What breeds of chickens do you like?

[milach]

It's that time of year again where it's time to order spring chicks. Right now we have NH Reds and Barred Rocks. We want to get about 2 dozen more, I would like to get about 4 different breeds, but I don't know what I want! These are going to be for eggs- so which ones do you like? Are there any ornamental ones that are good layers? Also, right now, the ones we have lay brown eggs, which ones lay white eggs?

[Guest1]

Any breed that's good with mashed potatoes!!

(sorry - kidding of course!)

I've never raised chickens, but a friend of ours back in VA raises them every year......I've always thought it was so neat!! Best of luck to you & your efforts with them this year!

[canadian gardener]

My sister has the cutest Polish hen. No hen lasts if they aren't layers with her. This one has probably died now, it's been a while but she has the cutest bouffant hairdo on top. The rooster that came with her died early on but he sort of looked like Elvis in a chicken suit.

I saw recently that Martha Stewart (she is from a Polish family) kept the Polish hens too, whether for sentiment or not I don't know.

Cant' remember if they have a more elegant or latin type name than just polish hens but they are so cute.

[forestdale]

Elvis in a chicken suit - eek!

Milach, I keep chickens here in Australia. We only have two egg eaters in our family so we have 5 chickens and they give us plenty of eggs for ourselves and to give away when we have too many. We have Rhode Island Reds and Light Sussex. Rhode Island Reds are excellent layers and rarely get broody. They are fairly small birds and don't overeat. The Light Sussex are huge. They are white with speckled black feathering on their head and around their neck. Their combs are bright red. They are excellent layers but they do get broody. And because they are so big they eat more than the RI Reds. I let them out everyday so they can free range around the back yard eating bugs and grass and I find they don't eat as much laying pellets if I let them find their own food.
Usually black/brown hens lay brown eggs and white ones lay white eggs.
Are you going to sell your eggs?

[Missy]

I just got my Mc Murray Hatchery catalog~ too bad we can't have any right now. I like the Auracana (sp?), they lay bluish to geenish eggs. I like alot of the ornamentals, silkies, and phoenix's, and buff warpintons (sp?). Post pics if you can!! I'd love to see yours!

[milach]

Bush- LOL- we did that this summer- it's certainly not for the faint at heart. We still have about 8 left in our freezer, and even almost a year later, I get squeemish eating it. But they do taste great!!

I'll look into the Polish and the Sussex.

Bethany- we have NH reds, which are a cross breed of the RI reds. It sounds like the Sussex are the opposite of our barred rocks- they are black with white. You do the same thing we do with ours in the summer, just let them roam to find their own food. Honestly, last summer we never put any flea or tick medicine on our dog and we didn't find a single tick on him all season. They're so awesome for bug control around the house. But they are very destructive in my garden (but you can't beat the fertilizer! LOL). Yes, we're planning on selling the eggs- not for the $$$, but the chickens are pretty cool to have around.

I love Mc Murray hatchery, but you need to order so much to ensure safe shipping. I wanted to order some Ginneas, but you have to order a min. of 30 of them. So I'm just going to go through the local feed store (who is cheaper anyways) and they can get whatever breeds I want.

I don't have my scanner hooked up anymore, but I will get out there with the digital camera and get some pics for you guys (especially when we get the chicks, they're too cute!).

Also, anyone ever have Ginneas? We plan on getting some of those this year too. I want to get some of the lavender or purple ones, they're so beautiful!!

[Missy]

I like to "window shop" in the Mc Murray catalog, so many different breeds.

I don't know much at all about gineas (sp?) but from th epics i have seen they are pretty!

[slowtypinwoman]

I have had the guinnas. They are loud and smelly IMHO. They are also more aggressive than onther chickens. They are great, however for picking ticks and bugs.

I have had several varrieties, the best layers for me were the leghorns. They lay a white egg though. For brown eggs I like the buff orphingtons. The thing I have found about the brown layers is that they don't lay everyday and when they molt, it is for an extended period.

Hope this helps.

[forestdale]

I took this pic of my two light sussex and a RH red this morning. The RH Red is a rescue chicken that one of my god-daughters bought at a market. Her mum wouldn't let her keep it because chickens need to be with other chickens and so Casey brought "henry" to me and my girls. Henry looks reasonably okay now but when we got her she had no feathers and couldn't stand on a roost! Poor Henry. She gets on well with the others now and is even giving our two new girls - Nora and Eleanor, a bit of a hurry up each time they go near her. GO HENRY!
We had to fence off our vege garden from the chickens and dogs because they all went mental in there. Alice, one of our airedale terriers rounds up the chickens for me each afternoon and puts them into their coup for me.

I agree with you about the ticks and fleas, they are the best bug catchers you can have around the house.

Good luck with your new girls. It's so exciting getting new chickens!!

[Darlene]

We are thinking of getting chickens when spring comes. (I've been trying to talk dh into this for years.)If you let them roam during the day how do you get them into thier pen at night? Feed them where they are housed & they come running??

[forestdale]

hi darlene

We let ours out in the morning and leave the gate of their coup open all day. they will come and go as they please - to lay their eggs, eat and drink. At night, even if alice doesn't round them up, they will ALWAYS go back to their coup to sleep. Chickens are fairly silly and once you show them where they sleep they always go back there.

Chickens are lovely things to have. They are great to watch and they have many good attributes for any backyard - eggs being the primary one but not the only one. You get the best manure for your compost heap. Fresh chicken manure is not good for plants as it burns them, but let it decompose for a few months in the compost heap and there is nothing better. They catch bugs so unless you have a grasshopper plague, you will have few glasshoppers and caterpillars on your vegetables.

You only need a few to start. I believe the ideal number of chickens in any one group is 8 but we have 5; never have less than 2. That gives us enough fresh eggs for ourselves and some for the neighbours. All you need is a coup for them and to provide fresh water and laying pellets or mash. In addition to the pellets, you can feed them your kitchen scraps as they are carnivious and need protein for good egg production. If you let them free range they get extra protein from the bugs they catch, plus you have happier, healthier chickens.

[Darlene]

Thanks for the info Bethany.
I may be making progress with Dh, I noticed he saved a link I sent him on chickens (From Mother Earth News) & he even made a folder for it. I'll let you know how it goes.

[doodlebug]

We had several breeds that I really liked. The Aracauna's are very active, independent types and lay lovely green eggs. I was thrilled every time I collected a green egg, lol. One thing about those green eggs though, I could never get the yolk separated from the white; they just stuck together and wouldn't separate for anything. Our Aracauna was a favorite of dd and myself. Another favorite was a white Polish; she laid small white eggs and not very regularly but she was the sweetest little thing and was spoiled rotten; dd carried her around and petted her all the time and the chicken would come running up just to be held and petted, lol. Polish do have a hard time seeing where they are going and are a definite prey to hawks and eagles as they can't see above their head feathers to see the danger coming; but they are so lovely. Another favorite was the silver laced wyandottes; they were calm and gentle and good layers of brown eggs; the rooster was a real sweetie wanting to be petted and not a mean bone in his body. The chickens we've had that I didn't like and will never have again were: Rhode Island Reds; the roosters were mean, mean, mean and the hens were kind of dingy: also we had Buff Laced Polish and they were very dingy and not good layers. They would also eat eggs and oh how that would make me mad to go out and find them eating the eggs the other hens had laid!

Good luck! Would love to see some pics of your baby chicks when you get them

[milach]

Darlene, they automatically go into their coop by themselves. It's pretty neat, they just know to go back when it starts getting dark out.

So I ordered our chicks last week. I ordered 6 leghorns, 6 Golden Hallcross, 6 white sex linked (I guess they're cross breeds), and 6 ornamentals (she orders a whole variety and I just go down when they come in and pick the ones I want. I also ordered 6 guinneas ( same deal, she orders a whole variety and I get to pick which ones I want out of what she got).

I figured they'd have a whole bunch to choose from, so that's why I got the ones I did. I never heard of alot of the ones you guys mentioned.

[isaacsmommy]

I just ordered my chicks yesterday - they should be in early next week....I split the order with my sis, but this is what I have coming:

2 Black Australorps
2 Buff Orpingtons
2 Rhode Island Reds
2 Red Star
2 Black Star
2 Barred Rocks
1 *mystery* chick