What are the friendliest and best eggs producers

[Deborah Howard]

How to pick your chickens any suggestions.

 

[pclark17]

Everyone will probably have a varying opinion but for me, our Barred Rock has been the friendliest. Before her moult began, she was practically a lap pet and loved to be picked up to receive personal attention. Our best layers have been our two Rhode Island Red hens who have been absolute egg machines since they began to lay in March of 2017. Good luck!

 

[Lauren Kim]

I have Barred Rocks. They lay every day and they are the sweetest babies ever!

 

[Hufflefluff]

Hello!
This is a tricky question, because so much of it is subjective. There are some great resources that give you a good general scope of what breeds you might want; I'd highly recommend looking up Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart for an all-around profile of most breeds you're likely to encounter. There are also some great articles in the Articles section of the forum. Some things to consider to help narrow down choices:
- Do you want them for eggs, meat, pets, eye candy, or some conbination?
- How many birds do you want?
- Will you ever want to hatch your own chicks? Using a broody?
- Will your chickens be around children?
- What are temperatures like in your area?
- What predators do you have in your area?
- How big is your coop?
- Where can you get them from? Can you keep roosters/ have a plan in place for any boys?

The first breeds that come to mind for me for friendly egg producers are Orpington, Sussex, Wyandotte, Ameraucana, Australorp, and Barred Rock.

Good luck picking chickens!

 

[jthornton]

It helps to put your location in your profile.

JT

 

[Deborah Howard]

Everyone will probably have a varying opinion but for me, our Barred Rock has been the friendliest. Before her moult began, she was practically a lap pet and loved to be picked up to receive personal attention. Our best layers have been our two Rhode Island Red hens who have been absolute egg machines since they began to lay in March of 2017. Good luck!

Thank you,I will be checking them out.

 

[Deborah Howard]

It helps to put your location in your profile.

JT

Ian going to be moving to Georgia, near Savannah.

 

[Folly's place]

Speckled Sussex hens are VERY friendly, and I've really liked Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, and Easter Eggers.
Hatchery RIRs, and red sex-links, have been overly aggressive to their flock-mates, and I won't have them again. Ever.
You will do fine with Leghorns and other single combed birds that aren't so great in Michigan.
Henderson's Breed Chart is very helpful! Also feathersite.com.
Pick some breeds that sound good and see how they work out for you; it's fun!
Mary

 

[deepbluesea]

My most friendly birds have been my blue copper marans (she was a total lap chicken), my barred rocks and now my cream crested legbars. The barred rocks lay the most eggs of the bunch, but the ccrs lay blue eggs and the BC marans laid very dark brown eggs, so it's a pretty egg basket as well. Have fun!

 

[HoopyFrood]

We have barred Plymouth rocks, Rhode Island Reds, and an Australorp. We picked them for cold hardiness, general health (dual-purpose versus layer-only), and personality. These are pets (sometimes basically like kids!).

The Australorp is the sweetest; she is the quietest and most reserved as well.

The Rhode Island Reds are "the chicken's chicken." Very nice, and usually very calm. One of them is quite a ham at times, though. She's been a little trouble maker since she was a chick. It keeps life from being boring!

The barred rocks are just insane. In a good way! They are the most friendly, the most desiring of pets and hangout time, the most daring and bold. They talk incessantly. They are the alpha and beta of the flock, too. They're kind of like 6 or 7 year old kids who've had several espressos each...

All (that we have any track record with) are fantastic layers. Though the RIRs have made a HUGE dramatic production out of starting to lay. The others were very matter-of-fact and simply started to lay.

That's our experience. Don't know it it will help, but there you go. Have fun!!