Wanted Please - Harrogate / York / Leeds area

[amys garden]

Well I've caught the bug

I'm thinking of adding to my flock

I know only two months into chicken keeping and I want to get some more!

I love Orp and Wynadottes especially splash ones

But I'd really like blue eggs!

Which blue egg layers are the friendliest ?

And is it worth waiting till next season to stagger them out so they don't all suddenly stop laying at once and the current girls have lots of time to settle (especially that noughty Hazel) ?

[Sue]

I find Cream Legbars a nice breed. They lay through the winter, though not as regularly as in the spring/summer, and the eggs are quite a nice size for what is a smallish bird. Plus they are very pretty with thier little crested heads.

 

There are pictures of the birds and eggs here plus a bit on the history of the breed Cream Legbars

[sparkysmum]

We have a lavander araucana. Lovely hen, lays about 5 dys /7 but over a fairly short season. She is over 3 yrs old and as tough as old boots. Great with other hens/dogs etc but not people friendly. Beautiful eggs.

[dance in the dark]

As usual I am here to support araucanas!

 

I have both cream legbars and araucanas and the araucanas are my favourite. The legbars are pretty, and as mentioned before, they lay decent sized eggs for their size, but they are pretty good fliers/jumpers and even though they are the only hens I raised from chicks, they are actually the most aloof chickens I have. Legbars also have a tendency to be quite noisy, if that is something you need to bare in mind.

 

Araucans are also quite small, much smaller than my hybrids, but the both lay quite large eggs (about 65g give or take) and they are vibrant blue, although the breeder I bought them from have bred this trait into her flock as she entered egg shows, so not all araucanas have quite such brilliant colour. The araucanas are also friendly, don't eat too much, don't fly or jump (they are the only breed except for orpingtons who have never escaped), and due to the large egg, to small body ratio they are a lovely backyard chicken. Araucanas also come in lots of colours, you will mostly find lavender, but you can also get black, white, cuckcoo, red and blue, and doubtless other variations. The only real advantage of legbars IMO is that they have a longer laying season (this year all my legbars were in lay by February, but the araucanas waited till April....

 

I have said it before and I'll say it again, I should stop talking about araucanas!!!!

[The Dogmother]

Araucanas are great layers but the are usually dotty as anything and prefer not to be handled; as most blue egg laying hybrids will originate from araucanas then you will find them flighty to a certain extent.

[sparkysmum]

As usual I am here to support araucanas!

 

I

The araucanas are also friendly, don't eat too much, don't fly or jump (they are the only breed except for orpingtons who have never escaped), and due to the large egg, to small body ratio they are a lovely backyard chicken.

 

 

This may well be dance in the dark's experience but mine differs. My araucana happily roosted in a tree in the garden and more than once hopped into a neighbouring field. She positively dislikes being handled. Having said all that she is now over 3yrs old and a much calmer hen.

[Mercedes55]

We have a Lavender Araucana and also a Cream Legbar and both are unfriendly and as mad as hatters. We bought both of ours in Sepember 2010, so they are the same age. They both stopped laying at pretty much the same time over Winter and started again at roughly the same time. I would say our Cream Legbar lays eggs that are a bit larger than our Araucana but in colour they are identical

[dance in the dark]

I have heard other people say these thing about araucans, but I have just never seen them. I have only had four, but still. I dunno, why can chickens not just be exactly how the breed is described, it would make life much easier!!

 

I still Vote araucanas though, just make SURE they have been officially sexed!!

[amys garden]

Thanks everyone for your replys!

I think I'm going to wait till next years POLs

Mainly because I'm having BIG trouble choosing birds and I think I'll let my Girls settle in a bit more!

 

Now if you could get a splash Orp or a laced Wynnandotte to lay blue eggs!

HaHa the craziness of my Imagination

 

Dance in The Dark ; We have a have a Maran Curviere the one who hurt her nose/beak/comb who is meant to be gentle but Is so agressive she a menace!

She pecks twice as fast as the other girls that shes realy bighting and is so flighty she won't be handled...

Cheaky thing thinks she's a cockerell

I think I'd like to go to some shows to see the different girls in person

[Sue]

Well - before I had Cream Legbars I had heard they were flighty so I go two pol to check whether I like them or not. One was a real scatterbrain and mad as a hatter, the other quiet friendly and quite chatty. When I decided to start my breeding flock I only kept the nice quiet friendly girls, and I have to say I find them quite laid back.

 

The boys are a bit more wild, but already I have found one who is quite pleasant, so if I breed on from him I am sure eventually I shall have a quiet and friendly flock. Very often it is not the breed so much as the strain.

 

Mine seem to be excellent layers. They came back into lay in November after the moult, and I regularly got 2 a day from the four girls. Since spring it has mostly been three or four a day. The eggs are powder blue or turquoise blue and normally around 60 - 65 grams from the hens, though a bit smaller from the pullets.

 

They are such pretty little birds as well and their eggs look lovely with the dark brown of the Marans eggs.

[amys garden]

Ah "dark brown eggs" shame you don't live in Sussex I could buy a couple of pullets from you in the spring

They do look like such lovely birds! And Id love the blue eggs

 

You know it's true about chicken keeping being compleatly addictive!

There are some lovely breeds I'd like to keep but I live on the suburban edge of a small town!

And like puppy's chickens may be cheap to by but they are for life ...

 

Do Marans have to be a certain colour to lay dark eggs?

My Hazel lays brown speckledy ones, though they are beautiful.

[Sue]

True Marans should be capable of laying a colour 4 egg on the official egg colour chart at some time during their laying cycle. If they don't then personally I think it really shouldn't be thought of as a Marans. Certainly in France they specify this in their standard, but here in the UK even some showbirds will lay poor coloured eggs.

 

One of the problems is that if you cross a Cuckoo Marans cockerel over many other sorts of hen the female off spring will just look like a Cuckoo Marans, and in the past to improve the laying abilities people crossed Marans with Light Sussex etc, and these birds are now mixed within the general population.

 

Also as Marans are know for their dark eggs it has become the fashion to name commercial laying hybrids so they include the word Marans ie Maran Cuivee which is a Rhode Island red Marans Cross.

 

If you want good colour eggs go to a proper breeder and ask them if they specializes in egg colour rather than show birds. And take a look at The Marans Club website

 

I just love my Marans, but I must say I am getting very keen on the Cream Legbars also. The lay better than the Marans and eat less food, but there is something about collecting a beautiful shiny chestnut brown egg, especially if it is a speckled one .