what should i get?

[Jakoda]

I have a variety of chickens , silver laced wyandottes, australorps, speck sussex, coronation sussex, buff & lav orpingtons, ameracunas, olive eggers.

Varying ages right now, year olds, couple months, few weeks..

Out of these breeds, my favorites are the orpingtons, all ages, very docile, easy to handle (altho all my birds are easy to handle), very friendly, 2nd I'd say my sussex's, altho big mouths, they are comical birds, and very friendly, then my australorps,,same as above, these 3 breeds seem to be my top layers, friendly and easily handled.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

We've only had hatchery-stock birds bought as day-olds from the feed store, so don't know the joys of show-quality birds or even just "good" breeder stock. And besides counting green and white eggs, I couldn't tell you who lays what or how often. That said ...

The sweetest chicks we've had were Speckled Sussex, even the males were super sweet and friendly.

One of our best mother hens has been a Golden Laced Wyandotte.

I have kept one rooster of each of these two breeds because I believe they will make better dual purpose birds than the other breeds we've got (Silver Laced Wyandotte, Barred Rock, Easter Eggers, Buff Orpingtons, Black Austrolorps, Black Sexlinks, Gold Sexlinks, Brown Leghorns, White Leghorns, California Whites, Jersey Giants, Cuckoo Marans, Rhode Island Reds ... and I'm probably forgetting some.) I hate to sound too hungry, but realities of chicken keeping being what they are, and thinking ahead, these two breeds are the juiciest feeling birds. They are also two very attractive breeds. These two breeds seem to hold their own in the pecking order without having to be too nasty and aren't too flighty so could be made into pets. The cockerels were impressive at culling time, but as comparatively younger men it is taking the ones we kept a while to build their own harems.

For white egg layers my favorite hens so far are the California Whites -- they are escape artists, but seem very intelligent and are just as good at letting themselves back in as they are at getting out. I love having some white eggs.

Our top rooster is a Brown Leghorn, and he does a good job. Another good rooster is the Black Austrolorp.

I do also really enjoy the Easter Egger hens on all counts ... one of ours is an amazing mother! But the EE cocks are incredibly jerky.

All that said, the most friendly seem to be the Golden Sexlinks as older hens. They follow the closest looking for treats and are the most likely to want to be petted or cuddled when we sit down in their coop or run. I suspect they are also the ones occasionally laying the 100g+ eggs.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

You might want to look into dual purpose and ornamental breeds if you're planning on keeping them long term. I LOVED my white Leghorn girls, they were super friendly and amazing layers- like every day, but they seemed to fizzle out on egg production pretty quickly. My partridge Chantechlers, a dual purpose breed- so meat and eggs, were great layers too. They didn't give me an egg everyday without fail, per say, but they were consistent. They kept on laying consistently even after the two year mark, unlike my Leghorns. One of those Chentechlers ended up being the oldest chicken I ever had. She was 8 or so when she died and she'd still give me the occasional egg or two at that age.
It sounds like you want a breed that lays well, will hatch their own chicks and do well in the cold. Chentechlers fill all of those requirements. A couple of mine would sit on eggs and they're a Canadian breed, so cold isn't an issue.
I've also had Orpingtons, Easter Eggers, Wyandottes, Cochins, Game Fowl, Phoenix, and probably a bunch of other breeds I'm forgetting and loved them all. If you spend lots of time with them, handle them regularly and bribe them with treats any breed can be friendly. I have Silkies now, and adore them- but they aren't for everyone either.
A great resource when researching breeds is feathersite.com. Each breed is listed and shows how they are as layers, their tolerances, general disposition, ect.
Happy hunting, there are so many fun and interesting breeds and that makes it tough to pick just one for sure!

 

[kimmerjo]

Ok thanks everyone. I'm not sure about having show birds... Yet I have a 5 year old who wants to do 4-h so maybe we planned on her taking a cow . Our family has a beef cattle farm.( natural raised of course). It sound like we may do a mix of chickens then . It it safe to have a rooster breed with a diffrent breed of hen?

 

[Mathew544]

Buff Brahmas! So sweet and friendly and good egg layers. They are heritage breed so they take longer to develop but they are beautiful. Good luck!