What breeds would you recommend to add color and variety to my flock?

[AGeese]

Buckeyes would fit right in.

 

[LaFleche]

Buckeyes would fit right in.

Already there

We currently have:
Barred Plymouth Rock
Easter Egger
Salmon Faverolles
Buckeye
Black Australorp
Buff Orpington

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Buckeyes would fit right in.

I love my Buckeye! I'm just trying to mix it up a bit.

 

[AGeese]

I love my Buckeye! I'm just trying to mix it up a bit.

Buckeyes have great personalities.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Buckeyes have great personalities.

We love ours! She's pretty timid, but she's very sweet.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

What about a light or dark Brahma? They both are different looking from your current flock and fit what your wanting pretty well.

Somehow I never saw this comment until now! I really love how the Brahmas look and I love that they will lay eggs in the winter, but aren't they usually broody?

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

If you want more feather variety, I would go for a Frizzle Polish, or a Silver Sebright Bantam.

On the other hand, you already have large birds, and depending on free range area and coop design, your existing girls may not like small feathery interlopers invading their space. Also, the Bantam wouldn’t lay as many eggs.

I would get more Orpingtons. You already have Buff, so perhaps you should try Lavender. It’s a grey color, and would be slightly different from the Plymouth Barred Rock that you already have, but would help even out the color in your flock, as you seem to have a lot of brown and orange.

Good point about the bantams, but they just sound tempting because I'd pay less in feed and they take up less space. I do worry how the others would perceive them though, and if they'd escapr over my 5 ft fence easily.

I love my Orp, but I'm not really considering those because they tend to be broody. Mine isn't, but what would be my chances of having 2 Orpingtons and neither being broody? Lol

I have a SS and she has never gone broody! Never even considered it. She lays an egg and she is done!

That's good! I wonder if it's a one-off thing though, or maybe it depends where you got her from. I always see "make great mothers" in the descriptions for Speckled Sussexes on hatchery websites. And that's a bummer because I love that speckled feathering!

 

[Logar]

Somehow I never saw this comment until now! I really love how the Brahmas look and I love that they will lay eggs in the winter, but aren't they usually broody?

I have heard that hatchery Brahmas pretty much never go broody but ones from breeders are more likely to. I don’t know how true that is but I have read that in a couple different places.

 

[GlicksChicks]

I always see "make great mothers" in the descriptions for Speckled Sussexes on hatchery websites. And that's a bummer because I love that speckled feathering!

I'm sure they could make great mothers! Do you not want to do broody jail?

Also, it is no guarantee that a chicken that isn't known to broody won't go broody. I have seen many things that say BCM hens rarely go broody. Ha, I had 3/4 of them go broody AT THE SAME TIME!! I just locked them in broody jail and let them back out after, and they haven't gone broody since.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

If you have your heart set on an all white bird the sapphire jewel might scratch that itch. They have a single copy of dominant white inherited from the leghorn parent (Meyers doesn't say what breeds go into any of their hybrids, but ameraucana/leghorn is really the only cross that makes sense) so they're not quite solid white, but maybe close enough. Mine has a few small blue patches.View attachment 3896387

As for my cookies and cream, her total lack of predator or situational awareness is primarily what makes her bad at being a chicken.

She seems to get stuck in the coop when the others go outside (i suspect its because our temporary pop door was so small her leg and head feathers brushed the edges and she wasn't sure she could fit). The first night we had the automatic door she sat in the doorway and got her head stuck in the door when it closed (it has a sensor that opens when it senses something in the doorway but after 10seconds it closes again and she hadn't moved at all before the door came back down).

It's a good thing we have a predator proof covered run, because she would absolutely be the first to be picked off in a free range situation. She's always been a little off, even before her crest grew big enough to obscure her vision. She doesn't seem to mind just hanging out on her own and has a tendency to sort of stand up tall in situations that had the other chicks ducking for cover. In fact, her behavior had me and husband a little worried she might have been an accidental rooster for a while.

She's very calm and super friendly, does not mind being picked up in the least. I think she'd actually make a great therapy animal. But we do need to look after her more than any other chicken we've had in the last 14 years. View attachment 3896402

Ooh! Yeah that Sapphire Jewel is pretty. Maybe not all-white, but she's primarily white and I love the way she looks. It's really silly why I've always wanted a white chicken anyway. It's because of the William Carlos Williams poem "The Red Wheelbarrow":

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

I always envisioned something like a White Rock or Leghorn, but I guess William wasn't that specific about just how white the chickens were! Maybe the Sapphire Jewel will do LOL

And that's sad about your cookies and cream! They really should give a warning about them not being good at free-ranging in the description on Meyer's site if that's a common thing with them. She's lucky to have you as her keeper to look after her!