- What is the friendliest chicken breed(s)?
- Why do you think this?
- What evidence can back you up? Threads? Articles?
- What is your experience with this breed(s)?
- What breeds are not very friendly? Why?
- Anything else
Friendliest:
Bantam Ameraucanas, bantam Cochin, d'uccle (ONLY females)
I bred d'anvers and d'uccle for a few years. Males were various levels of human aggressive. Finally gave up on them as I hate human aggressive chickens.
The females in both breeds were great. They were happy to be picked up by my kids. I think the d'uccle females were maybe friendlier, by a hair, than the d'anvers... which is why d'anvers are not on my top 3 list.
I now have only Ameraucanas in bantams. The males AND females are great. I can house them in tighter than ideal quarters, have multiple males... all good. They are also good with flock raised chicks. Nice! I have been raising and breeding them for years now... 10??? 6??? Anyway, I have had a fair number at this point, all girls are sweet. Over all of this time I had 1 or 2 males that had slight human aggression, but the rest have been super easy going.
I think we only ever had 3 bantam cochin girls. All 3 were very tolerant of snuggles from the kids. They were even happy to play "falcon" with the boys by perching on their arms.
Not friendly breeds: I love the personality of Dominiques, the kids did too. BUT, they are not pet chickens. Also they bite hard when they are broody. They also make great broodies. I bred and raised them for years.
I am also highly fond of Leghorns. The production whites, once past point of lay, calm down quite nicely. All other colors that I have had are various levels of flighty or wild. About 1/2 of the males are human aggressive. Females are great broodies. I bred rose comb dark brown and rose comb whites for many years.
Spitz are the perfect combination of high lay rate and good marketability. Very low chance of human aggression in the males. They are very good at being confined, and chicks are quite good at being in mixed age groups. However, not at all pet quality. I have been breeding Spitz for a few years.