Talk:Raising Chickens/Choosing a breed
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[edit] Recommend a Breed
What varieties of chickens work for you? Production Reds. They are related to the Rhode Island Red. Mine were very tame and gave me lots of eggs every morning.
My chickens are a cross between Ida Red (Rhode Island red type) and Cornish Giant (big white meat bird). They are very tame and very winter resistant. They seen to prefer sub-zero temperatures (which is strange considering their jungle heritage)Klingoncowboy4 05:05, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
Bantams are pretty and tough but can be flighty. Hard to keep in a pen. Not great layers and their eggs are tiny. Two very good layer types are Silkies and Pekins. Come in a wide variety of types and colours.
Purebred meat chickens are prone to heart attacks and choking on their own feed.
Leghorns are good layers but flighty and scrawny.
Some of the more unusual breeds are in need of people to keep them so that the breeds can survive.204.101.233.86 07:39, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
I had a silkie/cochin bantam cross once. She was an absolutely wonderful bird who never clawed, bit, or hurt anyone. She also did well at the county fair's crossbred bantam class (reserve over all at only 4 months old) She died recently due to encephalomyelitis, and I now have a purebred blue cochin pullet who is just as sweet. She loves to sit on my head/shoulders and will fall asleep in my lap with her head resting on my arm. I have leghorns too, but they're high strung and rather ugly. I would recommend cochins or cochin crosses, as they have impeccable manners, are amazingly sweet, and will get you noticed in poultry exhibitions.
I have some Barred Plymouth Rocks, and they lay nearly every day in the summer, get to a good, healthy weight, are pretty, and not at all vicious. I also have a dozen Americauna's, and they are beautiful! Their feathers are colored in some ways like a falcon's; golden and dark feathers. Some of them also have a very curved beak that looks almost identical to a falcons, while others are not quite so curved and pointed. While they are beautiful chickens, and don't mind the cold(at least down to -20 F. here) they do not lay as well as our other chickens(In the summer it averages probably 3/4 egg/day). But also, the eggs they do lay are a nice light green/blue color. Quite pretty... Dictouray 03:46, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Problem breeds
Have you had problems with a particular breed and want to warn others?
I wouldn't recommend leghorns for first-time or timid owners. They're great layers, and mine do well at local shows, but they tend to try to eat me alive when I feed them. I sold my rooster about a year ago. Even though he had been handled his whole life, he was terribly vicious and once took a large chunk out of my face. His daughter was kept ONLY with people (no other chickens) for the first 2 weeks of her life before I bought her a companion. She was handled extensively, but still bites....like father, like daughter.
