fowl keeper see a major true statement during their yr as chicken owner : Some crybaby strain are veritable dream , while others are absolute incubus . Before buy any of the chicken spawn my husband , Jae , and I raise on our farm , I did major research . I take books , I talked topoultry - skill prof , I visited national breed - night club vane sites … and despite all this , some birds plainly refused to fall in channel with their breed descriptions . Talk about thwarting . I can still see Jae turn to me , a puzzled face on his facial expression , require doubtfulness like “ Are n’t these supposed to be gracious birds ? ” and “ Are n’t these supposed tolay lot of testicle ? ”
The following quartet of cluckers make up part two ( here’spart one ) in my fair attempt to share my personal experience with these Gallus gallus breeds . It ’s my promise that these description of my time pass with each of these chicken breeds will help pass your selection when it comes to backyard flock shopping .
Araucana
To make our farm somewhat profitable , we decided to raise inheritance chicken breeds that laid a variety of egg colors . When it come to blue egg , we adjudicate to go with the “ original ” dispirited - testis breed , the Araucana .
Many conflicting stories describe the Araucana ’s origin . Suffice it to say it develop from one or more domestic fowl find in or bestow to South America that shared the Araucana ’s tufted , rumpless feature article . More difference of opinion existed in the description of the Araucana ’s disposition . Some of my sources stated the snort was nervous and diffident , while others described the breed as well-disposed and cheerful . Yet others noted the Araucana was dynamic and fast-growing .
Our Black Araucana mickle concord with all of those definitions . As bird , they were extremely active , dashing around their incubator and hop-skip on and off their rod . They were also very easy to frighten . Just reaching in to swap out their waterer or feeder would do a cacaphony of peep as the peep dashed madly away to hide from The Hand .
The biddy were not afraid of us , however . I get the distinct smell they tolerated us . The boy , however , still trotted over for belly rubs and mealworm treat , regardless of their historic period .
Both the male and female Araucanas were excellent forager . However , due to their exhorbitant value — we pay off $ 50 each for our initial five skirt and for our four “ allow ’s add a fresh bloodline ” additions — we never get them range outside of their run .
The males were quite attentive to their ladies and always hold an fighting picket for predators . The girl laid an norm of two to three beautiful gentle eggs per week . lamentably , the fateful Araucana tufted gene did indeed defeat about 65 pct of our chicks , in and out of the shell . In addition , most our broody hen would on the spur of the moment bust out of their broodiness , abandon their clutches and forcing me to head for the hills to rescue the cooling eggs .
OceanProd/Adobe Stock
I adore our Araucanas , but I simply could n’t consider with the heartache trying to breed them get .
Cochin
We originally added Cochins ( picture above ) to our poultry farm because they were list on theLivestock Conservancy ’s Priority Listof threatened and endangered inheritance birds . I drove more than an 60 minutes to buy four chicks from a stock breeder list on our country ’s grassroots domestic fowl group . She brought me to her incubator room and told me to foot my chicks .
Let ’s just say I did n’t impart with just four .
I ’m well-chosen to report that almost everything I read about Cochins is true . They are gentle , well-disposed and affectionate birds who ’d happily spend the day seated on my circuit . If I leave the kitchen door open , one ( or more ) of them would invariably weave into the business firm and contentedly watch me ready or clean .
They beget along incredibly with other volaille stock . In fact , the Cochins would always adopt the last few members of a flock we were break off . Both the males and female made fab parents . Our White Cochins ( we also lift Blue , Black and Splash variety ) were particularly awesome parents , caring for their own babies as well as the young of other chicken breeds that the broody had hatched .
Our Cochin dame averaged between three and four eggs per week . They were the only biddy , out of all the breeds we raised , that would lay well into wintertime without stilted lighting .
There were also some descriptives that failed to reach the mark with our flock . For representative , in multiple sources I ’d read that Cochin hens frequently mash the eggs they set due to their enormous volume . That was the furthermost from the accuracy . Every single one of our Cochinswere cautiously methodical in the way they turned and shifted their clutch ( something we keep an eye on since we numbered the eggs).We never lost a unmarried orchis or chick due to the size of it of the hens .
NPF Photography/Adobe Stock
Another “ nope ” was the recommendation to lower the chicken coop ’s perch because these full-grown sweetheart were simply too heavy to get any sort of lift . Not only could our cochin easily reset the height of their perch , they ’d also skip onto our tractor and our lawn lawn mower . They ’d hop up the pack of cards stairs and even occasionally perch at the top of their run ’s fencing .
The third not - quite - right “ fact ” was that cochin china were painful foragers because of their fledge feet . On the contrary , our Cochins were amongst our good foragers . Every fall , they ’d thirstily clean up our vegetable garden , digging at the priming with those supposedly useless foot . These assistant gardeners saved us a flock of work in the fall . unluckily , until we coiffure up a fence yo keep them in the back , they ’d also dig up and turn our front grounds ’s landscaping mulch .
I do n’t really think of why we discontinued our Cochins . I vaguely recall Jae telling me we needed to cut down on the number of flocks we were raising . Should we resolve to expand again , Cochins are absolutely the first on the tilt . Together with Silkies and Orpingtons , they make my Top 3 chicken breeds list .
lonnyinco/Adobe Stock
Easter Egger
Chicken math can sometimes derail the well - repose plan . I am far from resistant .
Perhaps one or two weeks after we establish our poultry farm , I head to our local farm - supply store for more chick starter . Of course it was Chick Days . Of course I had to take a peep at all the baby . Of course I went home with one dozen chipmunk - striped baby Easter Egger chicks .
These had been mark as Ameraucana pullet , but even back then I know that purebred Ameraucanas were grueling to amount by and would not sell for $ 1.79 per chick . I knew full well that I was bringing Easter Eggers — intercrossed hybridisation between a dark-brown - eggs layer and an Araucana , Ameraucana or other Easter Egger — to a heritage poultry farm . I was take the riot turn by Jae when I get in home .
We had no separate housing for these little girl . I decide they ’d join our Orpington flock , which were about the same age . It was a wise move , as the two chemical group got along fabulously .
As adult , this pairing also made it easy to see who had lay which egg . Orpington eggs were invariably smashing tan , while our Easter Egger girls lay aqua and light-green egg . Despite the Easter Eggers being small standard birds compared to the Orpingtons ’ robust girth , the two types of birds formed flying friendly relationship . It always made me smile to see the slender Easter Egger girls hanging out with their Orpington pals .
course , Arnold Orpington also enjoy the companionship of our Easter Egger girls . This led to Easter Egger hatching eggs and chicks being our second big seller after Silkie eggs and chicks . We increased the sizing of our flock and finally built them their own coop , headed by Blaziken , one of the best rooster we have ever had .
Our Easter Eggers were favorable , got along with everybody , and loved getting care , nestle and treat from us . They were very active and odd , investigating every nook of our grounds ( much to Blaziken ’s annoying ) .
They were definitely the fastest of all our breeds . They easily outran the other flocks every time I stepped outside with kitchen scraps . The Easter Eggers were also our best bed , average five to six nut per week . Every now and then , one of the young woman went reflective . I retrieve my amusement at incur Keynoter fructify her secret nest beside our compost heap . The warmth of the compost heap sustain her egg stash at right incubating temperature when she crossly pass away into the henhouse at nighttime .
Eleven of her clutch of 15 hatched out . I ’m think the elements affected the other four .
I still rue discontinuing our Easter Egger flock . In the end , our poultry farm focus on purebred birds , not chicken cross stock . Blaziken and his girls found a new dwelling house with a young family about an hour aside from us . If you have no hang - ups about heritage vs. crossbreed , Easter Eggers are definitely the direction to go .
Welsummer
And then there are the Welsummers . Part of the draw of breeding Welsummers was the stunning beauty of the Welsummer cock , with its full , black bottom and cherry - orange body . Cornelius , the Kellogg ’s Corn Flakes rooster , is a Welsummer , so there was some Michigan loyalty in our decision .
The primary factor , however , was the gorgeous terra - cotta eggs pose by Welsummer hen . We need to offer up our customers a rainbow of eggs , and that plenteous , red - chocolate-brown egg fit in nicely with our program . Those beautiful egg also won me several blue ribbons in local community and county fairs , for which I ’m quite thankful to the Welsummer fille .
The Welsummer hens , however , are n’t the great layers I ’d read about . They purportedly produce around 180 ball per year — that ’s an egg almost every other day . I guess the strain has no calendar instinct , because the Welsummers were always the last of our volaille breeds to start laying each twelvemonth , producing their first eggs in May when everyone else start laying in March or early April .
They were also the first to molt , in September , cut their laying time of year to a whopping five months , during which they put down an average of two eggs per workweek . Twenty weeks times two does not total 180 ! Fortunately , the hen showed absolutely no involvement in brooding . Fortunately , they have the juvenile person we hatched and raise without any government issue .
One matter was certain : Welsummers get laid to swan . I lost enumeration of how many times I had to fetch the flock out of our neighbor ’s yard , acres by from us , or catch them as they started down the trail leading into the DoS woodlands behind us . For all their ranging , though , they were fearsome foragers , always voracious upon returning to their run .
Eventually , the number of hens we needed to keep up with egg requirement , coupled with the Welsummers ’ offish attitude towards us , led me to call it quits . The intact flock was purchase by a very skillful farmer several hours north of us .
