Intending to start or increase your yard flock however now not positive which hen breeds to are the most efficient? Whilst I will be able to’t let you know which chickens will be the highest fit in your explicit state of affairs—greater than a dozen components affecting your choice spring to mind off the highest of my head—I will be able to proportion which hen breeds labored for my circle of relatives and which of them crashed and burned.
The next foursome contain phase 3 of my sequence (right here’s phase 2) truthfully recounting my revel in rearing those breeds of hen.
Dutch Booted Bantam
My revel in with Dutch Booted Bantams (pictured above) took place rapidly. Those have been among the lovely “combined bantams” that I introduced house from our farm-supply retailer on account of hen math.
There have been best 3 in all the inventory tank, and all 3 got here house with me. Unfortunately, two didn’t live to tell the tale the primary week. To at the present time, I’m undecided why they perished. They’d been energetic; have been consuming, ingesting; and pooping; by no means skilled pasty butt; and have been the similar dimension and age as the opposite child bantams within the brooder. P
erhaps Dutch Booted Bantams are refined by means of nature. In all probability it used to be simply the ones explicit chicks from that individual hatchery. I’ll by no means know.
The surviving chick, Clarice, befriended the one lavender chick I’d observed within the mixed-bantams tank (and naturally introduced house). Edward and Clarice turned into inseparable, whilst totally grown birds … which used to be all of the extra astounding since we came upon that Edward used to be now not a bantam in any respect however moderately an Easter Egger—and feminine at that. Some other title exchange turned into approaching when Clarice started crowing.
Edwina and Clarence have been slightly the pair. Clarence would experience on Edwina’s again, and the 2 would roost in combination at night time, Clarence ceaselessly tucked underneath considered one of Edwina’s wings.
I by no means noticed any other Dutch Booted Bantam chick among the bantams bin that 12 months or in next years, so I will be able to best suppose that the hatchery had problems with the breed. It’s onerous to summarize a whole breed in response to my revel in with Clarence, however I will be able to say he used to be an excessively mild, affectionate and wholesome little chicken with stunning feathering on his ft. Confidently the remainder of his breed follows swimsuit.
Jap Bantam
One good thing about getting to understand the director of the native college’s poultry analysis farm is being alerted when hatching eggs and chicks have been to be had for the various other hen breeds being raised on the middle. I moderately introduced house one dozen of the tiniest bantam eggs I’d ever observed and watched them incubate with anticipation.
I used to be very disillusioned when just one egg hatched. I discovered quickly after that Jap Bantams, like Araucanas, raise a deadly gene that kills lots of the embryos earlier than they hatch.
The surviving chick, a beautiful White Jap Bantam I named Hanako, used to be a completely highest specimen of the breed, with a complete breast, upright tail and highest unmarried comb. Totally grown, he have compatibility at the palm of my hand. I’d learn that Jap Bantams have been trusting, pleasant birds that made nice pets. Hanako used to be precisely that.
I’d additionally learn that Jap Bantams are ceaselessly picked on by means of different hen breeds as a result of their fairly immense tail and really brief legs. Whilst none of my different bantams ever Hanako, in addition they didn’t befriend him, leaving the little fellow on my own and lonely. He turned into very hooked up to me and thankfully rode round on my shoulder. At night time, he snuggled in his personal brooder with an opulent bunny I purchased him for corporate.
I additionally bought a small hen tractor in order that Hanako may safely benefit from the outside all through the hotter months. The ones tiny legs of his would by no means outrun a bullying chicken, a lot much less a predator.
Whilst he gave the impression to benefit from the sunshine and the grass, Hanako by no means gave the impression to be totally at ease outside. Jap Bantams are decorative, bred to be pets, exhibition birds or fanciers’ bird. Hanako used to be at his happiest each time he used to be with or close to me.
You want glance no additional than a Jap Bantam in the event you’re searching for the very best puppy. Make sure that you purchase yours as child chicks to steer clear of the hatching heartache, and be ready to provide your Jap Bantams a blank, comfy brooder inside of your own home or basement, because the breed does poorly within the chilly or intense warmth. The Jap Bantams on the college analysis facility lived in their very own climate-controlled room indoors.
Polish
Those lovely moptops first stuck my eye on a pal’s Fb web page. She had determined to focal point her small-farm flock on Polish and used to be sharing footage of the other kinds of this putting crested chicken. I had best ever observed Polish chicks as soon as at our feed retailer. A unique chick order had arrived and the landlord had now not but picked up her trio of White-Crested Black young children.
With their fluffy poofs on most sensible in their heads and their candy little faces, the Polish chicks made my center soften. My pal used to be best satisfied to oblige me. She despatched me one dozen hatching eggs from her breeder inventory. In 3 weeks’ time, my husband Jae and I have been the proud oldsters of a dozen Golden Laced, White-Crested Black, White-Crested Blue, Buff and White Polish chicks.
Because the chicks grew, it turned into really easy to inform the lads from the women. The ladies’ crests have been rounded pompoms whilst the lads resembled Andy Warhol with their eye-covering shag. I’d learn that the crests have a tendency to difficult to understand those chickens’ eyesight, making them startle simply and liable to bullying and predation. Since they’d their very own coop, our Polish had no bullies to fret about.
Because of our community of roosters, the Polish have been all the time alerted to the presence of any predators. The one factor I may subsequently put to the take a look at used to be the startle issue, and best as soon as did I ever see any of the Polish bounce—our White-Crested Black hen, Stefanski, when a blue racer abruptly slithered throughout his trail. Heck, I’d bounce, too.
Our Polish hens have been respectable layers, generating a mean of 3 white eggs every week. They by no means went broody nor did they display any dispositions against parenting more youthful contributors of the flock.
Along with being our best white egg layers, the Polish have been additionally the one breed by no means to show pecking-order squabbles. They have been very mellow birds with candy tendencies who were given alongside smartly with each and every different and with us. Neither the men nor ladies minded being picked up. They only took all of it in stride. Since a lot of our Polish turned into prizewinning exhibition birds, their mellow, agreeable nature used to be a undeniable bonus.
The only downside I will be able to recall to mind is that the deficient boys’ crests suffered all through our frigid Michigan winters, changing into lined in skinny layers of ice that I’d must thaw. Even then, they’d stand patiently and let me wrap them in towels with out grievance.
Polish chickens are in reality delightful in nature and lovely besides. Certainly considered one of my most sensible 5 hen breeds.
Marans
Our quest for dark-brown egg layers sooner or later led us to the Marans, a French chicken whose eggs vary in colour from milk chocolate to nearly black. Marans breeders in truth have an egg colour scores chart particular to the breed. Best the ones hens who persistently lay eggs a definite color of brown or darker are thought to be to be true Marans.
The ones women unlucky sufficient to put paler eggs are by no means bred or, worse, are culled.
I positioned a breeder about an hour to the northwest who specialised in Blue Copper Marans and Black Copper Marans. I introduced house 4 pullet chicks of each and every plus a Black Copper Marans cockerel. From the beginning, the Marans have been inquisitive, energetic birds. They cherished to vary, touring in a pack round our acreage, exploring and getting to understand their territory.
Their coop had the most important run of all our henhouses, however the Marans have been visibly unsatisfied confined. They all the time returned to their refuge to put, the women taking turns within the nest containers whilst the hen paced within the run like an expectant father. As soon as the day’s eggs have been produced, they’d all head off once more, returning earlier than sundown to roost for the night time. I may virtually set my watch to our Marans’ regimen. T
hello have been very predictable birds, and I’m stunned not one of the native predators ever stuck onto this.
In spite of laying 4 to 5 eggs every week, the Marans hens by no means confirmed any pastime in surroundings their eggs. They have been a lot more serious about roaming the backyard. Even supposing they have been all the time pleasant of their interactions with me, it used to be simple to look they have been impatient to be off on their very own.
The Marans have been in a similar fashion disinterested in our different flocks. In truth, they appeared virtually standoffish against the opposite birds. It used to be virtually like they have been the privileged high-school populars.
Given that each different breed we have been elevating almost craved human consideration, the Marans’ independence used to be fairly unsettling to me. After 4 years and a couple of Marans generations, none of them generating the ones famously dark-chocolate eggs, I offered all the flock to a neighboring farmer who used to be merely satisfied to have chickens that laid smartly and principally sorted themselves.