Chicken Breeds

mine is amercian grey hatch, nice bird, I started with roundhead breeding but the rooster was taken by a mink before he had bred.

Mr wyandotte is still being too much of a gentleman, hope he soon gets the idea and starts dropping a wing!

Cheers

maybe he's just shy

heres a suggestion.

disclaimer:  only do this if its legal in your state. in some areas this is illegal.  in others there is nothing wrong with doing this

its called sparring.  its where you let the roosters "fight" for just a couple of seconds.  you put them down in front of each other.    they buckle(hit)  into one another.  and you pick them up.  do it again.  only two buckles.  then put the roosters away in their seperate areas.  this gets the juices flowing, brings out the testosterone and makes the one shy slacker man up.

about 5 yrs back when it was still legal here. i had to do this with one of my brood cocks.  he wasnt takin care of the missus like he should.  all her eggs were infertile.  i never saw him tread her.  so i did as i just suggested.  and that ol boy when reintroduced to his hen.  tapped that thing 3 times in succession.  never had a problem after that.

but you cant let that game rooster get to aggressive with that wyndotte.  he' may run him off,  and he may never be anny good after that.

I'll give a day or two to settle in and then I might just try that!

Cheers

i'm looking at starting a flock. the breed that appeals most to me are the hardy ones that can forage and fend for themselves. that seems to be an equation for being loud and unruly. i'm looking for an egg layer.

does anyone have any experience with Anconas?

i would like to breed a more me specific chicken at some point. I read that anconas don't normally go broody. so perhaps try to have a ancona rooster which i could cross with another alert layer that will go broody and perhaps be slightly tamer? Wyandotte? another thing im trying to accomplish is a paddock system so i would like the anconas to stay where i put them. not sure if that is likely

i am looking for average cold and heat tolerance (zone 5-6)

On Edit i also really like the look of the faverolle

well tomorrow Mr Wyandotte will be gone ... I decided I don't want his traits in my flock, so I'm back searching for a new rooster 

Cheers

dolmen wrote:
well tomorrow Mr Wyandotte will be gone ... I decided I don't want his traits in my flock, so I'm back searching for a new rooster 

Cheers

sorry it didnt work out.  try the leghorn cross you were speaking of earlier. im curious as to how it will work out.  alot of the breeds now adays are bred for looks and go through fads b/c of coloration.  they are lacking in ability.  right now wyndottes are a popular flavor.  so buyer beware.

tnx  ... I have a half notion that the size difference may have been the major fault in this selection! even though my hens are a good size, the wyandotte rooster was quite alot bigger than a game rooster ...

Leghorn could be ideal, but I can only get a lavender, and I'm afraid that won't happen in my flock either!!      

There's always next year, if nothing shows up anyway soon.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Cheers

I have considered using the Red Jungle fowl as a breeding rooster.  They are considered the origin of all chicken breeds.  They are smaller than a standard breed, but larger than a bantam.  Perhaps the wild foraging and broody genes are still in place.

They are a beautiful bird.  Could produce some interesting chicks.

John, I'd say that all the traits you'd want would be in there, with the exception of laying lots of eggs. It would certainly bring some life and health to many strains around.

Cheers

getcha a golden sexlink rooster.  like a golden comet rooster.  they are usually free and easily attainable. alot of folks try to give them away.  we have used them to breed back to the golden pullets before.  im not sold on the offspring being near as good as the true sexlink pullets but id think the golden rooster would add lay ability to the game hens.  they will be much bigger. but the game hens can handle it. 

the golden sexlink rooster is a mutt chicken, but with some hellacious pedigree behind it.  i dont believe in breeding a bunch of different stuff together.  this would be the extent of it in my opinion.  he would definitly have that "hybrid vigor" folks speak of.  the goldenXgame offspring would be god awful ugly but im thinking they would retain enuff of the qualities your lookin for. 

You've lost me on this 'golden sexlink' rooster? can you explain more to me so I can try and find him   
Took mr wyandotte to a poultry sale this morning, hoping his breeder would be there, and he was, gave me my money back no problem when there was so many folks looking at fowl.
There was only one rooster a mixed breed, perhaps RIR, NHR and maybe some welsumer, he was free but was taken when I came back for him 
When at the show I heard how much I could get for my own breeding 60 - 70 USD for any old rooster, so might just stick with that and buy a few hybrids  for eggs 

Cheers

A "sexlink" chicken is a variety in which the chicks are a different color for each sex, so they can be recognized visually at hatching.  This saves a lot of time and invasive handling at the hatchery.  They are usually hybrids of two recognized breeds .

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sex-links/BRKSexLink.html

Does anyone have any firsthand experience with Plymouth Rocks? I'd like a dual purpose that will go broody every now and then so I don't have to incubate eggs. I haven't heard much about how they handle cold/heat. I get both where I am.

yup.  golden sexlink. is similar to red sexlink.  just differernt type hens in the cross.  usually its a hen difference.  generally in alot of sexlink crosses,   the rhode island rooster is used.  

golden sexlink, is my favorite so far. b/c that makes a golden comet.  if i remeber right the original cross was rhode island rooster, bred to delaware hen.  but i believe that the sucessful sexlink crosses that are bred commercially now adays arent a simple rirXdelware.  i beleive the parent stock has been bred quit a bit more thoroughly to produce what we can buy now from hatcherys.  anotherwords if you were to take the mentioned breeds and crossed them yourself. i dont believe nor have i had success personally in producing offspring that is as good as what hatcheries sell.  theres quite a bit more science to it.

James Stark wrote:
Does anyone have any firsthand experience with Plymouth Rocks? I'd like a dual purpose that will go broody every now and then so I don't have to incubate eggs. I haven't heard much about how they handle cold/heat. I get both where I am.

ive had the barred rocks before.  i liked them.  big beautiful hens.  lay good.  but i didnt keep them cause they couldnt compete with the sexlink, in production, egg size, or feed conversion.  as for cold weather.  they did fine around here. but im sure its much colder elsewhere.

I've had quite a few Barred rocks -- have six BR pullets in the brooder right now.  However, I've never had one go broody.  I think it's been mostly bred out of them -- might find a hen that would go broody, but I wouldn't count on it for reproducing my flock, if I was you.

For a dual-purpose bird that will go broody once in a while and will handle heat and cold well, check out the Wyandottes.  I've had Silver-laced, Golden-laced, and Buff -- have had Golden-laced and Buff hens go broody.  They are decent layers, will lay some in the winter even without lights their first year (subsequent years they need lights, or else raise a new batch of hens every year for winter eggs).

Kathleen

H Ludi Tyler wrote:
A "sexlink" chicken is a variety in which the chicks are a different color for each sex, so they can be recognized visually at hatching.  This saves a lot of time and invasive handling at the hatchery.  They are usually hybrids of two recognized breeds .

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sex-links/BRKSexLink.html

Great link, thank you.

I am raising some Partridge Rock chicks, which I got because they are supposed to be good mothers. 

For anybody interested in comparing different breeds, I find this chart very useful:

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

Enjoy.

Yes, I frequently refer to that chart.  I've found it pretty accurate for the breeds I'm familiar with.

Kathleen

Thanks for the suggestions and info (very useful chart). I'm leaning towards the Wyandottes, but I have one other breed I'd like to ask about. (Hope I'm not becoming a pest) I'm also looking at Brahmas. I know they can be somewhat inconsistent layers, but i don't mind being selective about the hens I keep, and I like that they tend to be friendlier since our chickens double as companions. I am also curious how their meat is, since they take a long time to mature. Any experience?

I've never eaten one, but they are pretty big-boned so probably don't dress out as high a percentage of meat as you'd expect from the weight.

I had a few when we lived in Alaska, thinking the feathered feet might be an advantage.  They aren't.  They collected ice balls -- I wouldn't have them here where we live now, either, because we have heavy clay soil. 

Between those two breeds, I'd definitely go with the Wyandottes.  The Brahmas are a regal-looking bird, and not too bad for laying, but the Wyandottes have the advantage, IMO.

Kathleen

I got a few bantam hens to add to my flock of Golden Comets and black Australorps, so I could have a few setting hens.  Added a game rooster, but he was too big for the little bantams, so got rid of them and got larger bantams crossed with game.  That worked.  The game cross made an interesting dark meat small chicken that tasted very flavorful and made wonderful broth.  Resembles dove in a way, even in taste.  Problem is with the bantams, and the bantam cross hens, they are so flighty they now have all my flock going berserk when I go into their pen.  That never happened with my big girls and they used to let me pick them up any time.  Now they've learned bad habits and I have trouble catching them at all.  So the problem is not quite solved and I'm still working on it.  I think a good cross with the three or four breeds, with game, bantam and large hen might work.  Or maybe I just need one or two setters from the smaller breeds and keep the flock of big girls for eggs.  I might have to get rid of all the hens I presently have (not that many anyway), and hand raise some of their chicks so they are tamer.  Don't like wild chickens!

I just added a leiper hen and a black hatch rooster to the flock, all your fault T Pierce, those pics of the round heads were too much for me     .. I just love the gamefowl, they're such characters ... I'll probably just buy a few blackrocks later in the year to give me winter eggs!

Hi there! I have here some rare breed chickens..
They are called Barnevelders and are very pretty..
They are good natured chickena and are also tamable..

Hi Keith, and welcome to Permies!

I used to have a little flock of barnevelders when I was in the UK. They were always amazingly gentle and attractive birds. I don't suppose you have a photo of their beautiful brown eggs you could share with us?