Recommended Chicken Breeds

[ssramage]

Looking for good egg layers with docile personalities. My primary chicken farmer is 5 years old. Something that will do well in the humid, SEGA heat also.

TSC locally only has rainbows and wyandottes. Another local feed store has more variety (araucana, black sex link, golden comet, golden lace wyandotte, cuckoo marans, welsummers, and white leg horns). I have no clue about any of those breeds though...

Thoughts?

 

[Nicodemus]

Golden Comets will keep you in eggs. Cuckoo Marans, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Domineckers, Buff Orpingtons, and White Rocks are all good too.

 

[ssramage]

Golden Comets will keep you in eggs. Cuckoo Marans, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Domineckers, Buff Orpingtons, and White Rocks are all good too.

Any concerns with particular breeds being more/less aggressive than others?

Ideally I'd like a mixed flock of 6-8 hens with 1 rooster.

 

[Cmp1]

Golden Comets will keep you in eggs. Cuckoo Marans, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Domineckers, Buff Orpingtons, and White Rocks are all good too.

This right here,,,, Rhode island reds and Barred Rocks are friendly and good producers,,,, never got any birds from TSC,,,, get ours from Family Farm,,,, if you have any there,,,, or I would recommend a feed store over TSC,,,, we just got some black Orpingtons and Barred Rocks chicks,,,,

 

[NE GA Pappy]

Buff Orpingtons. Good layers and you won't find a more docile hen

 

[Nicodemus]

Any concerns with particular breeds being more/less aggressive than others?

Ideally I'd like a mixed flock of 6-8 hens with 1 rooster.

Not really, and the rooster will keep order in the flock. If you prefer not to have a rooster, one of the hens will do the same thing. One of our older Cuckoo Maran hens is the Matriarch around here since we don`t keep a rooster.

 

[Cmp1]

Any concerns with particular breeds being more/less aggressive than others?

Ideally I'd like a mixed flock of 6-8 hens with 1 rooster.

I wouldn't recommend a rooster unless you want chicks,,,, they can be aggressive,,,,ask me how I know,,,,

 

[brownhounds]

Buff orpington and barred rocks are probably the best bet for less aggressive. Sometimes, the reds get aggressive. But, its just a chicken......kick it if it gives you attitude, and it will stop. If you get a real mean rooster, get rid of it.

 

[ssramage]

Thanks everyone.

The local feed store has a "chick day" on Saturday. I think I'll take my son down there and let him pick a handful.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

Thanks everyone.

The local feed store has a "chick day" on Saturday. I think I'll take my son down there and let him pick a handful.

more than likely, you will lose most of them. I haven't had any luck with things like this. All the people handling them, and diseases. It just doesn't work well most of the time.

Good luck

 

[Cmp1]

Buff orpington and barred rocks are probably the best bet for less aggressive. Sometimes, the reds get aggressive. But, its just a chicken......kick it if it gives you attitude, and it will stop. If you get a real mean rooster, get rid of it.

We definitely had an aggressive one, but we got chicks too,,,, our Brahmas lay the biggest brown eggs,,,, huge,,,, cold weather birds,,,,

 

[Cmp1]

more than likely, you will lose most of them. I haven't had any luck with things like this. All the people handling them, and diseases. It just doesn't work well most of the time.

Good luck

We lost one of our new chicks the other day,,,, we believe it was smothered by the other ones,,,,

 

[PappyHoel]

My RI Red was a good one and my buff Orpington

 

[PappyHoel]

Buff orpington and barred rocks are probably the best bet for less aggressive. Sometimes, the reds get aggressive. But, its just a chicken......kick it if it gives you attitude, and it will stop. If you get a real mean rooster, get rid of it.

I had a mean rooster that drew blood on my hand. He was expelled from the flock.

 

[Cmp1]

I had a mean rooster that drew blood on my hand. He was expelled from the flock.

We had to use a rake to keep our rooster away when we went in to get the eggs and clean,,,, but we did get chicks,,,, notice this is past tense,,,, he got my dogs nose once,,,,

 

[Nicodemus]

You get a bad rooster all you can do is either kill it or give it away. Abner and I had some knock down-drag outs several times. I ended up with a torn up britches leg and he lost a spur and part of his comb in the last one. They`ll fight you till they die.

We ended up giving him to Tomboy Boots.

 

[Dirtroad Johnson]

You get a bad rooster all you can do is either kill it or give it away. Abner and I had some knock down-drag outs several times. I ended up with a torn up britches leg and he lost a spur and part of his comb in the last one. They`ll fight you till they die.

We ended up giving him to Tomboy Boots.

Po Abner don't stand a chance.

 

[j_seph]

How often do y'all have to go in and clean out your chicken coops?

 

[Jeff Raines]

The black sex link is a cross with a RIR rooster and barred rock hen.
I've read that the black sex links out produce their breed parents

 

[NE GA Pappy]

The black sex link is a cross with a RIR rooster and barred rock hen.
I've read that the black sex links out produce their breed parents

one good thing about sexlinks are that you know what you have when they are hatched. They are good layers, but a bit more flighty than the orpingtons.