What are your five favorite breeds and why

[memphis]

My turkeys are my favorite. They are wonderful. They are so friendly they will hop in my lap & settle down for a nap. Follow me everywhere. Just love them!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My turkeys are my favorite. They are wonderful. They are so friendly they will hop in my lap & settle down for a nap. Follow me everywhere. Just love them!

They definitely know nothing of personal space.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I want to get to know some Dorkings. They sound like a chicken I would love! The only thing I don't like about the OEGBs so far is the dubbing. Why? I don't get it.

Love, love, love my Dorkings! I think they would get a lot more adoration from backyarders, especially those who raise their birds for pets, if it weren't for them being so uncommon! Such big, cuddly birds and so mellow.

As for dubbing, it's not a practice I agree with, as you saw on the bantam thread with pictures of my boys. My only dubbed boy is Winston, who was 3 years old when I got him and already dubbed. It's show practice. Though you can show cockerels without altering them, adult males can be disqualified without being dubbed. I've heard that it's carryover from a certain sport using roosters and the standard was written based on altered birds from that, but I don't know how true that is. There are proponents on both sides, but I personally think the standard needs to change. Fortunately, I have no intention of showing my birds, so in the grand scheme it won't make much of a difference to me either way.

 

[Folly's place]

Dubbing roosters, along with ear cropping dogs, comes from the fighting bird folks, and the pit fighting dog 'sports'. Neither activity is 'nice', or legal many places any more.
Those 'good old days' weren't so good, really.
Mary

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Buff Orpington: They are sweet, friendly, adorable, lovable, good layers, calm, etc! (SO MUCH MORE!) They also love to be petted and held.

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

Love, love, love my Dorkings! I think they would get a lot more adoration from backyarders, especially those who raise their birds for pets, if it weren't for them being so uncommon! Such big, cuddly birds and so mellow.

As for dubbing, it's not a practice I agree with, as you saw on the bantam thread with pictures of my boys. My only dubbed boy is Winston, who was 3 years old when I got him and already dubbed. It's show practice. Though you can show cockerels without altering them, adult males can be disqualified without being dubbed. I've heard that it's carryover from a certain sport using roosters and the standard was written based on altered birds from that, but I don't know how true that is. There are proponents on both sides, but I personally think the standard needs to change. Fortunately, I have no intention of showing my birds, so in the grand scheme it won't make much of a difference to me either way.

There is a breeder less than an hour from me who raises Dorkings! I LOVE the photo they have on the homepage of their website in case you're interested: https://www.dorkingchickens.com/

Since I built a coop and run for my rooster flock that just moved out to the country (!) I have space for more birds next year. I was thinking that having a friendly standard breed would be nice so I can share more eggs with neighbors. Living in the city and keeping two illegal roosters makes it important to reward awesome neighbors! And my neighbors really are great! I was looking at the Euskal Oiloas after hearing about them being so friendly. But these Dorkings sound really great! Do yours get along with your Bantams? I don't want anything that will bully.

And as for dubbing--yes, I saw in your photos how happy, healthy and undubbed your OEGBs are! I was sad that the OEGBs I thought were Dutch at the show I attended were going to be dubbed. The owner said it would happen soon. Maybe we can start a movement to end that! And the Modern games too! I forgot about them. I asked one lady with a standard Modern Game if it was male or female since there was no comb (you can tell how new I am to this!). She said he was dubbed. I hadn't realized that about those birds. Ugh.

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

They definitely know nothing of personal space.

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

My turkeys are my favorite. They are wonderful. They are so friendly they will hop in my lap & settle down for a nap. Follow me everywhere. Just love them!

someday when I have more land I'll get some turkeys!!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

There is a breeder less than an hour from me who raises Dorkings! I LOVE the photo they have on the homepage of their website in case you're interested: https://www.dorkingchickens.com/

Since I built a coop and run for my rooster flock that just moved out to the country (!) I have space for more birds next year. I was thinking that having a friendly standard breed would be nice so I can share more eggs with neighbors. Living in the city and keeping two illegal roosters makes it important to reward awesome neighbors! And my neighbors really are great! I was looking at the Euskal Oiloas after hearing about them being so friendly. But these Dorkings sound really great! Do yours get along with your Bantams? I don't want anything that will bully.

And as for dubbing--yes, I saw in your photos how happy, healthy and undubbed your OEGBs are! I was sad that the OEGBs I thought were Dutch at the show I attended were going to be dubbed. The owner said it would happen soon. Maybe we can start a movement to end that! And the Modern games too! I forgot about them. I asked one lady with a standard Modern Game if it was male or female since there was no comb (you can tell how new I am to this!). She said he was dubbed. I hadn't realized that about those birds. Ugh.

Look at those sweet girls!! That picture really shows how very calm and perfectly willing they are to walk right over to see what you're doing! Love it! Even though I'm across the country from that farm, I'd be tempted by those hatching eggs if I hadn't just spent part of the evening working on winterizing for my flock. Too late in the year for babies, even darling Dorking babies! I'll have to bookmark that website for later.

The Dorkings are docile toward everyone in my flock. I've only seen them get feisty when I've had one of them out of the flock for a bit and she feels the need to reestablish her place in the pecking order upon reintroduction. I think the worst any of my Dorks has done to any of the bantams in particular was accidentally kicking one of them in the rush to go free-range. Everyone was fine, there was just a squawk and they all moved on to free-range. Those Dorks are large, lumbering birds with very full chests and sometimes they just don't look where they're walking when they get a sudden burst of excitement. If you're looking at getting chicks to add to your (by then) adult bantam flock, you should be golden. Those older bantams should be dominant due to age and experience, and the Dorkings, in my experience, tend not to try to dominate. Of course, each bird is an individual so nothing is guaranteed, but I think Dorkings would be just as good of a fit for your flock as Euskal Oiloas would be.

 

[legojenn]

Watching a friend's flock develop, I think that my favourites are the Cream Legbar, Buff Brahma, Buff Orpington, Australorp, and Barred Rock. If I ever get the go ahead for my own flock, I'd be limited to three birds, no roos. I think the Buff Orpington and Brahma would be there, but I'd want the yellowest bird possible as a buddy for my beagle.

Your choice to have Buff Orp and Buff Brahma in a flock sounds like a good temperament and size match since Brahmas are gentle giants. Either Barred Rock or Australorp would be a fine choice to add to that mix. Do some research on what birds match in temperament and size in a flock. When we started our flock we wound up having some bully breeds mixed with our smaller docile breeds so we had to make a choice of whether we wanted assertive egg-layers or more docile non-diva hens that maybe were not the absolute best layers but got along well with each other. We opted for a gentle docile breeds flock and to our surprise they were decent layers -- Blue Wheaten Ameraucana, Blue Breda, Dominique, and a couple Silkies. We had Leghorns and Marans in the past but ours were not people-friendly or good flockmates with gentle breeds so we re-homed them after making the decision to keep only docile breeds. GL with your choices!

I got an alert on this thread. It's funny how things that one thinks in the past just don't turn out the way one expects. Since I wrote that, the city liberalised its rules on laying hens. We can have five, there are no limits on the number of households can have hens and the minimum property size was reduced allowing us in denser suburbs to have them.

In March, by bird-loving beagle passed away. He was 15 and was in slow decline. In June, I built a coop and not being patient to get the breeds of birds that I wanted, I got two types of sex-links. My new beagle is chicken fearing so a chicken buddy is not in the cards for him. I love the new beagle, miss the old one and love the birds that I have. It's not what I planned for a year ago, but it's good.

There may be a time that my coop is populated by heritage breed birds, but that might not be for a while.