Topic: Which Breed of Chicken should we get?

[mrsnesbitt]

We are just fencing off the area, building a henhouse and are getting 6 POL hens.
Any ideas? We are keeping them just for eggs, not the table.

[flowergirl]

Well I fancy leghorns for their white eggs, they are good layers at approx 300 per year but i've read they are good flyers and also they can be skittish  :o

Although i,m not sure what a skittish hen acts like :-[

[GodfreyRob]

Well I fancy leghorns for their white eggs, they are good layers at approx 300 per year but i've read they are good flyers and also they can be skittish  :o

Although i,m not sure what a skittish hen acts like :-[

Most people mean that skittish hens are very nervous and run a mile at the slightest disturbance. They can be a pain to catch as they will run away every time you go anywhere near them. The 'cure' for that is to handle them a lot from the start.

Its not always easy to get hold of some breeds - maybe look in your area for a local supplier and see what they have. The supplier could also ghelp with advice if you need it -and you could always go backl to them if you have any problems (a good supplier/breeder will replcae or refund if a hen dies early).

Lots of breeds can be good layers. Depends also on the colour of egg you want - you can mix up breeds and if you had 2 of each they would normally get on fine if you get them all at once.

[kt.]

I have 5 White Leghorns and 5 Black Rocks.  They both lay eggs for in excess of 5 years.  The Blackrocks lay 3-4 daily,  medium sized eggs.  The leghorns lay 5 per day and their eggs are huge. (Must hurt the hen when they are coming out.... ::)).  If I had to buy these again I would get 10 Leghorns

They both cost around £10 each to buy at point of lay.  You can get the standard ISA browns type hens for as little as £2 each.  These will lay for 15-18 months.  My future stocks will consist of these.  They lay around 300 eggs  per year. 

I am happy to replace the hens as and when they stop laying.  Some people do get attached to them and keep them as pets even once they stop laying.  No point feeding them for nothing but this will be down to personal preference.

[Peasticks]

As KTLawson above says hybriids will pop out tons of eggs for you - usually one a day for 6 days in 7 but only have a short useful laying life (although I would say this would be about 2 and a half years if you can accept that the eggs get a lot less smooth and even as time goes on!) Warrens (typical giinger chicken) are good, cheeky and easy to handle bt most hybrids are pretty calm, Ambers, Bluebelles and speckeldys are all nice

A pure breed will lay less eggs for more years but lots do take the winter months off due to the lack of daylight hours. Wyandottes are lovely 'farmyard' shaped chickens, Welsimmers and Marans lay lovely dark brown eggs, Leghorns are lively and elegant and lay big white eggs, Cream Legbars and Araucanas lay blue eggs  ;D

For pure breed egg production Leghorns, Rhode Island Red, Welsummers and Sussex are your good bets  :)

[paulinems]

My Wyandottes are not very good layers ,and my Cream Legbar (roadrunner) lays once in a blue moon
Pauline

[coznbob]

We got our hens about 8 weeks ago at 17 weeks, I got an Amber star, Bovans nera, speckledy, light sussex hybrid and a dark sussex hybrid.

The amber star has yet to lay,

The light sussex has laid 1 egg that i know about

The dark sussex is laying 1 a day for the past few weeks

The speckledy has laid 1 a day for the past month (apart from a few days off here and there)

However the bovans nera is a laying machine at the moment, she started laying about 6 weeks ago and has only had 1 day off so far, lovely big eggs, but does tend to take a couple of hours on the nesting box some days!

However for chicken personality, the amber is great, very curious and tame esp. if you have some treats, great for kids....  she just needs to start earning her keep!!!