Reviews by Adorkable

My first silkies were hatchery birds and I did not like them at all. They weren't fluffy enough and their crests were on the small side so I got some nicer quality ones and I am in love with them and will be breeding them next spring. They have wonderful temperaments and are great with children. They come in lots of different color varieties and are adorable little fluffy critters.

This is Jasper the splash cockerel when he was younger.


This is Jasper now at 4 months old.


Here are a few others.

This is Princess Marauder the 4 month old pullet.


Marauder close-up.

Mixed colored silkie chicks


Mixed color silkie cockerel


Dark blue-cream cockerel




There are tons of colors to choose from!

I love my showgirls. When I first saw a showgirl I thought they were ugly and weird looking, but the more I looked at them the more i liked them. Now I have 3 showgirls and I am in love with them. They area really interesting looking and I am hoping to set up a couple of breeding pens with them and some silkies.

These are my babies.

Vera 4 month old non-bearded bowtie splash pullet.


Vera


Vera on the left and Tamar the bearded splash showgirl pullet (I think) on the right.


Spanky the splash cockerel at 4 months old as well.


I recommend them if you are looking for an interesting looking ornamental bird that does go broody often. I suggest breeding them to a silkie to maintain silkie type and good feathering.

I have some Welsh Harlequins that I ordered from Metzer farms and they are very calm and quiet. Some of mine have been shy and others extremely friendly and always come running when they see me and they greet me with soft gentle squeaky sounds... I can't explain the sound too well but it's a very soft sweet sound. I love these ducks their temperament is wonderful and even my one drake is very respectful of me and keeps his distance. He never gets too close to me and won't eat from my hand unlike the girls which makes me have a lot of respect and love for him because I feel totally and completely safe and not threatened at all whenever I go in the duck pen. This will be my first spring with them as adult ducks so I am hoping my drake doesn't change too much but I am prepared for anything.

I am definitely in love with this breed of ducks and am going to be hatching a few eggs in my incubator very soon so that I can have a few more of these sweeties. The girls do lay well. They have been laying throughout the winter. The egg size I am getting is about the size of a Large chicken egg? Maybe even a bit larger. I don't particularly like the taste of duck eggs so I don't eat them the way I eat chicken eggs, but I do use them in baking and they make an amazing french toast and delicious homemade pancakes! The ducks are not quite as large as my Cayuga duck and defintely smaller than my Pekin girl. They are a light breed of duck but I would say they are definitely not too small to eat either if you are looking for a dual purpose duck. On top of all this I find them to be beautiful animals. I really like the contrast of a dark bill and dark legs on a lighter colored duck. If you are considering Welshies as a layer, dual purpose duck, or even just for backyard pets, I think you will be pleased with them and I do highly recommend them.

I had 2 gold phase girls and 2 silver phase. These are the gold girls.

Whisper


Cookie

I had a couple of barred rocks for a couple of years. Each of them layed about 3-4 small (slightly larger than pullet) eggs a week.

They were extremely bossy with chickens that were below them in the pecking order.
They were excellent foragers and were extremely protective of their flock. One of them would even come after me whenever my Australorp would lose one of her babies and I was trying to grab it to return it to her.

They were never really 'friendly' and wouldn't let me touch them, but they weren't afraid to come up to me to see what I was doing. They were never pet-like and weren't productive enough to keep around. I recently thinned my flock and got rid of both of them. I may try them again in the future being as I know that each individual chicken has their own personality so I may end up with friendlier hens (that may lay nice size eggs)

I got 2 of these girls and one of them did not make it through the first summer. The other one that I have is wonderful. She still (after 2 years) crouches for me and will not allow my roo to breed her when I am present. She's a very loyal friend and I adore her! She lays about 4 eggs a week which is good but not nearly as productive as my other girls. They also seem to eat more and forage less than my other girls. Definitely pet worthy. I love watching them run because they're so big and fluffy. Looking forward to adding one or two more to my flock.

I've had 2 of these girls (barred variety) for a couple of years and they're a pleasure to have around. They are great foragers. Not really 'friendly'. They don't let me pet them but they are not skittish at all and come to me looking for treats. All of my girls follow me around like little puppies which I kind of enjoy. Even the skittish leghorns that I have follow me around the yard.

These girls cause no chicken drama whatsoever and lay about 5-6 eggs a week. They even laid through our scorching Oklahoma summer. I'm pleased with them and recommend them to anyone wanting reliable layers and easy-going, pretty chickens.

I purchased 2 White Leghorns and 2 California White Leghorns. I'm going to start out with the negatives. They are all super skittish and sometimes make my less skittish breeds freak out when I get near them. They can (and will) fly over a 6 foot fence with ease. I got rid of one of the White Leghorns because she started laying outside and I was not able to train her the way I have trained others to lay in the coop/nestboxes.

On a positive note these ladies will definitely keep you in eggs. I get about 6-7 eggs a week from each of them. Another positive about them is that they usually will not allow themselves to be bullied by the older girls. They have actually taken some of my older ladies down in the pecking order. They are wonderful foragers and eat lots of creepy crawlies. They do great in the heat because of their big floppy combs and small size.

Get a few of these if you want egg production and not pet chickens.

I only have experience with one of these so I can only speak about her, and of course chickens all have their own individual personalities.

My Australorp lays 5-6 eggs a week. She's gorgeous to look at and very alert. When I don't have a rooster in with my flock she is the one that makes the 'rooster alert' sounds. I'm sure you all know what I mean lol. My girls free range and on two occasions I heard her singing the 'egg song' just a lot louder and it seemed kind of like a desperate cry so I ran outside and sure enough there was a coyote (both times) right at the barbwire fence separating our 5 acres from the cattle pasture. On two other occasions she did the same thing and it was the neighbors cat in the garden. I love this about her. She looks out for the rest of the flock wonderfully.

My girl is hatchery stock and has gone broody for me twice already at the age of 1-2 years old. The second time I had fertile eggs to give her so I gave her 10 eggs and she hatched out 8 babies. She was an excellent mother and was perfectly fine with me picking up her babies to return them to her. This is a pro if you are interested in hatching your own eggs, but obviously a con if you are more concerned about egg production as they do not lay when they are broody until the babies are about 6 weeks or so.

Now here is what I don't like about her. Keep in mind that from my 3-4 years experience keeping chickens I have learned that you can not judge a breed on one single chicken because they all have their own personalities. What I don't like about my Australorp is that she chases the chickens lower in the pecking order out of the coop when they go in to lay and she happens to be in there. I have seen her follow a less dominant chicken into the coop just to chase her out lol. She is a little bit of a bully with them but it isn't to the point where I want to get rid of her because to me the positives outweigh the negatives. If she ever drew blood then she would have to go.

All in all I enjoy having her around and she's very pleasant with me (even lets me pet her all the time). She follows me around and begs for treats. I like her so much that I will most likely be adding a couple more Australorps to my flock this coming spring. I can definitely recommend this breed to anyone that wants egg production from a good looking, people-friendly chicken.

I liked the colored eggs and when I first saw the EE's I fell in love with them. I think they're beautiful and most of them are sweet and personable. One jumps up on my shoulder and another on my lap and lets me pet her. Mine have laid very well... about 5 eggs a week from each one.

Lady Lucinda EE hen


They melt my heart when they look at me and tilt their heads. I think it's the muffs & beard. They have been a pleasure to have around. Never want to be without these!