We got lucky and found our lavender Orpingtons at tractor supply. We also got lucky to only end up with one rooster and six hens. They are so beautiful
That’s a great combo! They are gorgeous! My daughter picked some up a few at Tractor supply too one year when we had a broody hen We were really surprised they had them.
@@beesandseeds yeah we saw them, and sat there for an hour googling them, and when they said they were docile, big birds that were rare we said "grab them" lol.
Are they still very noisy? I live in a residential area in riverside county, that outlaws them. I want a very quiet breed of chicken that don’t squawk around cats.
The only time they are noisy is when they lay their eggs. The squawk pretty loud. Other than that I don't hear them much. But I believe that goes for every breed of chicken though. I have no idea what they are like with cats since we don't have any.
"Broody hens solve problems of the world!" Ha ha! Agreed! They take such good care of the babies. I had a buff orpington go broody last fall and she hatched out 4 chicks for us. They are a fabulous breed!
My Black Australorp is BY FAR the loudest lady in my flock! 😂 I (aptly) named her Siouxsie Sioux…she had the cutest little face as a chick-like she was wearing full makeup. My shy little glam goth chickie grew up to be a very friendly & confident punk rock girl with LOTS of (loud) ideas to share! Each morning I say: “Good morning Siouxsie: I wonder if you might have any complaints today?” 😂
This video is very informative! I love the personality of my buff orpingtons. We have 2 hens right now but are talking about increasing our flock so this was fun to watch! Thanks!
I got a buff orpington when day or two old, 7 wks old now. She or he, hopefully it's a hen, was a very calm younger chick but now has changed. More nervous now when I pick her up. I have two other breed of chickens all about the same age, bought at the same time. Orpington was so much larger as a young chick, but at about 5wks the Brahma caught up. Blue egger is the smallest. They are all best of buds, if you separate one the others cry for it. They're interesting and fun, and I'm learning a lot about chickens.
This video was literally made for me! Some urban areas allow chickens, like I know we can have them in nyc. but for some reason more residential or suburban areas have a TON of rules. we just bought a house in nj with a 1/4 of an acre and we're not allowed to have chickens. lol
Very informative!! I really like that you included that they do well in cold/rainy weather. The friendliest roosters we have had are our easter eggers. We definitely want to get some Australorps! Especially after your description of them.
I've never had a broody Orpington and I ordered 10 pullets hoping for broody hen. My lone Americana was the broody one, so she got the chick hatching and raising duties.
Awesome job! I think Orpingtons would be my go to breed if I ever decide to raise chickens and one or two Easter Eggers. This presentation is incredible.
Buff orpingtons were my gateway chicken, so sweet and good mama's since I wanted them to be broody 😂 I still want alllll the cool fancy breeds too but I'm trying to be practical 😂
I have one Rhode Island red and she is the sweetest of all my chickens if she sees me she comes running and we all so have I think 3-4 black Australorp baby chickens and one black Australorp rooster he isn't really mean but he's not friendly either he's more shy so I see they are broody can't wait till they grow up we have 14 chicken's one rooster and ty for this video I didn't know they are broody
We just got our first 10 chicks. We got 2 of each of the ones on your list except the Orpington. The last pair of hens are Cinnamon Queen. So excited for eggs!
Rhode Island Red is my meanest, loudest breed but she does lay every day, even during her soft molt. My Easter egger is the best bird, quiet, sweet and productive. Oh and gorgeous and lays blue eggs!
Fairly new to having layers . Wondered why one hen , probably a black orpington or australorp was so moody . Alwsys talking s*** . Guessing she's the definition of broody . Really enjoy your presentation. Thanks
RIR’s are an awesome bird for eggs! We had 5 laying more than my family needed. Several of the neighbors absolutely loved the eggs and would even buy a 50# bag of food every so often. I never asked them for compensation so they would just leave it out on the porch. Still have no idea exactly who it was. 😂🤷♂️
Very informative video. We have Rhode island reds and notice the slight aggressive behavior towards the other chicks in the beginning. Thanks for sharing!✌️🏿
Great video...glad you mentioned the aggressive behavior of the Rhode Island Red Roosters. The hens are more mellow. The New Hampshire breed could be a good substitute for the Rhode island Red. They seem to be more mellow.
Rhode island reds - great egg layers, chill AF, they produce good size meat and good community chickens - they do not attack other chickens unlike my Barred rocks . My only issue was , they are noisy .
Thank you for sharing your information, now it will be easy to select my favourite chicken breed, your presentation skill are awsome and very informative 😊😊😊
@@beesandseeds we were thinking Cayuga Ducks and we plan on handling and hand raising the babies But we do like the Khaki Campbells too I’ll keep that in mind
I just raised a group of the Campbells at school with my students so they were very use to being held and loved. As soon as I got them home to their permanent coop, they acted like they never saw me before 🦆🤷♀️😃. We’ve never had that Cayuga ducks. Maybe theyll be mellow. My daughter has some Harlequins and they’re calmer Best of luck!
@@mariahmoosymoose470 I suspect they’re just easily frightened. I think they’re pretty hardy if they have adequate shelter. I’m not sure though. We don’t get really cold
Yes, we’ve had a variety of hens go broody but some breeds are much more likely than others. We like the broody hens and stick baby chicks under them at night. Then they raise them. So much easier than a brooder! 😁
Different lines of the same breed can have variations in personality, the most easy going chickens I have encountered are barred rocks, but the breeder selects for good calm, friendly birds.
I bet for the Australorp! But love to have the Easter eggers also ;) Incredible presentation.. don't know much about chicken breeds until you! Thank you so much!
I didn't have orpington but my silka hen was like Cat or dog when you open coop she was walking close to your leg you had to watch out not to step on her she liked jump to knees like pet :-) rir are good layers but as you said rooster are one of most agressive one's they hen lays eggs even in winter:-) bared rock are long live even 5-6 years and stiil gave some eggs 👍
My first was Golden Comets, they all lived and were really healthy and lay a dark brown egg every day although when I got more chickens they bullied them they even bullied my rooster for a day or two.
The main reason is that we don’t like to support the mass culling of male baby chicks and prefer supporting small family farms and breeders. The chicks also aren’t bred to as high of standards. Smaller farms and breeders are careful to only breed for the best traits, not just mass produce birds. That doesn’t mean you can’t get good layers from a hatchery though!
My golden buff Orpington is not quiet, I mean, she is, but if she feels like it she WILL screech. I call her “my screeching emu “ because she looks a little like an emu. But, she is so fluffing loud.
Do you have any opinions/experience with the Speckled Sussex? We are most likely getting our first chicks in the Spring, and were looking at mixing those, the Buff Orpingtons and the Australorps or Easter Eggers.
Yes, they’re a great choice. Nice personalities and good layers. All breeds you’ve mentioned are good choices. The Easter Eggers are fun because they add variety in egg color. They do tend to be the most adventuresome out of the 4, if you’re free ranging.
Thank you. We have not had Sapphire Gems before. Haven’t heard of them. I’d be interested to know how they do. Have you ever considered ducks? Our Khaki Campbell’s outlay any.chicken we have had before.
I've thought about ducks but don't have a good spot for water, and being in Minnesota, the water gets a little hard in winter! Watch our channel for updates on the Sapphire Gems. They are beautiful birds and very friendly (so far). Can't wait to see how they do as adults. Cheers!
We don’t live in a hot area, so no personal knowledge here, but from what I’ve heard they do adapt to hot areas. Just make sure they have shade, water and it would be nice to give them ice in their water or treats like frozen watermelon chunks to help keep them cool.
@@beesandseeds that's kinda what i do for my rabbits. They each have a fan and i freeze jugs of water for them to cuddle to and put a ceramic tile in for them to lay on. They still get hot and pant but i have not had any that got sick or died. This year I'm thinking of putting some electrolyte solution in their water. I know fowl do better with it. Why not rabbits??
I'm thinking about about australorp hens. Im new to chickens btw. Would they be broody enough? Could i let one of the hens take care of a chick without a rooster?
If you want broody hens, I’d get some orpingtons too They are more likely to go broody than austrolorps. Roosters are necessary if you want your eggs to be fertile but they do not help with the chick raising at all. Only the broody hen raises the chicks.
We would rather support our local families selling chicks. We know they treat their hens and chicks humanely. There’s lot less needless injury and death in a smaller scaled setting. A LOT less. My understanding is hatcheries throw the bulk of live males away. They don’t have a market for them. In a small backyard setting, the males will usually be raised and many will father more chicks while most get eaten. We don’t eat ours, we usually give them away if we end up with some.
@@beesandseeds ah. Okay. Thank you. We just moved cross country to start our own homestead and are learning as we go. We purchased from some hatcheries recently but will look local later down the road. Everything is just so new to us. Thank you so much for replying to my comment and giving me this info. I really appreciate it. I hope you have a blessed day!
@@lifewithbumbles No problem! Sorry it wasn’t sooner! My job keeps me busy most of my waking hours lol. We have purchased from hatcheries too, multiple times. Once you get to know your area, you might find some great local resources. Sometimes, others are willing to barter and that is the ideal win-win in my book 😁. Best of luck to you!
When a hen goes broody they stop laying eggs and instead start to sit on them to hatch them. If you don’t have a rooster or don’t want babies, this can be annoying because the hen will minimize their eating and drinking and can even die trying to hatch unhatchable eggs. In some cases you have to break the broodiness for the health of the hen which can be quite the hassle! However if you want to raise chicks a broody hen is SO MUCH better than raising them yourself!
@@FreehandlyMadeAuCrochet we have found the fastest way is to remove them from the nest and not allowing access to any bedding material for a couple of days. A dog crate for shelter and protection works well. Or You can try to just take her off the nest throughout the day and keep her out of the coop for as long as possible. They will try to go right back to the nest so you have to figure out how to prevent that.
True you can get any and just raise them! We have found some are more skittish such as the leghorns and it’s easier to raise friendly chickens. Also, we recommend breeds that are pretty good layers. Not all are! We’ve had some that we just scratched our heads at the lack of eggs layed 😁
@beesandseeds The leghorn is a pretty good egg layer. I ended up with one by accident. I had had chickens before when I was a kid, but that was a different country. I had no idea about the different breeds raised in the US. This leghorn chick just showed up at my front door one morning looking all shaken up. So my kids wanted to keep it, then I built a coop, then eventually got her some friends from a farm, and again I didn't even ask what breeds. They all survived and grew up very friendly.
@@tomsd8656 leghorns are excellent layers. We have a few of the white leghorns. Sounds like a great childhood! 😊. I’m glad you cared for that poor bird. We need more people in the world like you.
@beesandseeds Yes, my chick grew up and it seemed she laid eggs almost every day except for a few weeks in the winter, but we live in warm climate, and there really wasn't a true winter. But I am not really fond of the breeding of hens to just lay eggs nonstop like that. It obviously too stressful for the body, and they don't live very long. After two years, the egg laying dropped gradually, and by the fourth year, there was barely any, then she died at four years old. In my native country, I was still a kid and had no idea about breeds. I just knew that hens laud eggs, went broody, incubated the eggs, raised chicks for about 6 weeks, then started laying again, and the cycle continued. I had a hen that lived for 11 years and still laid egg and raised chicks.
