Hi Allen, The big three in my opinion are Buff Orpington, Cochin and Brahma. These run 8 to 9 lbs. All three are good brooders, whether you want them to be or not. Chicken personality is tough to predict. About all you can say is a breed has a particular reputation, individuals may vary. These three are generally docile and easy to handle. Next in line are the medium bids such as the 'Rocks, several varieties, Black Australorps and Delaware. average about 6.5 lbs. These chickens are a little better at egg production that the bigger birds. Again generally docile. Some folks who are use to the more aggressive types, the red ones, would say they have no personality at all. "Vanilla Chickens". Cuckoo Marans difficult to predict. Many different breeders trying to cash in on the dark eggs have done a number on the breed. Enough to say many owners report they are "Cockoo" not refering to color.
Some of these breed are not readily available. Feed stores sometimes carry a variety of chicks if you want to get into the experience of raising babies. That's a whole different ball game.
A word on Roosters. They all can be dangerous.
Ol' George
--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, "allen_moretsky" <a_moretsky@...> wrote:
>
> We are learning a lot from our 1 chicken, Hanibelle.
>
> We like her nice ways. She follows us around the yard. Always greets us when we arrive back home and waits for us at the back door. My 3 year old picks her up and she puts up with it. She's a full grown laying mutt of sorts.
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> So we want more now.
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> I've discovered how nice it is to have a friendly, mellow chicken.
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> Since our egg needs are small - we only need 2-3/day - our meat concerns are probably outweigh egg production by a small margin. We need one meat chicken per week.
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> So we need another hen and a rooster to make more chicks. I would imagine that initially having 10 live chickens would be about max given these parameters.
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> So I'm asking for breed suggestions. Mellow, more meat than eggs, and, of course, beautiful. Maybe easy to butcher if that figures in with chicken breeds. We live in Northern FL, but seems that's not so much a concern with breeds.
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> I liked the Cuckoo Marans when looking at the McMurray catalog, but this is a big decision and I thought it best to toss it out to the group.
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> Thanks,
> Allen
>
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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