what breed is best?

[Lbrad7]

You have a nice list but no list is complete with out Seckled Sussex..beautiful bird, very calm and curious. They follow you around like puppies. The icing on the cake is that they are good layers!

 

[Deanner03]

I think what is best for you will also depend on your climate. Some birds fare better in colder/warmer climates than others. If you're looking for a pretty, docile bird, I have so suggest brahmas. My kids can pick ours up and carry them around with no problems. They are also cold-hardy. I love our Dominiques, and Easter Eggers and Ameracaunas as well. Get a few different varieties, and prepare yourself for chicken math, lol.

Ask for an incubator for Christmas....it will explode from there, lol.

 

[Eddy Chicken]

Dark Brahma roo "studying" with my daughter

I gotta put a plug in for the Brahma breed. I'm new as well. I have 9 week old White Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, and Light, Buff, Dark Brahmas. Ican say for sure that the Buff Brahmas are by far my favorite. They're huge birds and will immediately perch themselves on whatever body part you offer them. Even my Dark Brahma roo is a friendly fella. The kids will hold him and he enjoys getting a belly rum lol.

 

[KFaye]

I prefer one of everything! Love to see the beautiful feathers and personalities. My favorites are RIR, Barred Rock, Buff Orpington and Australorps. Although I love each of mine and I have 19, most different.

 

[themenagerie]

I guess you have to ask yourself what you are looking for I wanted a varied dual purpose flock of brown and colored layers and I wanted to avoid some of the breeds known for "stronger" personalities. I agree about the Speckled Sussex, they're beautiful birds and seem to be fairly intelligent for chickens. I really enjoy mine. I have a mix, of 25 hens & pullets all but two born in 2011.....Orpingtons (Blue & Buff), Barred Rocks, Speckled Sussex, EE's, Americauna (sp?), Welsummers and an Australorp & Wyandotte. The friendliest are probably the BO's and the BR's, only one of my EE's is friendly, the rest are sort of standoffish. In regards to laying...the BR's, BO, Australorp and Wyandotte are my most consistent layers, they take off about one day a week. The EE's lay about two or three days in a row, then take a day off, then again, same with the Blue Orps. The Sussex's lay probably four eggs a week, they're very light colored medium eggs so I can tell theirs pretty easily. The Welsummers aren't laying yet (at 32 weeks!), so they're an unknown, . They aren't particularly friendly, but not scaredy cats either, I bought them at 25 weeks, so I'm not sure how much they were handled. The 16 week olds that I raised myself are much more social and inquisitive. The 20 week old Americaunas I have are also not laying yet, they're shy and submissive.

Edit to add - This spring I'm getting more EE's & Wyandottes - I really want some Blue Laced Red & Silver Laced, and also Marans for the dark brown eggs.

 

[karlamaria]

We have asterlorps and buff orpingtons. Love them so much but find the buffs go broody a lot, and the lords lay only medium eggs. Mine stopped laying because of the cold and the light, can not wait until spring! We only get 1 egg out of five chickens lol
Going to get EE and sexlinks soon ! Our girls are the sweetest girls ! They come running when i call them like a pack of hungry dogs lol, and they sit on us when we sit on the grass. Lovely girls!

 

[Vamvakas]

I would suggest Turken/Nacked Necks, most cases they are very nice and you can pet them, when there young they will lay almost everyday.