Why do you have the breeds you do?

[5hens&aroo]

Way too cute. You’r chickens look so healthy. I wish mine look like that

They eat only organic feed and free range all day everyday. I don’t anything special to them! Thank you so much that’s a huge compliment

 

[jsr5]

I choose for production, shell color(I like a variety basket), appearance and personality. I try at least one "new to me" breed(or hybrid) every year when I choose my replacement pullets.

The wife/we are the same on getting new getting variety she is adding a new breed just about every time the Farm Store has chicks for sale, We so love our girls have found any we don't like yet I just Have have have to build proper bachelor quarters some aren't worth butchering and I can't kill just to cull so some of the roos are gonna be put up front by the black top road to show off for us.

 

[jsr5]

I started with 3 silver laced Wyandotte’s. Then added 2 golden laced Wyandotte’s and 2 Buff Orpingtons to the group. All hens. All for aesthetically pleasing pets with benefits. All horribly spoiled. I grew up with chickens and always just loved them, so as an adult I had to work on my husband before he agreed. Now, he loves them as much as I do. When you come out the back door, watch out for the stampede! And you will never get away without sitting down for a pet and cuddle.

isn't that the coolest thing. We have a couple buffies (that is what we call our Buff Orpintons in general ) That follow us around like heel hounds. I like to think they love us rather than just hope we will scare up some food like a mouse or ants or whatever we might uncover when doing building projects and stuff.

 

[Peepsi]

This is my first time getting chickens. I ordered them from MyPetChicken.com, and they are arriving in July. I live in a big city, and have a small backyard, so I think about 6 chickens is the max I have room for (although the city says you can have 16 of them!).

Because I have a small backyard, and my climate is mostly cold, I knew I needed chickens that could take confinement well, and were cold-hardy. I also wanted friendly chickens, and I wanted clean-legged chickens because I can't stand poopy feathery feet. I don't need high egg production, so I stayed away from hybrids such as the gold comet (high egg producers tend to be flighty, and I didn't want flighty).

I decided to get one chicken of each breed, so I'd have a variety, and so that there were no two chickens of the same breed (trying to avoid chicken cliques).

So here are my breed choices:
1) Buff Orpington: Lays fairly well, cold hardy, bears confinement well, supposedly one of the sweetest breeds around.
2) Australorp: Lays fairly well, cold hardy, bears confinement well, and again, is supposed to be a friendly breed of chicken.
3) Copper Marans: Ok, I sort of broke one of my rules here. This chicken does have feathered feet, but not to the extent that say, a cochin has. I really wanted a dark chocolate egg, and the marans has that. I know it doesn't taste any different, but they look cool.
4) Silver-laced Wynadotte: Cold hardy (small rose comb!), bears confinement well, and oh-so-pretty!
5) Gold-laced Wynadotte: Cold hardy (small rose comb!), bears confinement well, and oh-so-pretty!
6) Easter-egger: I wanted a surprise in there. Who knows what color of egg I'll get? Will it lay sage-green eggs? olive-green? mint-green? Sky blue? Pink? or something else? I know it will only lay one color its whole life, but what color will it be? The ANTICIPATION! Plus, they are supposedly cold-hardy, bear confinement well, etc.

So those are the six breeds of chickens I ordered. I think that their temperaments should mix well together too. For example, I decided against getting a Welsummer, as I heard they can be overly bossy in a flock setting (although, I suppose it depends on each personal chicken). Yes, there will always be a pecking order, but I'm really hoping that no bird will be a bully. Bully birds (the unredeemable kind) get invited to dinner.

I can't wait for July to get here!

 

[TashaFrancois]

This is my first time getting chickens. I ordered them from MyPetChicken.com, and they are arriving in July. I live in a big city, and have a small backyard, so I think about 6 chickens is the max I have room for (although the city says you can have 16 of them!).

Because I have a small backyard, and my climate is mostly cold, I knew I needed chickens that could take confinement well, and were cold-hardy. I also wanted friendly chickens, and I wanted clean-legged chickens because I can't stand poopy feathery feet. I don't need high egg production, so I stayed away from hybrids such as the gold comet (high egg producers tend to be flighty, and I didn't want flighty).

I decided to get one chicken of each breed, so I'd have a variety, and so that there were no two chickens of the same breed (trying to avoid chicken cliques).

So here are my breed choices:
1) Buff Orpington: Lays fairly well, cold hardy, bears confinement well, supposedly one of the sweetest breeds around.
2) Australorp: Lays fairly well, cold hardy, bears confinement well, and again, is supposed to be a friendly breed of chicken.
3) Copper Marans: Ok, I sort of broke one of my rules here. This chicken does have feathered feet, but not to the extent that say, a cochin has. I really wanted a dark chocolate egg, and the marans has that. I know it doesn't taste any different, but they look cool.
4) Silver-laced Wynadotte: Cold hardy (small rose comb!), bears confinement well, and oh-so-pretty!
5) Gold-laced Wynadotte: Cold hardy (small rose comb!), bears confinement well, and oh-so-pretty!
6) Easter-egger: I wanted a surprise in there. Who knows what color of egg I'll get? Will it lay sage-green eggs? olive-green? mint-green? Sky blue? Pink? or something else? I know it will only lay one color its whole life, but what color will it be? The ANTICIPATION! Plus, they are supposedly cold-hardy, bear confinement well, etc.

So those are the six breeds of chickens I ordered. I think that their temperaments should mix well together too. For example, I decided against getting a Welsummer, as I heard they can be overly bossy in a flock setting (although, I suppose it depends on each personal chicken). Yes, there will always be a pecking order, but I'm really hoping that no bird will be a bully. Bully birds (the unredeemable kind) get invited to dinner.

I can't wait for July to get here!

Those months seem so long. When we got our first egg and I did a little happy dance and gave our Marans, Dinah, a great big kiss! Lol

 

[Kris5902]

I’ve got two different goals in my selection for breeds. We sell eggs in the summer as well as for personal consumption. So I want varied egg colors, fairly solid productivity, and decently thrifty layers. I’m thinking the laying flock will max out around 50 birds when it’s fully established.

For my layers I have 2 Blue Copper Marans (mix up with eggs I was going for Black), 3 Isbars, 2 Barnvelders, 3 Sapphires (CCLxLH). I plan on adding more Marans, Crested Cream Legbars, and Isbars. Maybe some Olive Egger (wheaten Americauna x Marans) hybrids and Ameraucanas. Favoring the Marans, Barnvelders, and Olive egger because the cockerels are a decent size for processing.

We will also be doing pastured meat birds, so for that I want heritage breeds I can cross successfully selecting for large fast growth. As I am not permitted to run CX for sale (200 bird personal limit) and I also want a sustainable flock I can hatch my own batches of meat birds from, because I live on an island and bringing in chicks is a challenge.

I’m still considering breeds and looking at available local breeds that would be suitable and affordable. Leaning towards Plymouth rocks, Bresse, and some Mistral Gris to start. Mistrals being a hybrid of heritage breeds that isn’t regulated like the CX production here. They may or may not get included in my long term plans.

 

[Jack Speese]

I've had diverse breeds over the years (most of my life) that I've raised chickens. Since my wife (who puts up with my birds and all the fuss involved with them) likes brown eggs best, I've generally had brown egg layers. I like black stars, but I found that the red stars (or whatever else they may be called) weren't as hardy, they tend to do well for a while and then burn out. I'd get black stars again but generally prefer to stick with breeds rather than hybrids. I'm not into commercial production, after all. I've also had white egg layers such as leghorns (I really like the red leghorn, they are so pretty), Andalusians, and accidentally black Minorcas in a supposedly all brown egg layer assortment, but that was OK. My wife doesn't care for colored eggs, she thinks they look like giant robin eggs, so I never intentionally had any of those breeds, except as a free chick in an order, and it was some mixed breed. If I had to pick two favorites, I'd say cochins (I currently have 2 blue cochin hens) and polish (although I don't have any right now). The rest of my current flock are Delawares and NH Reds. I like but am not thrilled with the Delawares. I had two die on me. One had a rough time with her first molt but is OK now. They are going into their third year. They just don't seem to be as robust and hardy. However, the NH Reds are great. And you can't go wrong with RIRs and Plymouth Rocks. A lot depends on the particular strain, hatchery, hatch year, etc. when it comes to a particular breed.

 

[ariri30]

I have chickens for about 5 years. But I was only able to get mutts that we’re not even supposed to be BackyardChickens. Long story. I started to google like a mad woman to where I could get some of those beautiful birds that I see online and came across this site. I saw people talking about TSC and I had no idea what it was. Still I thought it was too far for me. About 45 minutes each way. I google and found a lady that sells fertilized eggs. I bought BCM eggs, Araucanas eggs and Dutch bantam eggs. I hatched them all except for the silkies. They are the most beautiful birds I have ever seen. They are five months old. I just went to TSC on February first and got two australorps one barre rock one silkie one Sebright and one mystery bantam chick that looked like chipmunk. I’m hook on the chicken math. Now I have 15 chickens

 

[Alexandra33]

This is rather embarrassing to admit.....my choices are based upon the desire to try every breed available. Egg color, production, plumage, personality, size, shape, comb type, beards/feathered legs/crests/extra toes and lack thereof, ect., are all over the place in this flock. It seems I have/had a little of everything (though there's still much more to explore). It's the best sort of mixed bag.
- Orpington
- Australorp
- Plymouth Rock
- Leghorn
- Welsummer
- Marans
- Spitzhauben
- Egyptian Fayoumi
- Campine
- Sicilian Buttercup
- Hamburg
- Andalusian
- Sumatra
- Easter Egger
- Ameraucana
- Olive Egger
- Cream Legbar
- Wyandotte
- Buckeye
- Production Red
- Sussex
- Faverolles
- Cochin
- Brahma
- Silkie
- Sebright
- d'Uccle
- Japanese
- Rosecomb
- Old English Game bantam
- Barnevelder
- Phoenix
- Isbar
Excited to receive my first Polish in less than 3 weeks.

~Alex

 

[TashaFrancois]

This is rather embarrassing to admit.....my choices are based upon the desire to try every breed available. Egg color, production, plumage, personality, size, shape, comb type, beards/feathered legs/crests/extra toes and lack thereof, ect., are all over the place in this flock. It seems I have/had a little of everything (though there's still much more to explore). It's the best sort of mixed bag.
- Orpington
- Australorp
- Plymouth Rock
- Leghorn
- Welsummer
- Marans
- Spitzhauben
- Egyptian Fayoumi
- Campine
- Sicilian Buttercup
- Hamburg
- Andalusian
- Sumatra
- Easter Egger
- Ameraucana
- Olive Egger
- Cream Legbar
- Wyandotte
- Buckeye
- Production Red
- Sussex
- Faverolles
- Cochin
- Brahma
- Silkie
- Sebright
- d'Uccle
- Japanese
- Rosecomb
- Old English Game bantam
- Barnevelder
- Phoenix
- Isbar
Excited to receive my first Polish in less than 3 weeks.

~Alex

Wow! I love it! Pictures of flock and eggs please!