What Chicken Breeds do you Dislike & Why?

[808chickie]

Red sexlinks. Nasty temperaments---like leghorns, but dumb and mean---they die like flies, they eat too much to make an efficient bird for my uses, and their eggs have more meatspots than the Leghorns. Wouldn't own them again. Of course, this just goes for the sexlinks available here. I know some others love them, so... <<shrugs>> They've certainly got a place. It just isn't here.

I don't like a lot of the common hatchery versions of breeds either. A lot of Polish are skinny and not at all hardy to cold, disease, parasites, you name it. Silkies---well, I have one, but that's only due to his outstanding temperament that is a complete 180 of every other Silkie I've ever owned. The others I was glad to be rid of. I've seen shoelaces that were more intelligent. New Hampshire Reds, Rocks, RIRs, all of these aren't to my taste---in the hatchery style. Sure, they're useful birds, but nothing about them makes my jaw drop. Bred to the standard? Well, the most amazing bird I've seen in my life was a NHR. That bird was supremely balanced, perfectly proportioned, and just stunning. Note that this isn't intended to bash on hatchery birds. They're fantastically productive and I myself have owned over a hundred. Hatchery Leghorns, for instance, outrank just about every single one of my other birds in their merit for my setup. I simply have a taste in birds, like I do in artwork. I may not like, say, Picasso's work, but he was still a good artist. None of the chicken breeds (bar maybe the Dong Tao chicken) I can think of are horrifying, just not my preference.

I tend to like the DP breeds better in looks, though Old English Games and Leghorns are both gorgeous when bred properly.

I had to look up the Dong Tao chicken, I've never seen it. OMG. What the heck happened to it's feet???? Poor thing lol.

 

[808chickie]

Hmmm. Good question, great thread! So far the only birds we've gotten on purpose have been BOs, EEs and BLs. Their first year, all the BOs went broody shortly after starting to lay. That was disappointing, but they are calm birds. I will not get Leghorns again, these birds are high-strung lunatics and have been since hatch. I may want to try Welsummers but I'm not hearing great things about them from you guys, so I may just stick with my tried-n-true EEs, which I love!

I have a Welsummer (my kids named her Unicorny lol) and she is such a sweetheart. It quite surprised me that she is now my favorite. If I'm outside in the evening, she'll hop on one of the perches and coo at me until I come to pet her. She's always the first to greet me and does very well with the other chickens. She's actually much friendlier and calmer than my Orpington.

 

[jlwquilter]

https://images.app.goo.gl/MNPjE6acCwMJSohp8

See it here.

O. M. G.

 

[808chickie]

https://images.app.goo.gl/MNPjE6acCwMJSohp8

See it here.

Oh no no no. It's a naked neck silkie. My silkie is adopted, I don't know if she's a purebreed. But, she is the densest chicken ever. She's sweet but dumb and the poor thing always gets picked on. It'll be raining out, I'll move her undercover, when I check back on her, she's back in the rain. Sheesh. My kids love her though.

 

[Amer]

I have 1 welsummer and she squawks all the time...drives me crazy! I might as well have a rooster!
My barred rock on the other hand is sweet, and has a sweet gentle voice and quite a vocabulary of different, soothing sounds.
My amerucana is a great gal and terrific layer while my light brahma is the biggest bossiest biddy, who eats the most and produces the fewest eggs!

I suppose my Welsummers are pretty loud. I just never noticed because I have multiple roosters.

 

[trainman]

I have several breeds I'm not fond of for different reasons. I think the only ones I'd even put in the dislike column are Turkens. They just look sickly to me. I find Rhode Island REds to be pretty aggressive at times so avoid them. I agree about the feather legged ones getting nasty looking too. I loved my Light Brahmas but found the roosters were just too big for my heavy breed hens and they tore them up pretty bad and actually killed 2 before we had stew. I just started a new flock with all Plymouth Rocks (Yep....I'm an old guy and use that term rather than Barred Rocks) as I find them to be pretty tame, good layers and friendly.

 

[McBriec]

After 2 murderous Wyandottes who head-pecked and feather-picked other chickens, and who tried to kill my little bantam cochin rescue rooster, I will never have another Wyandotte, no matter how beautiful they are. A breeder I spoke with said half the people say things like me, and the other half say they are a fabulous bird. I am not about to find out which half I would be getting.

 

[shawes]

Oh I definitely have a handful of breeds I don't like, which are pretty popular with many people on this site, but I'm going to keep that to myself so I don't get scolded!

Now I wanna know!

 

[pacorona]

I've never loved Leghorns or RIR's. Much too aggressive and bossy, although they somewhat make up for it with all the eggs.

 

[shawes]

Feathered feet don't belong on chickens.

My Silkies though!!!