What type of breeds do well together????

[cluckychick]

I want chickens for their laying purposes but I also do not want just one type of chicken. I would like a variety of pretty birds but not many. A Small flock that will not be free ranging but will have an outside coop and large run. I would also like them to be friendly. Is this to many qualities to ask of chickens?? Can anyone help me in choosing what breeds would be best for me. As I'm sure you have determined I will be new to this chicken family raising and have devoured and read about everything on the subject but knowledge from ppl who actually own and raise them is what I'm looking for

Hope someone can help me

 

[BaronRenfrew]

For a small back yard flock, there's a few more q's that need to be answered.

Where do you plan to get them from? Day olds or adults?

How much space do you have? What do you plan to do when they get old? Plan on a rooster? Want birds that go broody? Do you live in Canada or somewhere with extreme cold?

How about predators? In a fenced yard it doesn't matter, but for free range some breeds spend more time under cover (my Silver Spangled Hamburgs were good for this.)

All chickens can be tamed. Food is the way to tame them. I prefer to feed once per day, that forces birds to be a bit hungry and then they follow you around. They can be tamed with bread or other treats. You just have to spend time with them. Key to working with birds is to move real slow. Fast movement alarms them.

Cochins, and buff Orpingtons are favorites for being tame. My dark cornish were mixed, some very tame, some wild.

Most breeds were bred to be dual purpose, but this means that they eat more for the eggs you get. The dark cornish could eat like you wouldn't beleive, where my hamburgs didn't eat much at all. The same was said when the bird was butchered, cornish were huge the hamburgs skinny soup birds.

Here's a good point, the comb is for temperature regulation. The bigger the comb the better the bird deals with extreme heat, but they will shut blood flow in extreme cold and it will freeze. (It then grows out but the comb stays ugly).

 

[BaronRenfrew]

I find that white birds have an industrial look to them, so I prefer "partridge" colored birds. I've ordered partridge chanteclers.

 

[seedcorn]

if raised together, most chickens will get along. In mixing grown birds, they may segragate a bird if it's differently colored. My bantams do. My light brahma's try to ignore my partridge bantam.

I do hate the fact that white chickens turn part yellow in sun.

 

[cluckychick]

I plan on getting day olds if I can find them available in my area.

Space: Coop to be 8x8 and run to be 12x12

I don't plan on free ranging

I live in MO so hot in the summer and can be cold in the winter but the coop will be heated.

I want laying hens for eggs not butcher. I plan on making them pets. Is this a good idea or not? What I mean, if by making them pets will that affect the laying of eggs in anyway? I'll continue to buy my chicken from the store for consumption, lol.

Thank you for your questions as this gives me more to think about during my planning stages of this.

 

[BaronRenfrew]

There's a bunch of hatcheries that ship but minimum is 25 chicks. If you can't find someone to split with you now, no problem. Buy the 25 and sell the pullets in the fall. Put an ad in your local paper that you have hens for sale, your phone will ring off the hook.

or you can poke around here and find birds for sale, swap etc.

google mcmurray hatchery, ideal, strombergs, meyer .. all are reputable hatcheries that sell assortments of hens for laying

here's something else you might check out http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html its a list if chicken breeds and characteristics

Being pets will not affect laying performance.

 

[ibpboo]

Get chickies that are day old, or even a week or two, hold them a lot and let them eat from your hand. You can cuddle them and keep them warm, like a mama chicken would, let them sit on your shoulders etc, they will think you are the mama and be very friendly! I have 2 rhode island reds, a barred rock, and an easter egger and they all do fine together, they all are now 6 years and still laying. In January I acquired a silkie and game hen, at first the other chickens chased and pecked at them but they are starting to let them hang out with them now. I do not cage the last two with the rest. Mine free range during the day and put themselves away at night. The silkie goes to bed in the tack room and the game sleeps in an oak tree, the rest go to their pen.

 

[cranberrycreekchickens]

bantam partride rocks do great with other breeds i have 3 roos and 2 hens together and no peck order and some leghorns with them and a barred rock i just love theme

 

[AtRendeAcres]

I have found if you brood chickens together they will get along (even bantams & large fowl)

Your looking for pets like ibpboo said hold them alot! but, there are also some breeds that are a little friendlier (& we all have our favorite breed)

so here is a chart that might help http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html