Frankstonalum]

I’ve only had chickens for a year so take what I say with a grain of salt...

We didn’t know which ones to go with so we picked a few breeds.

After a year I can say which ones I would get again and ones I would avoid.

We live in North Idaho so that influences my picks as well. We need cold hardy ones that aren’t too agile to get over our 4 foot chicken fence because we have a lot of coyotes in the area that will pick them off if they get out.

Love the black australorp, Plymouth Rock, New Hampshire Red, they all seem to be calm and cold hardy, seem to be good layers, never flew over the chicken fence.

We have some Buff orphingtons and they are pretty good, but they seem to be the bullies of the flock, which I don’t know if that is common. When we looked at that breed they were supposed to be pretty docile. They do well in the cold and haven’t flown over the fence at all either.

I like the Black Sexlink and the Ameraucana and our kids loved the blue eggs. They both do well in cold but are getting a bit too much on the agile side. They have both flown over the fence and a coyote got the Ameraucana.

The White leghorns are probably the only breed I wouldn’t get again. They are the best layers, but have some downsides. We had three of those. They are way too agile and got out all the time. We have lost 2 to coyotes. The two that lasted through winter seemed to do ok, but I wouldn’t classify them as cold hardy. They seemed to be more cold and stayed in the coop the most. They are very slender and have huge combs compared to the others. Not only more trouble in cold but the buff orphingtons love to latch onto them and they are constantly bloody.

Overall though it’s fun to see all the different breeds and I love the variety of eggs. I don’t think I would ever just stick with a single breed.