Chicken Breeds
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We enjoy a variety of egg and feather colors and wanted to learn about the advantages of various chicken breeds first hand so we keep a variety of birds in our flock...
- Amerucauna - they lay colored eggs; usually green or blue, sometimes pink or lavender. They are mostly gold with black markings and some have cute cheek tufts. They are near relatives to Arucanas which are their tailless South American cousins. Gentle temperaments, relatively quiet, very easy to handle as chicks. We like and will continue to keep these birds.
- Barred Plymouth Rock - had three of these at one point. They are big beautiful dual purpose birds with black and white striped feathers, but they were the single most aggressive kind of chicken we have had. I saw one catch and eat a mouse once! Chickens sometimes pick at each other leaving bleeding injured spots bare of feathers. We had a picking problem in our flock last year. Once we identified the ring leader (a Bar) and eliminated her, the problem entirely disappeared. The one remaining Bar seems to have a gentler temperament, but the other two were both very problematic. Won't get any more of these.
- Black Beauties - black with a green sheen and some dark gold feathers on the wings, striking to look at. Cross between Rhode Island Red male and Barred Plymouth Rock female. They are nice size sturdy birds, dual purpose.
- Buff Orpingtons - these are plump looking chickens who are gold all over. We had a Buff Orpington Rooster named Apollo, and he seemed to have a much better temperament than our previous two roosters. The hens are calm and agreeable. We tried to home hatch a few more Buff chicks summer 2004 but no luck. The broody hens wouldn't continue to sit once we moved them to safe place where the other hens wouldn't disturb them. Their eggs are a lovely shape and very pale brown. Seem to be fine birds, we will continue to keep these.
- Golden Comets - red/gold birds with some lighter color feathers here and there. They are the friendliest of the chickens, practically begging to be picked up and petted. Very reliable brown egg layers. They are also called red-sex links and have the advantage that you can always tell the hens from the roosters.
- Golden Beauties - Rhode Island Red Male and Rhode Island White female. These are the smallest of our birds, optimized for hot weather and good egg laying, but not much for meat. They have big floppy combs and look more like road runners than chickens. They can really move too! I'm a bit concerned about them for the winter as their combs will be frostbite prone and they are thin. They are laying white eggs oblong shaped. Probably wouldn't get more of these.
- New Hampshire Red - these seem to have a better temperament than the Rhode Island Red's we started out with who were quite aggressive with each other. But one day they were out of food and they pecked my ankles as I walked to refill their feeders. The other chickens just followed and waited patiently. Pretty standard breed of brown egg laying chicken. Good to eat too. Doubt we'll get more of these.
- Silver Wyandottes - Prettiest of our chickens, black and 'silver' (white) marked birds. Skittish and shy with people but non-agressive and good egg layers. Probably fine for meat based on their size. We've tried to get some more of these but the chicks just don't seem to be very robust and we lose more during brooding than make it. They also come in Golden Wyandottes too.
