Chickens--what breeds are friendly and good egg layers?

[Ottakee]

We have 7 chickens now, down from 18 (most of the ones that died were old). My girls want to add to our little flock in the spring.

 

We are in West Michigan so we need some cold hardy ones. Ones that are friendly and would just love to be held, carted around, taken horse back riding, used in place of cattle for round up exercises, etc. I want ones that would be good layers so that we at least get some benefit from the feed I am buying.

 

Right now we have a few Isa Browns, 2 yellow ones (buffs maybe) and 2 solid black ones. We just bought these from the local TSC store in the spring a few years ago.

 

We do have a nice hatchery not too far away so we can pick up our chicks there. We do want pullets only.

 

Any great ideas? The girls want a few easter egg chickens but I don't know if they are hardy.

[myfunnybunch]

Chicken breed chart More chicken info than you'll ever need, lol.

 

We have Easter egg chickens. They are very hardy, but not as friendly as the others. Our remaining Ameraucana was our most consistent winter layer. We really like our Buff Orpingtons for overall ease: They're friendly, hardy, pretty and lay well.

 

Friendliness often depends more on how much (and how gently) they're handled and hand-fed as chicks than it does on breed.

 

Cat

[whitestavern]

Our Ameraucana's are our best layers as well. They are skittish though. Our New Hampshire reds are super friendly and decent layers.

[misidawnrn]

Here is a rundown of our chickens and their laying/friendliness

 

2 white leghorns-lay very regularly even in the below zero weather (although our winter has been mild here in MT). They are neither friendly nor mean but I can catch them when they squat to me. -white eggs

 

2 red stars- lay well and are friendly -brown eggs

 

2 black stars-lay well are are not quite as friendly as the reds but not mean either -brown eggs

 

2 blue andalusions-lay well but are very agressive and have even charged at me...to which they get a quick meeting with my shoe! They are my very noisy chickens and cackle like hyenas! white/tan eggs

 

1 speckled sussex? (we don't know what this one is because it was a friend's son's biology experiment chicken and we got her when the class was done) she is a big scardy chicken! Her name is Chicken Little! She lays OK but not as good as the other chickens. Her eggs are smaller and kind of pink.

 

1 americauna. She is a friendly chicken but she is a poor layer. She quit laying when it got cold here and just started laying again last week. She didn't lay from November until now. Her eggs are a blue/green. We had 2 of these ones but one died when it was a baby.

 

All my chickens follow me around the yard like I am the Pied Piper. It is pretty funny actually. They come when they are called (because they think they are getting treats!) and they all talk to me. I love my chickens! We have 10 chickens and get 5-9 eggs a day, on average 7.

[angela in ohio]

We love our Black Austrolorps. They are laying gobs of brown eggs even now (we do have a lamp in there.) They are loving and just want dc to carry them around and talk to them. :001_smile:

 

And I've posted before about our legendary Leghorns. Six of them produce about 10-12 eggs a day. But they don't like people and they are stuuupid.

 

We are in SE MI.

[justamouse]

My Delawares laid straight through a harsh winter (and I didn't put heaters or lights in the coop). Matter of fact, I used to have to rush out to get the eggs before they froze. :001_smile: And I can't say enough about what sweet chickens they are.

[KS_]

Well, I have limited experience, but we have 2 Black Australorps, 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Barred Rock and 1 Easter Egger. They are all very friendly, but the Buff in particular, loves to be held and carried. Both she and the Australorps are my best layers, followed closely by the Barred Rock. The EE hasn't laid yet - all were hatched on July 5. She is also the most flighty - she does allow the kids to hold her, but shies away from being picked up (once she is picked up, she's OK). I got all these breeds in particular because they were supposed to be good layers and cold hardy.

[CalicoKat]

Chicken breed chart More chicken info than you'll ever need, lol.

 

We have Easter egg chickens. They are very hardy, but not as friendly as the others. Our remaining Ameraucana was our most consistent winter layer. We really like our Buff Orpingtons for overall ease: They're friendly, hardy, pretty and lay well.

 

Friendliness often depends more on how much (and how gently) they're handled and hand-fed as chicks than it does on breed.

 

Cat

We have White Orpingtons. I agree they're easy to work with. My former corporate dh was afraid of chickens when we got them but he enjoys working with them and gathering eggs.

[Berta]

We have Buff Orpingtons, Easter Eggers and Silver Laced Wyandottes. The Buff Orps are by far the friendliest. All of my chickens come running towards me when they see me, but the Buffs want to be touched, are not flighty at all. My EE's and SLW's are not flighty either, but they do not like to be picked up. I have to chase them around the pen to catch them, and then they are ok with being held. The Buff's come up and almost demand to be picked up.

[lailasmum]

Out of all our chickens the most friendly are the Speckled Sussex, they are downright cute. They haven't been laying long but they seem to be reliable medium sized white egg layers so far. I really like them. They like to be touched and are curious. I think the speckled sussex could be pretty good in a cold climate, they are very stocky birds and seem to be feathered a longway down their legs. They are much heavier set than the others we have.

 

We also have Welsummers and Black Rocks. The Welsummers are psychotic and unfriendly but lay well, they all seem to have strong and not so nice personalities.

 

The Black rocks are not unfriendly but not super friendly either, they lay well, we have had some seriously massive eggs from them, the biggest being 5 oz, we had a 4oz egg today. We had a lot of broodiness with the blackrocks so egg laying did drop a bit. One of the black rocks raised the speckled sussex last year.

Edited February 18, 2012 by lailasmum

[Vida Winter]

We have Golden Sex Links. (They are more red than gold!)

 

They lay huge eggs and are cold-hardy.

[Cricket]

We have one Ameraucana that is very friendly but not a good layer. The other one is not friendly but a good layer. Hmmm.....

 

In the past we had some buff orpingtons. Good layers and sweet disposition.

 

Our Wellsummer has been a good layer but very stand offish.

[Susan in KY]

The friendliest and best layers we have ever had are Black Australorps. We've had a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a Leghorn (I think they are red stars but I don't know), and they are pretty good on both counts. Both give nice, big brown eggs.

 

Barred Rocks haven't been too bad.

 

Ameraucanas: more infrequent layers, extremely aggressive roosters, but the hens are ok.

Leghorns: great layers, but no real personalities.

 

I think we;re getting Cuckoo Marans next, and ds wants Turkens. Have no idea about them.

[Cindy in NY]

We have

 

Buff Orpingtons- nice but not friendly. Good layers.

 

Black Australorps- Very friendly, a couple love to be held. Good layers.

 

Barred Rocks- a lot of personality.

 

Cuckoo Marans- very skittish. Broody almost constantly, they seem to take turns one after another. Beautiful chocolate brown eggs when they do lay.

 

We are in NY and they do fine in the winter.

[elise1mds]

My barred rocks are my friendliest birds. DS has even trained one of them to jump up and take treats from his hand. We also have Rhode Island reds and Australorps. Of the three breeds, the Australorps are the meanest that we have, but only among themselves. None of them have been aggressive toward us at all. They're all good layers. We have 10 hens and average half a dozen eggs a day, even in winter.

[JadeOrchidSong]

I had a good laugh reading a site about the friendly Buff Orpington. They love to be held and read aloud to, and take walks with you, and ... This is going to be great! I love to have some pets that can lay eggs for me at the same time. :lol: I can't wait to get them. But first I have to get permission from my neighbors for keeping chickens.

[zaichiki]

We have a few of nearly every breed. Well, not really (there are SO many breeds), but we do have quite a variety. The friendliest have been our polishes (the chickens with the funky "hairdos"). Maybe it's b/c they can't see you coming? :lol: They don't lay well, though.

 

As for layers, our friendliest have been the Buff Orpingtons.

Easter Eggers/Ameraucanas vary. It depends on what breeds they're crossed with -- we've had a few (roosters!) that have been very friendly and a few that you couldn't catch if your life depended on it.

Dark Cornishes have been easy going, but not really interested in people. They lay like dreams in the cold and go broody for us in the spring. (We like to hatch out those cute lil' chickies, so that's good.)

The kids have liked the Wyandottes.

Their favorites, however, are the Sebrights (bantams) and the other bantam crosses we have (d'Uccle and Belgian D'anvers). These little beauties will just hang out on your shoulder all day if you let them. Of course they hardly lay.

 

The best layers we've tried have been our hybrid layers. (I think McMurray Hatchery calls them Red Stars.) They've also been really mean to the other hens, though.

 

We have a bunch of other breeds, but only about one hen of each. Not enough of a sample size to tell much about personalities.

 

I agree that handling them a lot as chicks helps... but it's been very obvious that no amount of handling can turn a hen from a flighty breed into a cuddly pal. (We've tried it with ds's Golden Penciled Hamburg. She won Reserve Champion in Breed at a big-local show, but WOW was she uninterested in people. Ds used to carry her around *everywhere* with him when she was a chick. All day. The *minute* she could get away from you, though, she would. And good luck catching her! Some people used to tell me chickens couldn't fly. THIS one would go for a hundred feet at 5+ feet. She was something else!)

[Momling]

We have (or have had)

-Black sex-links (excellent layers, boring to look at)

-Wyandotte (good layers, stripey)

-New Hampshire Red (good layer)

-Barred rock (good layer, a real sweetie and pretty)

-White leghorn (excellent layer, mean and flighty)

 

We also have some chicks not laying yet: Polish, buff orp, brahma, Sussex, and americauna

[Miss Cornelia Snook]

When the time comes to replace our laying hens, we're going strictly with golden sex links. They are friendly and lay the biggest eggs. We're in Utah and they don't seem to mind the cold at all. They never mind it when my three year old grabs them and carts them around, rock-a-byes them, and plays babies with them.

 

We also have Barred Rocks and they are friendly, too, but their eggs are smaller.

 

Our Buff Orpingtons are nice, but not so keen on us. They seem to lay the smallest eggs of all our girls.

 

We have one white Leghorn and she is very flighty, but lays huge white eggs.

[Lizzie in Ma]

I adore our Plymouth Barred Rocks, they are friendly and average layers.

[Ottakee]

Thanks for all of the ideas. I will see which of these the local hatcher has available.