What is your favorite heavy, good egg laying, cold tolerant breed?

[cmom]

My favorite breed is RIR's. Here are a couple of Breed charts that gives you alot of information on the different breeds.
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html

 

[birdsofparadise]

Arenʻt you kind of trying to find a Hummer that gets great gas mileage, fits in a one car garage and costs less than ten grand?

In short, everything is a compromise and no single bird will fill your entire bill.

That being said, Iʻd go with Australorps. Hardy, cold-tolerant, good size for the table and the best brown egg layers around. Plus, they have a good feed to meat conversion ratio unlike Jersey Giants and they tame readily.

 

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
I love the barred rocks . They huge heavy birds that are gentle and lay 3- to 3.5 inch eggs ...

Also the buff orpingtons are the ONLY birds i found NOT to peck at each other . I had 15 baby chicks ( buff's ) and they NOT once pulled the 1st. feather or pecked each other . They are not 3 months old and GORGOUS and GROW so fast .

As for as for children handling chickens , read several places , INCLUDING BYC , its not really a good practice to allow lil kids to handle them . #1 . as I read above in one of the post , the kids squeezing chickens and IF they retailiate HENS WOULD HAVE TO GO OR YOU COOK THEM ? NOW does that seem fair , when you are submitting them to the abuse ?

 

[AtRendeAcres]

Cajunlizz

In my defense:
rule for only picking up Brahmas & Bantams is because they actually like to be carried around, being hand fed & to come in the house & be part of our school day!
It seems the more of attention they get the more they want!

It is also a rule for the other chickens they don’t like to be bothered so, I don’t feel they should!

The chickens are happiest when they are out free ranging & although I try not to have kids & chicken out together without me there!

Things do happen: a teenager can put lid on feed pale to Quick! A little girl gets excited when the chickens come out of woods to see her! some chickens don't do well with quick movements! those I do try to rehome ((before anything happens))

As for
BR’s I love my girlfriends mine were nuts (2nd bunch from different eggs)
(I do have a couple 4months we are trying out now (so far so good)
BO"s mine again were not friendly

So, I don’t really talk to much about these breeds! (breed itself is calm)

I have seen a few different hatches & hatchery Brahmas/Cochins interact with kids! I believe Brahmas/Cochins & kids are a good match!

I don’t advise on Cochins because I haven’t found Cochins that lay well! ((although I know they are out there))

Joanne

 

[KayP]

I love this thread. Just thought I'd share that.