Topic of the Week - Which Breeds Are Best For….

Angelbach said:

I have no answers to give...but I have questions.

I would easily fall in love with sweet birds...which is going to be the problem when we cull.

Scenario: We're on 1/2 acre. Zone 10a (North San Diego, coastal-ish). We get a few days every few years of +30 and maybe a week every few years of 100.

Challenges: I have Red-Tail Hawks and Henry's Falcons. They don't seem to bother my neighbors' birds who are extremely wild, but they (predatory birds) nest on my property and will be staying. I also have a family of coons that visit as well as skunks and opossum. The normal mice and rat thing. We also have catch, fix and release feral cats (currently 5ish). Occasional neighbor dogs visit and haven't seen coyotes in a couple of years.

Question 1: What is a good meat hen that will give at least a fair amount of eggs, be a good meat bird (for sure) and one that I probably will NOT fall in love with. Something annoying that will not (most likely) try to kill me. Should I just raise roos for this purpose? Still want something that probably won't be that sweet. I would not keep roos in the pen with hens as I am a ovo-lacto vegetarian (family are meat eaters). At what age would a roo be good to dispatch? I really would prefer to keep the noise down as much a possible.

Question 2: What is a nice temperament bird that is fairly self-protective, productive egg layers, that are known for laying for a good long portion of their lives.


Assumption: if I have something that is aggressive towards hens it will either be dinner sooner or need to be separated.
Assumption: I will need to build tractors or some sort of full fence enclosure.
Assumption: I will not kill a "chicken friend" unless it for mercy or SHTF.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

• Personally, we've loved our Red Sex Link; predictable, obviously, but she lays large, brown eggs at least 6/7 days a week year round. Our Easter Eggers have been fun for colored eggs,but they have historically taken a long molt each fall and not resumed laying until spring- from them we'll reliably get 5 ish eggs a week in the spring, summer, and early fall, and none for the rest of year. Our Australorp has been decent too; she's very much hatchery quality and has stayed small and thin, but she forages for a good amount of her food and lays around 5 eggs a week, so she's been pretty efficient.

• I've personally only harvested CX, but I'm going to cull some of our flock this fall and am definitely expecting some to be a lot meatier than others. Our Brahma has been a steady layer- around 5 eggs a week, even in winter, and is large enough to make processing her worth it; I don't know how representative that is overall of the breed, but brahmas work for us. One note of caution: be aware of the standard of the birds you're buying if you'd like them to be dual purpose. We got some Wyandotte pullets thinking we could process them after their first year or two laying, but the feed store we got them from evidently expected them to just be layers as they didn't grow anywhere near the size expected for the breed, and have a much more traditionally layer build, so just be aware of that if you're considering processing a bird sold as a layer, regardless of breed.

• Bantams. Especially bantam cochins; their smaller size makes them less intimidating and easier to hold, their small eggs are fun to look at and easy to hold, and they've been reliably sweet and cuddly, much more so than our standard size cochins. That being said, standard Cochins and Brahmas have been very sweet too, and Easter Eggers should definitely be considered; their eggs are fun and interesting, and they're sweet, curious, and calm, albeit not as likely to cuddle.

• Our Cochins have actually been fine foragers, but I wouldn't keep them anywhere where it will be muddy for much of the year, or in a pen with a high chance of mud. If you're keeping Sex Links or Leghorns, I'd definitely recommend making sure their coop doesn't get too cold; we've had some issues with frostbite and sleeping in nest boxes when it dips below 10 or 15. My last note is that the bantams we've had have not handled cold well: we stopped keeping them after some deaths last winter. This might not be a probem if you have enough for them to huddle, but we only kept two or three at a time and when it got down to 0 with heavy snow they all died, regardless of how well we insulated their coop.