Which breed(s) would make a good pet for my niece?

[la dee da]

Hello everyone!

Hopefully sometime next year I will be able to get my niece a few of her own chickens. She absolutely loves mine, and wants some to be strictly pets. The trouble is she loves all chickens, and cannot make up her mind. She asked me to post on here for ideas.

Here are my rules on what she may get (we share the property with her mom):

1: No bantam roosters; their crows make me want to scream.
2: No heavily feathered legs. We get snow, ice, and lots of mud here, and I don’t want to chance the chicken getting sick and dying on her.
3: It must be a friendly (not flighty) breed, so that she can raise the chicks and actually have friendly pets.

Other than that, I’m very open. I have standard breed birds that free range, but that shouldn’t be an issue since she wants me to build a nice enclosed run for her birds so they don’t get killed.

Thank you!

 

[OrpingtonManiac]

I may have a bias, but Orpingtons are great pets! They are relatively easy to care for, they lay a good amount of eggs, and there are loads of beautiful colours!
I've heard silkies are great too, but they lay less eggs. They look adorable too!
However, both have a tendency to go broody, so if she wants to hatch chicks, thats great, but otherwise its a pain to break them.

I should mention, its a also to do with personality, so youre not guaranteed to get a friendly lap chicken.
Others may have more suggestions and good luck!

 

[Noraaaaa]

Hello everyone!

Hopefully sometime next year I will be able to get my niece a few of her own chickens. She absolutely loves mine, and wants some to be strictly pets. The trouble is she loves all chickens, and cannot make up her mind. She asked me to post on here for ideas.

Here are my rules on what she may get (we share the property with her mom):

1: No bantam roosters; their crows make me want to scream.
2: No heavily feathered legs. We get snow, ice, and lots of mud here, and I don’t want to chance the chicken getting sick and dying on her.
3: It must be a friendly (not flighty) breed, so that she can raise the chicks and actually have friendly pets.

Other than that, I’m very open. I have standard breed birds that free range, but that shouldn’t be an issue since she wants me to build a nice enclosed run for her birds so they don’t get killed.

Thank you!

Silkies are my favorite but they have feathered legs. ALSO I do love wyandottes! Super nice and cute! Polish are crazy, but mine are sweet! Overall orpington or wyanodtte would be my choice for u!

 

[FrostRanger]

I think orpingtons would be a great choice. Easter eggers are also a good choice although a few can be flighty (most of mine are really friendly though). They also lay colorful eggs which i'm sure she'd like too. I'm also going to mention speckled sussexs, I haven't owned any personally, but I've heard very many people say that they're some of their sweetest birds

 

[HollowOfWisps]

My Orpingtons, Marans, speckled Sussex and welsummers are all my favorites in my flock also the most friendly. My originally four follow me around everywhere. I have lots of other breeds because my kids picked them out, but if I was just choosing what chickens we had it would be those four breeds. Marans can have feathered legs, but every blue copper Maran I have gotten from Meyer were clean legged. It’s mainly the French lines that have the feathered legs. Feathered legs are not really a problem at least they haven’t been for me. We have had flooding which leads to lots of mud and snow so deep I look like I’m swimming in it. None of my feathered foot chickens have had issues. I had more issues with crested breeds in winter and wet weather than I ever had with feathered feet.

 

[nuthatched]

Temperament and friendliness is up to the individual bird.

 

[Noraaaaa]

Temperament and friendliness is up to the individual bird.

Yes, but there are breeds that are more prone to being freindly.

 

[OrpingtonManiac]

Yes, but there are breeds that are more prone to being freindly.

I agree.

 

[Seaslug]

My issues with Orpingtons are that they can have issues with their health -- reproductive issues and weight issues. I like my Sussex - they are very voice responsive to me and they are curious birds. I also like my Austrolorp a lot. She and my Sapphire Gem are two of my younger birds that I really doted on this spring and they have turned into lovely hens.

 

[Sally PB]

My Bielefelders are my most friendly chickens. They are also autosexing, so you can the chicks' gender at hatch.