What breeds should I get? What colors?

[Seaslug]

You have circled 11 straight run breeds... do you have the space to accommodate that many possible roosters... or any additional roosters? I considered Wyandottes but read that they have a tendency to be loud and may be too pushy for my docile, lovely Australorp, Barnies, Sapphire Gem, and Speckled Sussex. Having had Cuckoo Marans before, they were probably our least favorite birds, as they aggressively pecked at us. Our Orpingtons were nice but I do not consider them the healthiest breed and (just my opinion) but I wouldn't pay to have an orpington that looks like a Speckled Sussex when I could get a Speckled Sussex and enjoy both its looks and personality.

 

[Chicken_Obsesser]

Silver Sebrights are beautiful but they don't lay much....they're just for decoration. Lavender Auraucanas are also beautiful and relatively cold-hardy (personal experience).

 

[talkinboutchickens]

If you want less choice in your hatcheries just move to Canada! We have far fewer hatcheries and the largest one in western Canada , Rochester Hatchery has a total of 21 varieties of chickens including bantams and meat birds. If I want something interesting like those Sapphire Gems, forget about it. Not happening! So with all those heirlooms you got picked out there I have to recommend ISA Browns. Champion layers that will reduce the keeping costs of those colored egg layers and Wyandotte’s.

TYSM for the suggestion!

 

[Race3]

ISA Browns are my recommendation, out of the circled breeds those are the only ones I have but I highly recommend them! First off they lay sooo many eggs! Since you are wanting to add different colors to your flock I also recommend them, they are a light brown (as I'm sure you already know) with white accents. I currently have 4 ISA Browns and each has a completely different feather pattern, 1 of them has lacing, another is all brown expect for the head and neck feathers which are white, and my other 2 are sprinkled with white feathers. They are really friendly, not supper cuddly, but they will come up to me and even eat out of my hand! Plus they are both Cold and Heat Hardy (we had temps. in the high 90's and they did fine and are doing well in the single digits too!)

 

[talkinboutchickens]

You have circled 11 straight run breeds... do you have the space to accommodate that many possible roosters... or any additional roosters? I considered Wyandottes but read that they have a tendency to be loud and may be too pushy for my docile, lovely Australorp, Barnies, Sapphire Gem, and Speckled Sussex. Having had Cuckoo Marans before, they were probably our least favorite birds, as they aggressively pecked at us. Our Orpingtons were nice but I do not consider them the healthiest breed and (just my opinion) but I wouldn't pay to have an orpington that looks like a Speckled Sussex when I could get a Speckled Sussex and enjoy both its looks and personality.

I definitely get your point! I just like the size of orpingtons better for some reason because they are plumper The 11 st run breeds I circled I don't want to get all of them, those are just ideas of what breeds I may want. If we get roos we bring them to an auction near us

 

[talkinboutchickens]

ISA Browns are my recommendation, out of the circled breeds those are the only ones I have but I highly recommend them! First off they lay sooo many eggs! Since you are wanting to add different colors to your flock I also recommend them, they are a light brown (as I'm sure you already know) with white accents. I currently have 4 ISA Browns and each has a completely different feather pattern, 1 of them has lacing, another is all brown expect for the head and neck feathers which are white, and my other 2 are sprinkled with white feathers. They are really friendly, not supper cuddly, but they will come up to me and even eat out of my hand! Plus they are both Cold and Heat Hardy (we had temps. in the high 90's and they did fine and are doing well in the single digits too!)

Wow! They sound like an awesome breed! So far, I think I want to get an SLW, a salmon faverolles, and I just added ISA browns to my "probably for sure" list in my head! Thanks for the info!

 

[talkinboutchickens]

@Penpal @Rose the Legbar @Rangergord @Altairsky @WingItRanch @Seaslug @Race3 @Chicken_Obsesser

We figured out the breeds we want! Thank you all so much for your input.
We are getting:
1 ISA brown, 1 SLW, 1 GLW, 1 brown leghorn, 1 crested cream legbar, and we also wanted an amberlink and a mystic maran (I know, I wanted a black copper maran, a salmon faverolle, a BLR wyandotte, polish, and silkies, but family said NO because they are st. run), but the hatchery said out of stock on both mystic marans and amberlinks so I don't know what we are gonna do now hopefully they'll be in stock in March. And yes we are getting 7, not 5 like I had said, because I convinced my family that 3 hens to 1 rooster in our small coop is a really bad ratio and we must get at least 3 more for him in order to have a good amount of hens for him.
Also I went over the top and created a slideshow so they could figure out what breeds they wanted I apologize ahead of time for typos and any incorrect info you might find. I sourced the info from BYC and sites I found on google.

My Slideshow
Duration: 4:15

 

[WingItRanch]

@Penpal @Rose the Legbar @Rangergord @Altairsky @WingItRanch @Seaslug @Race3 @Chicken_Obsesser

We figured out the breeds we want! Thank you all so much for your input.
We are getting:
1 ISA brown, 1 SLW, 1 GLW, 1 brown leghorn, 1 crested cream legbar, and we also wanted an amberlink and a mystic maran (I know, I wanted a black copper maran, a salmon faverolle, a BLR wyandotte, polish, and silkies, but family said NO because they are st. run), but the hatchery said out of stock on both mystic marans and amberlinks so I don't know what we are gonna do now hopefully they'll be in stock in March. And yes we are getting 7, not 5 like I had said, because I convinced my family that 3 hens to 1 rooster in our small coop is a really bad ratio and we must get at least 3 more for him in order to have a good amount of hens for him.
Also I went over the top and created a slideshow so they could figure out what breeds they wanted I apologize ahead of time for typos and any incorrect info you might find. I sourced the info from BYC and sites I found on google.

My Slideshow
Duration: 4:15

Oh my god I love the slideshow! I did this when I was a kid to convince my parents we needed a dog.

Congrats on your new chicks! Places are selling out so fast this year. The marans seem to be the first to sell out.

 

[FrostRanger]

The only thing about ISA browns, is they are a production breed. They lay lots of eggs in their first 2 years of life but they may drop off quite hard after that. Plus they are going to be more prone to reproductive issues and thus may not live as long

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Oh my god I love the slideshow! I did this when I was a kid to convince my parents we needed a dog.

lmao I love that!!!!! I literally make slideshows for everything!! hehe

Congrats on your new chicks! Places are selling out so fast this year. The marans seem to be the first to sell out.

thank you, we are planning to get them in early March hopefully! I will definitely send pics when we do! I'm so excited!!We haven't raised chicks in 2 years because both times the hens hatched some chicks and I hatched some too.