Your opinion Best Backyard chicken breeds? free range, friendly, docile, good egg layers and color

[jonibc]

Hi,
I'm new to raising chickens, and I've just recently hatched some barred plymouth rocks!
However I want to have a few different breeds to have egg color variety (Cream, blue, brown, green etc.).
They'll be living in my back yard, free ranging and would ideally like them to be super friendly, docile (not pick fights and peck one another) and good egg layers.

Are they're any breeds you could recommend? Could you recommend a few ones that work well together and also have different egg coloring?
For example a brown layer, a dark chocolate layer, a blue layer, a green layer, a white layer etc?

Are they're any breeds you wouldn't recommend for a beginner and someone living in a mild cold climate (the UK)?

Many thanks,
I really appreciate any help and advice!
Connie

I’ve had my flock of 6 hens for 2 years. I chose them because I wanted a mix of egg colors. I bought them all together as new hatchlings. I let them out for at least a couple of hours each day. They have never turned on each other, always stick close when roaming around the yard. My Americauna is friendliest to me. She always squats for a petting session. She isn’t my prettiest girl but she’s the sweetest and her eggs are beautiful greenish blue. My least favorite in temperament is my Cuckoo Marans but she lays gorgeous dark brown eggs. She’s very fearful. My Sicilian Buttercup is my prettiest hen. She was positively tame as a chick but follows the Cuckoo Marans now and is very skittish. She lays small white eggs. I also have 3 light brown egg layers that are beautiful hens: a Dominique, a Golden Laced Wyandotte, and a Specked Sussex. Have fun and give them a safe place to roost at night. Mine go for their pen and coop as dusk settles. The get their daily meal worm treat and I lock them in for the night.

 

[L11]

Hi,
I'm new to raising chickens, and I've just recently hatched some barred plymouth rocks!
However I want to have a few different breeds to have egg color variety (Cream, blue, brown, green etc.).
They'll be living in my back yard, free ranging and would ideally like them to be super friendly, docile (not pick fights and peck one another) and good egg layers.

Are they're any breeds you could recommend? Could you recommend a few ones that work well together and also have different egg coloring?
For example a brown layer, a dark chocolate layer, a blue layer, a green layer, a white layer etc?

Are they're any breeds you wouldn't recommend for a beginner and someone living in a mild cold climate (the UK)?

Many thanks,
I really appreciate any help and advice!
Connie

Golden comets and Rhode Island reds are very pretty and sweet chickens. They do great free range and are awesome layers.

 

[connieconnie]

Hi Connie, Well, I am also fairly new to chickens. But on my quest for a people friendly flock that will get along well and hopefully give me a basket full of colored Easter eggs , I have discovered a few breeds that are great. Well, barred rocks tend to be bossy and take over in a flock. I love the barred look so I got the Dominique chicken instead. Very sweet and docile, get along well with other chickens. A heritage breed that the first colonists brought over, ..almost went extinct. First off, Easter eggers ( they lay a variety of colored eggs and are people friendly, but keep distance), Orpingtons (they are the sweetest , lay a light brown egg and not scared at all of people), cream legbars (they lay a pale powder blue egg, people friendly), black copper marans( lay a dark copper brown egg), Isbar ( lay green eggs), olive eggers( lay moss & olive color eggs) and silkies ( very people friendly, sweet and get along well with other chickens. Lay a small cream to white egg). Hope this helps a little.

This is incredible! Thank you! Everyone on this site is so helpful, it's really helped me a lot

 

[connieconnie]

I have 2 Black Sex Links, and an Australorp. They all lay lovely big brown eggs.

One of the Black Sex Links started bullying tbe other two, so I put chicken glasses on her, and all is quiet in the coop now. The Austrolarp is pretty noisy when she lays, and has recently been showing signs of broodiness, but as I only have a small coop, I do not want to hatch any eggs just yet. But, they are all pretty docile, and do not panic when I pick them up.

Haven't heart of chicken glasses before I've learnt something new! Thankyou!
I've tried looking for australorps and sex links in the uk, but no luck

 

[connieconnie]

I’ve had my flock of 6 hens for 2 years. I chose them because I wanted a mix of egg colors. I bought them all together as new hatchlings. I let them out for at least a couple of hours each day. They have never turned on each other, always stick close when roaming around the yard. My Americauna is friendliest to me. She always squats for a petting session. She isn’t my prettiest girl but she’s the sweetest and her eggs are beautiful greenish blue. My least favorite in temperament is my Cuckoo Marans but she lays gorgeous dark brown eggs. She’s very fearful. My Sicilian Buttercup is my prettiest hen. She was positively tame as a chick but follows the Cuckoo Marans now and is very skittish. She lays small white eggs. I also have 3 light brown egg layers that are beautiful hens: a Dominique, a Golden Laced Wyandotte, and a Specked Sussex. Have fun and give them a safe place to roost at night. Mine go for their pen and coop as dusk settles. The get their daily meal worm treat and I lock them in for the night.

Wow, you're flock sound lovely I'm planning on having about the same size (6 ladies), also like you having them lay different colors so I can tell which chicken is laying or having problems. Americauna, sound great, I've read a lot on them and they tick all the boxes, however they're really really rare in the uk. Still haven't found any so I've settled for the cream legbar (which is common here), which apparently tend to be a bit more flightly than the americauna, but equally good egg layers (with a blue egg) and hardy.

Interesting about the Marans, I've found very little information on their personalities as most only write about their egg laying capabilities. I'm planning on hatching a few black copper marans, just for the egg variety Hopefully I can socialise them enough to be friendly as chicks

Haven't heard of a sicilian buttercup (they sound super cute), I have heart of the wyandottes with their super pretty feathering

Made the garden into a chicken fortress with the amount of wire and fencing we've used hopefully it'll be enough to keep out those pesky predators!

Already started breeding live mealworms these chickens are going to be spoiled!

 

[connieconnie]

Golden comets and Rhode Island reds are very pretty and sweet chickens. They do great free range and are awesome layers.

Golden comet, are those popular classic egg laying hybrid you see? I heard Rhode Island reds are fantastic for egg laying!

 

[Jambo88]

There’s some Easter Egger hatching eggs on eBay at the moment I don’t know if they are any interest to you?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264704006649

 

[Jmiller89]

We have a mix of 5 breeds of chicken (all brown layers) the bared rocks are by far the head chickens. Whatever breed you get I would make sure it’s not a smaller breed. They will get bullied.

 

[connieconnie]

There’s some Easter Egger hatching eggs on eBay at the moment I don’t know if they are any interest to you?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264704006649

Thank you

 

[connieconnie]

We have a mix of 5 breeds of chicken (all brown layers) the bared rocks are by far the head chickens. Whatever breed you get I would make sure it’s not a smaller breed. They will get bullied.

Thank you! Great advice! I'm not planning on getting any bantams, so hopefully all the hens will be roughly the same size