Why that breed???????

[Domestic_goddess]

Wow I love all your responces, I wanna hear more! I think it's so interesting how ppl choose the breeds they do.

 

[muddyhorse]

We started out by going to an auction with no knowlwdge and no plan and buying anything unusual. we came home with 15 birds. 9 of which turned out to be roos The oldest toughest roos you have ever met. One was a blue "something really big" when my neighbor (80 year old farmer man) met "Mc Cain" he informed me he was not sure how old he was, but he suspected he knew Noah personally. also the "banties" turned out to be very large new hampshires. then I got some books, did some research, and decided since I had a small child to go with breeds with the gentlest temperment. we have silkies and cochins also ee s and marans . I want specked sussex.

 

[Funky Feathers]

Hmmm, let's see... I started out w/2 Perdue Oven-Stuffer Roaster chicks rescued from a school. They got huge (almost 20 pounds). They only lived about a year. Then I decided to go in with a friend on a McMurray's order. I got Polish. Mille Fleus, Porcelain D'Uccles and Black Tailed Buff Japs (all beautiful eye candy). I got hooked on the Polish, and then fell for Cochin bantams. Soon after that I fell in love with Silkies. Eventually I realized I could not handle so many breeds, so I scaled down to Polish and Silkies. I acquired SQ birds from top breeders. Then I got out of Polish to save on feed, so now I only have Silkies, my absolute favorites. Buff and Splash. I do miss all that other eye candy, though.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Son wanted to start poultry. I insisted on heavy standard breeds so we could eat the culls. I also insisted they be reputed to have decent temperments and warned we would not put up with a mean rooster.

He liked the description and the way the name of Speckled Sussex sounded. So we needed to get those (and are still searching for better stock)

I looked in the fair book to find which breeds would not be in the same category as the Sussex and would look different enough to easily tell apart as adults. I also considered egg color and anything that would be interesting to my science head boys.

So we got
Welsummers (very pretty feathers, dark brown eggs, Dutch ancestry (like us))
Black/Blue/Splash Ameraucanas (genetics lesson, blue eggs, fun beards/muffs)
Delawares (meaty, rare, have turned into a favorite, want more)

All this planning may sound unromantic, but I knew we were going to fall in love with these chicks/chickens when we got them, so we might as well get something fun right from the start, right? So far, I am really happy with our birds. We may reduce it over time to a couple of breeds to get serious about, but I don't know which those would be yet.

 

[Megs]

stared with buff brahmas as a child in 4H, very docile and gentle pets!!

since gettign back into chickens this spring after years without i have...
bantam silver sebrights (got them for their amazing color contrast with black & white, not friendly but not mean, have been excellent layers so far)
bantam Grey & black tailed white japanese (got them for their looks, tiny low riders with large beautiful tails, not great layers but love them none-the-less)
bantam black & mottled cochins (got for cool feather look and super friendly demenors)
standard australorp (got for beautiful feather coloring, good egg-laying and hardyness)
standard ameraucanas (got for beautiful colors and green egg novelty!!)

i also chose the bantam breeds i have as they are fairly hard to find in my area, so we need more breeders!!

 

[hcammack]

I have to many favorite breeds but I guess I will go for it

I like all my breeds for different reasons.

Ameraucana:
I love there beautiful blue eggs and their amazing bearded faces. My BBS are very nervous but the wheaten and blue wheatens are friendly and calm.

Wellsummers:
Beautiful eggs and great personality these may be my all time favorites because they also lay very well.

Marans:
one of the friendliest and meatiest birds beautiful eggs and very fun

Delawares:
Friendly, funny, and good egg layers

Faverolles:
I don't have any now but I am getting some I hope

They are friendly, beautiful, and great layers I love these birds! they are actually probably my favorites super docile

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I first started out with some mutts basically then got the basic RIR, BR, BA, BO, and EE's. Then I wanted to show so I got an assortment from McKinney and Govero (blue ameraucanas, partridge and white rocks, and a couple others) and liked the rocks. Then I got ahold of some dark brahmas and decided to try for partridge brahmas but most of my stock was killed off. We had some SLW's and BLRW's in large fowl but they ate too much, laid too little, and took up room so I wanted bantams. I got a free partridge wyandotte rooster then got hens for him. After that I got dun, white, black, silver laced, blue laced red, then made dun laced.
In my years with poultry (going on 9 years now) I have had everything it seems, leghorns, delewares, andalusians, modern game, OEGB, cochin, polish, silkie, brahma, rock, sexlink, d'uccle, naked neck, orpington, australorp, easter egger, ameraucana, araucana, rhode island reds, dominiques, phoenix, langshan, rosecombs, japs, d'anvers, sumatra, sebright, dutch, hamburg, and I am sure there are some I am missing. Most of them were in pairs or breeding groups.
I am a very indesisive person, always wanting something different. I settled on wyandottes because of all the patterns.

Right now I have ducks, I chose them (saxony) because they are tri-purpose (meat, eggs, show) and they are rare. In the past I have had runners, campbells, harlequin, rouen, swedish, crested, mallard, cayuga, call, indie, muscovy, bahama pintail, and chiloe widgeons.
For geese I have had cacklers, tufted roman, tufted buff, american buff, african, chinese and hatchery toulouse.

To be honest, if I were to move to the country again I would have a mixed flock and work on a new breed combining all the traits I like.

 

[Laurieks]

My first ever was a white Silkie hen when I was about 9. She was killed by evil neighborhood boys when I was away at a summer camp.

.
Many chickenless years went by.....college, job, hubby, kid...yay the kid likes animals as much as I do!

My son was given some Mille Fleur & Goldneck D'Uccles when he was about 3 or 4, because a coworker had them available. they were a nice fit, calm and petite, then he fell in love with Silkies and we bought several. The rest have accumulated as birds came up needing homes; we can't say no!

A raccooness moved in a few years ago and took out half our chickens before we caught and 'relocated' her, and her children.

At the big Roseville Show (big for us anyway

) we fell in love with Salmon Faverolles. that was about 6 years ago and we finally have our Faverolle eggs incubating under 2 different hens... due Sept 10!... although one hen stole them from another and kicked out 2 eggs today (on opening they looked infertile-I hope the rest are ok).

I'm looking at NPIP ceritfication, and have no quarantine area, so I guess we'll be saying no to adopting in the future =\\

I heard from a friend today that they have Ameraucanas because they are worm resistant. Her mom-in-law had an Oleander bush near them to aid in keeping them worm free. Anyone heard of that? (no no not hijacking post! pm if you've heard of this

)
Oops forgot reasons, sorry:
D'Uccles; calm, easy for Jr 4Her to handle, decent egg supply
Silkies; same as above, fun to watch, smarter (I think)
Cochins; calm, lovely
Hamburg; pretty but flighty
LaFleche; flighty but excellent mom (stealth brooder-hid & hatched dozens of chicks!)
Faverolle; not hatched yet but we hope for calmness and close to year-round eggs, and lovely to behold.
Barnevelders; (shh don't tell DH he doesn't know yet) hopefully lots of eggs, nice to look at.

 

[CityChicker]

I grew up in a bird loving family, so I can't say for sure what I *personally* started out with. We always had birds from the earliest age I could remember and I have had my own personal favorites for one reason or another, but the decision on what birds to keep was made for me not by me. LOL

When I was growing up, I was always drawn first and foremost to the personality of the bird. I gravitated to the birds that have the calmest, most gentle personalities. As a whole, Cochins have probably been my favorites, both LF and bantams. I have also almost always kept a small number of Silkies, Orps, and EE's.

Even now that I am older and breed larger numbers/varieties, temperament is still probably the most important thing to me.

 

[catfish/okie]

My very first chickens was a mother hen and 13 baby chicks our neighbor gave me. He had a White Leghorn roo, 2 RIR roos, some WL hens, some Barred Rock hens, some White Rock hens, and some crossed up hens. The hen he gave me was white with some black flecks and the chicks were an asortment of the above. I was about 10 or so. Back then my favoreite breed was Barred Rocks. Today I have 2 NHs 1 Bo 1 Wellie, and 3 BR SLW crosses. Now If I had to pick a favorite breed I would say New Hampshire Red. I like any kind of American breed plus Orpingtons and Welsummers. I like games to but since I live in a town I dont consider keeping these an option.