Chicken bald back

[Craftfairy]

Thanks to everyone who commented on my previous thread

I have found out tonight that one of my partners friends breeds chickens!

So I think the plan is to get 3 from him, I want 3 different ones and my choices are

warrens, light Sussex, bluebells, speckledy, and black rocks they are 3 weeks old at the minute so I have lots of time to choose and get all my set up ready

I wonderd what your experiences were with the breeds, I had read that bluebells don't like to be picked up is this the case with yours if you have them?

I will do some googling but if you have any photos that would be fantastic

Lisa x

[jackian]

I have had a Bluebelle for about 10 weeks ,so she is now 20 weeks and she is so beautiful but I can't get any where near her. If I go into the garden she goes and hides in the coup or under a hedge .Not just now and then but all the time .She is petrified . I feel sorry for her . In my 4 years of chicken keeping I have never had such a scared chicken and I am hoping she will get better when she starts laying .

 

Jackie x

[Beantree]

Are these genuine Blackrocks, or just Rhode Island Red x Plymouth Rock crosses Craftfairy? Blackrock is a protected trade name and recently there have been many poor imitations sold. Genuine ones are great, we had four one of which was the friendliest little girl you can imagine.

 

My limited experience of Bluebells has been very poor. They are strange creatures indeed. They don't integrate well at all and often lay poor eggs, which I thought may be due to dark skin pigmentation. I have heard many reports of people having the same experience. Ours used to hide in the coop until the run was opened in the afternoon for free-ranging. The number of broken eggs got progressively worse until cleaning up the mess in the nest boxes became a major effort and unacceptable.

[LunaKiw1]

Whilst different breeds have some basic characterisits i think there's an awful lot of variation and they can all have different temperaments. You'd not believe what distinct characters each of your chooks will turn out to have! We've had a Bluebelle who was fine about being picked up and laid lovely plum-blush coloured eggs. We've had a Speckledy who doesn't like to be picked up but is very pretty. We've just got two Warrens to join Daisy, the speckledy, who was on her own after peritonitis took her last remaining sister last week. One is very inquisitve and friendly, the other seems more nervous. On our limited epxerience the hybrids that are the basic 'orangey' colour seem to be a bit brighter than your average chook and are generally very inquisitve and bustling about all the time. I think any of the breeds you mention will be fine - and if you can possibly get three that are used to being together already when you pick them up it will ease the settling in. When we chose 3 that looked different we picked them from different pens and didn't appreciate that they then had to go through the 'sorting out the pecking order' trauma when we got them home.

[Stevie]

The Speckledy are a great bird-albeit quite heavy,but are a good layer and not nervous.

 

Bluebelles,although pretty dont tame easily if at all.

[keyhole kate]

I had a true blackrock who I re homed when I first got her she wasn't used to being handled but she soon tamed and in the end she would run up to me and stand at my feet to be picked up for a cuddle she was called Maisie and I still miss her and as a breed I would definitely have another blackrock in a heartbeat