What type of chicken would you recommend to a newcomer??

[joebryant]

Fried in a black iron skillet.

 

[cindy99]

I have Golden Comets and Buff Orpingtons. If I had to do it all over again - I would go with Buff Orpingtons again! They came from a farm store. They are super sweet and friendly. They seem to get along well too.

 

[lauralou]

I like hatchery birds for the first-timer. You get a chance to try out multiple breeds, you can order all pullets if you like, and have a very good chance of getting a (mostly) female laying flock, and the price is right. Then as the hobby grows, you will most likely branch out into breeder birds. They're great too, but different in many ways. It's true that they tend to be larger, and if you're interested in showing, they are the only way to go. They don't tend to lay as well in my experience, and seem to go broody more often. I'm not knocking the broody hen. Every flock needs one. But when you get too many broodies, it can be a pain, and egg production will definitely suffer.

I still have some of my hatchery birds from a few years ago, and they're great for egglaying. Very few of those hens have gone broody, which is a plus for me. I'm covered up with broodies! My hatchery Buff Orpingtons were large ladies, and very friendly. The red sex-links were also meaty, friendly, and have been the most excellent egglayers. I've read that hatchery birds can suffer from problems with internal laying, but we haven't experienced that here. They've all been exceptionally healthy. I have a couple of Easter Eggers too, and they can come in any size since they're mixed breeds. One is small and lays the most gigantic blue egg. The other is quite hefty. You just never know what you'll get with them. That's part of the fun.

As far as Welsummers go, I've had breeder birds from 3 different lines. The first line, big girls, gorgeous speckled eggs, good personalities. Lots of show faults, poor rate of lay. The second line, gorgeous birds, unacceptable pale egg color, wicked evil rooster. The third line, as described above, skittish, stupid birds, but nice eggs and lots of them. So in my mind, breed is one thing, but line is another. I haven't been overly impressed with any of my Welsummers, for all different reasons. I only have 3 of them left. Two from the first line. They're nice girls and I can put up with the poor rate of lay when I see those fantastic eggs. The last one is one of the stupid birds, and she actually belongs to Blondie, my hatchery Buff Orpington, who is such a favorite hen that she gets to keep her annoying pal...

Every welsummer rooster I've ever had has been quite noisy. Actually, every rooster I've ever had has been quite noisy, except for 2 young breeder Ameraucanas that I have right now. Those guys seldom crow. Only in the morning when I'm coming to let them out of their coop. They're good in every way so far, and I'm enjoying them. For a pleasant change of pace. I'm not a big fan of the rooster in general.

 

[dldolan]

Quote:
Thanks for the info on the different strains of Wellsummers. Too bad I ended up with the stupid, skittish ones! Hopefully they will start laying some pretty eggs and I will forgive them...somewhat. I'm sure buying hatching eggs or chicks and raising them all the way oneself also has the effect of making them way better on the sociability continuum...

All my other hens are great, so that is a plus. I like the mix of personalities. Maybe the bigger, heavier breeds for northern WI, though, huh??

 

[gryeyes]

Delaware, EE, Buff Orpington, Light Brahma. And I echo the suggestion of hatchery or feed store chicks for a newbie.

But keep this web-site link handy and refer to it often - I recommend it to everyone wondering about chicken breeds.
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Another vote for EE's. I got my first chicks June 2009 and my EE is far and away everyone's favorite. She's the perfect size for cuddling, is curious and interested in humans and has proven to be the hardiest of my four. My Delaware and Light Brahma both died - no clue why. The Buff Orpington has survived with the EE and she is sweet also but doesn't have as engaging of a personality and doesn't lay beautiful light-green eggs

 

[dirtsaver]

Another vote for Buff Orpingtons! My second choice would be Black Australorps. Or maybe buy a mix of the two like we did. Both breeds are nice calm birds,easy-going, good layers and hardy. The Orpingtons are just big fluffy balls of feathers! Our Australorps follow us around the yard like dogs! Either way you'll not regret them!

Larry