What made you decide to get numerous different breeds of chicken?

[Moxiechick]

I wanted to be able to tell all my girls apart, plus I just like the variety. Are all the rooms in your home painted the same color? Are all the clothes in your closet the same design or color?
If you answered no to any of the above questions, then you'll have an idea why many folks have several different breeds. I like watching the way they intermingle and interact and having a carton of multi-colored eggs is wonderful!

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

I started with 6 plain red sex-link hens, I now have over 250 birds, and over 35 breeds/varieties(colors), alot are in my siggy but i ran out of room for them all

 

[Cattitude]

I knew I wanted colored egg layers, so when emvickrey had a dozen plus blue eggs that needed an incubator, I volunteered. They were Ameraucana x Buff Orp and Silkie X Ameraucana, but all of them lay blue eggs.

My folks up the hill had bought two dozen Columbian Wyandottes the month before and they were ready to leave the brooder box, plus there are many many acres here that belong to our nephew and he is okay with us putting livestock on the property.

Then, my partner in Chicken Math started taking care of a farm about a mile from the Hill. The farm had a a four-compartment chicken house and some runs that needed repair... We started working on those.

Then I fell in love with Roosevelt, whose mommy lives way across the state of TN and over the border into Georgia. We drove to get him for my birthday. Well, he's a big guy, and he needs some big ladies, so we got some Barred Rocks for him. The EEs we had hatched were good sturdy girls, too, so all he needs now are some Buff Orpingtons and maybe some Blue Orpingtons...

You see how it multiplies! And except for Roosevelt, I don't even list the Farm poultry in my sig, just the Hill lot.

 

[featherz]

I just like lots of variety!

So I get a few of everything.

 

[jettgirl24]

I believe for me it's a combination of ADD and BYC

I started with 2 BO's and 2 BR's because I heard they're really friendly and good layers. Then got addicted to BYC and started to learn about more and more really cool breeds. I LOVED the chocolate eggs so I hatched some Marans next... I ended up keeping a blue copper roo that popped out of one of the eggs so now I'm hatching more Marans and doing a little experiment crossing him w/ my BO and my BR girls just to see what I get... I also LOVE Silkies and now that I have plenty of layers I ordered 2 dozen Silkie eggs to hatch next month... Every time I look at the hatching eggs auction I see more that I want to hatch... LOVE lavendar anything but in particular the Lav Orps. Also loving the lemon blue Cochins I've been seeing. I was REALLY trying to get down to a small flock of random layers and another small flock of purebreds but it's really not looking like that's going to happen

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I could never decide on just one breed. They are so many beautiful breeds and such different personalities. That was my reasoning for getting four different kinds.

 

[mother o' chicks72]

I have so many different breeds, I have 7 chicks currently and they're all different breeds! I have my month olds~ ameraucuana, buff orpington, cuckoo maran, and a barred rock. then i have a two week old black australorp and my tiny 2 day old bearded d'uccle/booted bantam and a welsummer or sussex. I'd post pics but i dont know how, feel free to explain!

 

[harvster]

mother o' chicks72 :

I have so many different breeds, I have 7 chicks currently and they're all different breeds! I have my month olds~ ameraucuana, buff orpington, cuckoo maran, and a barred rock. then i have a two week old black australorp and my tiny 2 day old bearded d'uccle/booted bantam and a welsummer or sussex. I'd post pics but i dont know how, feel free to explain!

The fourth question down in the faq covers posting pics.

Link below

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1198​

 

[LaBaze]

We started out with just ameraucanas but ended up with:
Ameraucanas
Barred Rocks
Turken Naked Necks
Black austrolorps
Jersey Black Giants
Golden Comets
Silkies
Cochins
A bunch of bantam breeds that we cant tell yet
Moddled Houdans
Barnevelder
Cookoo Maran

Most are still to young to lay yet but we are looking forward to seeing the variety in our flock!

And yes you will end up like us.

 

[pixiedouglas]

We made an offer on a house last September that would finally give us some property to have a garden. That put the thought into my head that I wanted to keep chickens. I'm an animal lover so it sounded like a great idea to me! Farm fresh eggs would surely go perfect with our garden and practical hubby signed off on the idea of "useful" pets.

He bought me a chicken book and I found BYC and I started to research. The first breed I fell in love with was the Buff Orpington, they just looked so big and fluffy and squishy and I like the buff color. I learned it was nearly impossible to sex bantam anything so I scratched any of those off the lists. Plus I wanted BIG eggs.

We don't want a rooster and I'm soft hearted so I wanted to minimize my crying when I have to find a home for my roosters. I wanted chickens that were good foragers, personable, and had a good laying rate. We weren't planning to eat them, but most of the breeds that caught my fancy were "dual-purpose" that made sense to me since they'd naturally lend themselves to sustainable farming practices. After reading and reading and reading I started to select breeds. I didn't want any white chickens at first, I wanted lots of color. Then Hubby admitted that he didn't care too much for black chickens. Scratch the black chickens off the list. Turns out darling daughter LOVES white chickens. Oh Delawares are on the list. I wanted to make sure I got a few hens at least, put the red sex-links on! We wanted some blue/green eggs. Americauna/EE for fun. Someone told me Barred Rock were smart so I put them on the list. While reading my chicken book I found photos of Salmon Faverolles and fell in love. Hubby said get 8 total.

We started out with 2 Red sex-link, 2 Buff Orp, 2 Barred Rock, 1 Americauna, and 1 Delaware.

We lost a Barred Rock chick the first week.

Hubby felt bad for me and let me take darling daughter to the Farm Supply to replace her. We came out with a CA white (darling daughter just HAD to have the big white one!) and another Delaware (she really likes the white ones). That was our first experience with chicken math.

I hinted for a week or so I'd like another Americauna (she quickly became everyones favorite) or some Salmon Faverolles and Hubby said emphatically we were MAXED out on chickens.

The next day he found an ad for 2 wk old Salmon Faverolle pullets and told me I could get TWO.

Second experience with chicken math. Turns out one of them is a Rooster, so I'm trying to get the breeder to replace.

I do wish I had a couple more Americaunas, but I don't know who I'd trade because I like everyone in the brooder box!

I can tell the chicks apart for now, I couldn't at first but now some of them are starting to feather out more or grow faster than their sisters. If they catch each other/even out, I don't know if I will be able too. I wanted to tell them apart so I could give them names. It's fun to look in the box and see all the variety and watch the personalities come out!

I'm looking forward to seeing the variety of color pecking in my backyard! I wasn't sure what kind of breed would be best for us so it made sense to me to get a variety of the ones that sounded good and then enjoy the diversity of the flock.