Minorca

I ended up with mine accidentally. She's a black Minorca, I had no idea what she was until I did some research. She was a rescue, abandoned by previous owners. She apparently wasn't handled much before I got her so she is shy, but she has come a long way since then. She lays the hugest white eggs I've ever seen and quite reliably. I don't know how old she is but I've had her for 2.5 years and she still lays almost daily in the summer and spring. She is so gentle and sweet as well and has a beautiful green sheen to her feathers. She also makes the cutest little cooing sounds, leading me to believe that this breed is rather quiet. She never causes a rucuss. She's been through a lot, a dog bit her back and took a chunk out. We kept her in our kitchen while we nursed her back to health and she allowed us to, and was so patient. If the other Minorcas are like this, there needs to be more!

Our Buff Minorca is such a good chicken! She lays some decent sized white eggs and is a sweet chicken (once you catch her that is). She was prone to broodiness so we finally got some eggs from some friends and let her hatch them out. She hatched 3 out of 5 (one was infertile and the other got crushed by another hen, so not her fault). She was a great mother!! She would have given her life for those chicks!

Whether she is skittish or doesn't lay well, she made up for it in being an surrogate mother.

my one black Minorca named destiny is very friendly and actually comes up to me they are to young to take to show but look amazing I wish I got them sooner, and when I did get them it was the first time I heard of that breed but glad I did. my other buff Minorca named goldilocks is actually very flighty and very skittish but the difference was I held the black one more then the buff one as a chick so make sure if you get them that you hold it a lot.

This is a preliminary review as I haven't had these chickens all that long. They have not begun laying, although I did have a Buff Minorca pullet a few years ago who laid very well.

The cockerels are a bit skittish of us, and the pullets very skittish. The pullets tend to be near the bottom of the pecking order in my flock. The cockerels are getting along with each other as they were raised together.

The pullets are starting to become friendlier to me now that they are approaching the POL (point of lay). They are a bit chatty now and do come up to me sometimes.

I love this breed and have decided to make it my primary breed, with the others in the flock as extras.

Some people say that you can mix them with the Black Minorca and then breed back to Buff over several years in order to build the size up on the Buff Minorcas. The Buff Minorcas do tend to weigh less than the Blacks right now here in America I have read.

I have never had a Black Minorca so cannot say if they are similar in temperament.

My Buff Minorcas stay inside their large fenced area as they prefer the security. They can fly quite well though, and my original pullet from years ago did fly out of the pen as she had no buddies in the flock- she was a loner. Now that I have a group of Minorcas they do like to stay inside the pen and have actually never flown out. Mine came from McMurray. Sandhill has these also and I have not ordered from them but may someday. I think Ideal has them as well.

I have two buff minorcas. Great girls that I have shown at the 4-H fair. Still laying pretty well at 2 years old

My Minorca hen, Pensacola, is by far the best chicken I have ever had. She is one of the few that have been blessed with a name! I first noticed how social she was at about 4 weeks old. She frequently would plow through the other chicks to jump onto my hand during feeding time. I wondered if this was just a temporary thing... Now that she is grown she jumps up onto my lap, shoulders, whatever! Pensacola loves being cuddled, she'll even fall asleep in my arms. I like to believe she is intelligent because she has never poo'd on me unlike other chickens.

Minorcas are excellent layers of small-medium white eggs. Their bodies are petite in size and generally they do not gain as much weight as average breeds. Hens have large smooth combs.

"Pensacola" as a baby chick:



Here she is at about 8 weeks:



At mature age:

a little skittish but they come around.

I got my Buff Minorcas from McMurray Hatchery in my first chick order as extra freebies. The Buff Minorcas must have hatched better than McMurray expected that week. I, as a newbie, thought that they were Buff Orpingtons for the longest time (they had golden feathers and pinkish white legs and feet). But when they reached point of lay and got white earlobes I finally realized that they were actually Buff Minorcas!

Since I'm not fond of white eggs and I prefer the laid back temperament of dual purpose birds, I traded the Minorcas to my neighbor for some Red Sexlink pullets of the same age. The Buff Minorcas proved to be her best layers during the summer months with each hen laying 6 or 7 big eggs every week while the rest of her hens were panting in the shade. They were also good layers the rest of the year as well and from their second year on laid better than her Red Sexlinks of the same age. She's very happy with them and if you asked her which is her favorite laying breed, she'd tell you Minorcas!

Minorcas have always struck me as true royalty of the poultry world because of their stately presence and impressive size. They are often overlooked for egg production in favor of White Leghorns or sex links these days but they are exceptional layers of very large white eggs. Once fully developed they are very large in size. A full grown cock bird will be close to three feet with his comb and hens will also be very large with size near 7 lbs.
Of course hatchery Minorcas will grow much faster and lay a little smaller white eggs and also will not be near as large as the exhibition strains. I have raised both. The hatchery birds are a little more flighty, similar to Leghorns in that regard. But they are still very good chickens that are very prolific layers.
The exhibition varieties are VERY large birds, stately and magnificent. Seeing a flock of Minorcas together is a sight to behold as they are very active birds for being so large a specimen.
I currently have Single Comb and Rose Comb Black Minorcas but they were hard to find as there are not very many breeders at this time of exhibition type Minorcas. They also come in SC and RC Whites and SC Buff. Some good Buffs are being worked on at this time but the Whites are very rare in the US as many breeders chose to raise White Leghorns many years ago and the White varieties went to the wayside.
Hope this is helpful information.
WyandotteTX/ John