What chicken breeds should I have in my future six hen flock?

Barred Rocks would be nice! They're kind of mischievous compared to my black Australorps i.e. the BA's are calm and nice while the BR's will peck at me when i reach to touch them but that could just be my birds. Good layers too, one of my three started laying around 18 weeks.

My only egg layers are BA's amd BR's (three of each) and any given day i get 4-6 eggs. They're not real big eggs yet but my hens are only 7 months old and i expect the eggs will start getting larger.

All of the research I've done has said that black Australorps, bared rocks, and RIR's are some of the best brown egg layers.

Hope I've helped.

 

Barred rocks. I loved mine before the fox. Mine were very gentle even the roos. Good broodies when I let them. Very good layers even thru michigan winter with no heat or light supplement. Will always recomend them to anyone. Looking forward to spring to add a few hens again to keep rooroo happy.

 

Since you only want six look for the breeds local to you. Most folks who ship chicks need to ship a minimum of 18 to 25. You can also ship adults but if you're not interested in showing or breeding that can be cost prohibitive. Also of you are looking for younger children to be involved you might want to let each child pick their own chicken. When my kids were young we did this and it worked out well prevented squabbles too.

As for friendly fun chickens I like silkies but they aren't big layers. Favorelles are beautiful decent layers and docile but they tend to be low ranking and bullied by more dominant hens. Swedish Flower hens are very friendly, good layers and colorful. And of course there are the olive eggers andEaster eggers for diffrent color eggs

 

You are soing wonderful by thinking this out and planning and not doing the " oh look at the cute chicks, let's get some " route. I'm not Promoting this hatchery in any way but I think my pet chicken will ship a minimum of 3 chicks so that might be a place to look. On your breeds, you could also go with just a barnyard mix from a nearby farm. Mutts in all animal genres are most always wonderful. You might end up with funny looking birds bu t if gentle and good layers who cares what they look like.

 

something that true backyard flock people should consider, but i don't ever see it mentioned is whether the breed tends to be broody. You likely are not looking for hens to go broody, since you have stated you want eggs. I find broody chickens a real hassle, You will need a separate place to house them during these spells, which can be very frequent, which cuts into egg production considerably too. Most heritage breeds will have some to considerable tendancy to be broody. If you want to avoid this, your hatchery production breeds are best. Any of the sex link varieties, EEs, Australorp, and Barred Rock would be best. Production RIRs can be a little aggressive and not as gentle, leghorns are a little too easily spooked for me. I love a lot to the heritage birds, but don't wish to run a maternity ward in my backyard. I saw where someone had 7 Swedish Flower pullets and 4 went broody the first year. They are such a treat to look at but I don't know I could deal with that. Just food for thought.

 

You raise a very good point. We're not into eggs yet, but I'm hoping my Barred Rocks, White Rock, RIRs and Andalusians carry the rest of the flock through broody periods. I understand that my Wyandotte, Sussex, Delaware, and Dominique can get broody, but I could not resist those attractive birds. Ours are only about 15-16 weeks and we find that the rocks, andalusians, and sussex are the friendliest. The rest just tolerate people but aren't skittish.

If you haven't already, take a close look at Henderson's breed chart, the breeds section here, and maybe the listings at Meyer Hatchery. MH will also accommodate small orders.

Have fun!

 

you should get some cubalayas. very tame and good layers.