@oldhenlikesdogs Fun thread! Similar have been done in past and this is a popular theme to revive for current BYCers to voice their opinions! We chickeneers love so many breeds and WANT them ALL. It's a good thing I'm zoned for only 5 hens/no roos, or I'd have about 150 different breeds in my yard by now!!! But I listed 4 breeds in order of all-time faves:
1.
Silkie -- hands down one of the cutest chickens with their poofy crests, muffy cheeks, fuzzy butts, & feathered feet -- fluffy gentle funny silly sweet spunky personality w/nice-sized eggs for USA mid-sized bantams. I recently learned there are actually 3 sizes of Silkies -- true small Silkie bantam, USA mid-size Silkie bantam, and standard full-size Silkie! Best little chicken as pets for kids or instant broodie/incubator for anyone else's eggs -- we had a determined Silkie that wanted to hatch a cucumber slice.
SILKIES TOODLING IN THE RAIN
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2.
Breda -- for a lightweight standard-size breed that comes in a flurry of different color varieties with a unique appearance of a triangle tassel crest and NO comb, vulture hocks, cavernous crow-like nostrils, and feathered legs/toes, this breed won our approval for its gentle personality, decent egg-laying, and easy to integrate with gentle little Silkies. Like Silkie, Breda are gentle souls and that's what we looked for to mix into our backyard flock -- establishing pecking order is natural even in the gentlest of chickens but we definitely wanted NO aggressive combative bully breeds to torment our Silkies!
CUCKOO BREDA HEN and BLUE BREDA PULLET
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3.
American (Colonial) Dominique -- a unique U-shape back with a rosecombed spike, these cuckoo-patterned birds are mistaken for Barred Rocks, except Doms are lighter-weight, very active foragers, crave human interaction, and talk your ear off! Don't sit down or bend over gardening because they'll fly up to sit on and be with their human! For all their activity they are a relatively calm personality allowing petting, being held, & friendly w/kids. We who have Dominiques can't figure out why Doms' feathers always smell good unlike other breeds in the flock? Silkie feathers aren't odorous either but Doms seem to have a reputation for having extremely soft and decent-smelling feathers. Maybe that's why the Colonists used Dom feathers for their pillows and bedding? My White Leghorn always smelled stinky on a rainy day but our Doms never give off bad feather odors?!
DOMINIQUE HEN
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DOMS SEEM TO LOVE ATTENTION!
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4.
Leghorn -- White, Buff, Isabel, Black, Mahogany, Dark Brown, Light Brown, Mille Fleur, etc etc -- I LOVE them all -- Leghorn are so often used to infuse productivity in Hybrids that we decided to bypass Hybrids and go straight to the source of egg production -- the White Leghorn! Very prolific egg layers and never seem to go broody. Loved our White Leg and Buff Leg but as they matured they were a bit too assertive for our gentler chicken breeds and we reluctantly needed to re-home them in a friend's more assertive flock. If I could have only ONE production breed, I'd have a whole flock of White Legs with a few OTHER Leg colors too LOL!
FLOPPY COMBED WHITE LEGHORN HEN
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BUFF LEGHORN HEN
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Honorable Mentions -- breeds I wanted but chose not to integrate into our flock:
Russian Orloff -- We're suckers for rare breeds!
Langshan -- Generally a calm breed with regal U-shape stance & lovely feathered legs
Brahma -- Gentle giant w/ heavy under-down which doesn't fit our hot climate
Hamburg -- Some stunning varieties, lightweight, independent, decent egg-layer
Australorp -- Assertive, prolific egg-layer, but Black doesn't fit our hot climate
Sussex -- Many varieties, decent production, and hold their own in pecking order
La Fleche -- Talk about a unique COMB! - not the cuddliest breed but so-o-o unique!
Cochin -- Standard or bantam -- it's either Silkies or Cochins or BOTH for cuteness
Polish -- Sweet but we felt they were too neurotic/timid for a mixed flock
Olandsk Dwarf -- we're suckers for rare breeds and these are darling rare bantams but we feared they'd always be flying over the wall to forage in the busy road! Chickens are so clever at escaping but some never figure how to get back!!!!
Malay -- I always wondered what it would be like to have a 3-foot tall roo
Dishonorable Mentions -- love these birds but they didn't work out for us
Cuckoo Marans -- one of the meanest hens we had and the eggs were not that dark
Blue Wheaten Ameraucana and Blue Ameraucana -- sweet gentle ditzy clutzy skittish w/ pretty blue eggs but did not do well in our hot climate because of heavy muffs & under-fluff, infrequent laying cycles.
I won't type the other 130 breeds or so on my FAVE/WANT list
Happy chickeneering y'all -- Smiles!
