What is your dream chicken breed?

[Liz Birdlover]

How are your Wyandottes? Mine are super skittish, never lay, and not very great.

Mine lay great mostly but everyone is in winter mode right now & I don't put lights on, I let them take that break & lay less in winter. They aren't as lovey as my Ameracaunas & Buffs when outside but they are affectionate with me when we are inside the coop. I think mine tend to be friendly because I hug & interact with them a lot. If I sit down in the coop, pen or anywhere, even outside as they free range, they will come visit, jump up in my lap, even if I have no treats. They love when I garden, grub & cricket time, lol.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

My brother LOVES his Wyandotts, so I am familiar with the breed. Your birds are pretty BTW.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

My brother LOVES his Wyandotts, so I am familiar with the breed. Your birds are pretty BTW.

Thank you, I just love them, love to hug those chunky Roos, too. They are hilarious, their expressions, sometimes when I 1st grab a Roo to hug, he looks at me all tough & surprised, like "Wait a minute, I am a tough Roo, I was just practicing my strut looking all cool for the ladies & now you're snuggling me like a big baby." Yet they immediately hunker down in my lap, let me pet them and make their little sweet sounds, some even close their eyes, it is just so funny to watch Mr. Tough guy turned into Mr. Mellow. Of course when I finish petting, eventually realization snuggle time is done, Roo hops off my lap and starts strutting around for the ladies again, maybe even chases a hen to try and resume some tough guy Rooster dignity Lol. They make me laugh everyday, I enjoy them so much.

 

[MissMonty]

Ayem Cemani are my dream but I've heard they're not the most reliable layers and I have enough free loaders on my farm LOL!

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Dual-purpose, pea comb, comes in many colors, lays brown eggs.

(Like Wyandottes, Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons--but none of those have pea combs. And Buckeyes only come in one color.)

What about Brahmas?

I want black Sultans, Silver Gray Dorkings, Breda Fowl, Dark Brahmas, Faverolles, Barred Rocks, rose comb brown leghorns, some dark brown layers, and green-speckled layers. Oh and wheaten, buff, and lavender Ameraucanas...When we finish building our house, I want a big bantam space outside my office for Ameraucanas, Easter Eggers, Welsummers, Cochins, Polish, OEG, D'uccles...It's fun to dream! But I also love keeping the flock size manageable, so trying all these different breeds is going to be a long, slooow marathon, not a sprint

 

[NatJ]

What about Brahmas?

You're right, they're a large-sized chicken with pea comb and multiple colors. If they just came in a clean-legged variety, they'd be perfect

I had some once--that's when I fell in love with pea combs. But those feathered feet, in a climate that had either mud or snow for most of the year, made me swear to stick with clean-legged birds in future!

 

[gimmie birdies]

I am currently hatching out some AC mixes, I hope they will lay better than my current AC's. I do have a female AC mix who is laying a gray egg and she is consitant.

I want to work on my avatar's babies, because she lays a gray egg, her babies also do, but I am going to work on feather color and improving the gray layers. And keeping the frizzle part.

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

Mine lay great mostly but everyone is in winter mode right now & I don't put lights on, I let them take that break & lay less in winter. They aren't as lovey as my Ameracaunas & Buffs when outside but they are affectionate with me when we are inside the coop. I think mine tend to be friendly because I hug & interact with them a lot. If I sit down in the coop, pen or anywhere, even outside as they free range, they will come visit, jump up in my lap, even if I have no treats. They love when I garden, grub & cricket time, lol.

Lol, can I have your's? You've hit the jack pot with Wyandottes! Mine never lay!

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Lol, can I have your's? You've hit the jack pot with Wyandottes! Mine never lay!

I wonder why. I'm not doing anything magical. My original 3 Wyandotte hens are the 1 blue & 2 whites, going on 4 yrs old, still lay daily in spring, summer & fall. I let 1 white broody mama hatch 4 more Wyandottes, the 2 young Roos & 2 hens, they all hatched May 23rd, the young hens started laying in Sept. No one is laying daily these winter days, about 2 eggs weekly for now. I feed Producer's Pride layer feed & offer calcium to peck at all of the time, and hang veggies every other day, rotating cabbage head, squash, corn on the cob, & grain sprouts in winter (I Sprout my pigeon feed, a variety of grain seeds), plus a flock block winter as they're indoors alot like today, ugh, stormy, windy & cold, raining & sleeting it's butt off here right now. In summer they get a bigger variety as I can feed messier stuff outside from my garden like tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, & I let them pick all the fresh blueberries & cherry tomatoes they can reach, etc. They love when I'm gardening, I stir up bugs, Grubbs, etc. During molt everyone gets vitamins 2x a week, l cut a multivitamin in quarters & probiotics, I prefer pills, I don't like vitamins in water as it gets nasty. Once a week, usually Sun, while I bleach the big waterers, I have small waterers I mix up 1 gal of water with a teasp of ACV, minced garlic & oregano so they drink only that til I put the fresh water in later that day. I also use the little waterers for Probios 1x week, too, usually Wednesdays, when I dump the big waters & give fresh. So far so good.

There is a pigeon remedy I've used to get older pigeon hens laying again, basically vitamins. Maybe it could help your hens.
https://www.versele-laga.com/en/de/oropharma/products/oropharma-fertioil
https://globalpigeonsupply.com/products/ferti-oil

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

I had a SLW hen that was laying 5 eggs a week when she was 5 years old!