Chicken bald back

[nin-chicken]

I currently have a broody speckledy - Jemina. After posting on here it sounds like speckledys are quite prone to broodiness. This made me do a bit of googling (maybe unwise!) and it seems as if either Jemina is not your typical speckledy or they are all totally different and you can't generalise. On this site it says that speckledys are docile & easily handled - jemima is neither of these and is more scared of me than any of my other girls. The other thing is speckledys are meant to lay dark brown, speckled eggs but jemimas eggs are really pale, almost white!

What I'm wondering is whether you can generalise about character traits and egg colours. I love the look of speckledys but wouldn't get another if they turn out like jemima (sorry jemima!)

What are other people's experiences of speckledys?

Thank you x

[Olly]

I think generalisations about character are always risky, because individual chickens vary so much. I had a speckledy who lived to about 7, she was friendly and calm and became a favourite chicken. She never went broody. Her eggs were dark brown with freckles on and she laid reliably for most of her life. I'd have another speckledy like a shot

[LunaKiw1]

We had a Speckledy and she laid nice dark brown shiny eggs. She paced herself a bit though in laying, missing out days whereas her two sisters produced eggs daily. Daisy was never keen on being picked up and had a swerve to avoid contact worthy of a rugby player! She also tended to trot round after the other two but somehow looking as if she was in her own little day-dream world. We likened her to 'My Naughty Little Sister' in the way she always tagged along (for those of an age to recall the children's stories of that series!). She actually survived being picked up by a fox in its mouth unscathed as luckily my husband saw and raced out quickly to chase the fox off. She was dropped and after shaking her head and fluffing up her feathers a bit she just trundled back to the Eglu to which her two sisters had rapidly retreated. No ill- effects of any kind! She died quietly in the garden, just keeling over in the sun, earlier this summer.

[dancing cloud]

My Marguerite-speckledy has a tendency to broodiness and and doesn't like being picked up or stroked, though she really does like wattle-tickles . Like LunaKiw1's Daisy, she's not the most reliable layer, but she does produce enormous dark brown eggs when she gets round to it.

 

Chickens - they're definitely individuals!

[SueChick]

My speckled hen - named Freckles of course! Hates being handled but is very sociable when food is around! She lays mid brown very, very faintly speckled eggs - barely visible. So I do think its variable. I love her though even though she is a pain with feather pulling!

[jackian]

My Speckldy Shadow has just finished being broody after nearly 8 weeks. I would not have minded so much but she had only been laying for 3

She is just like your jemima and she does not like being handled ,does not seem to have the character of my other and apart from when she was broody and I had to keep lifting her out of the nest box she has never let me pick her up.

She does not seem to have the character of my other girls just strolls around ,does not join in and dig for worms etc., but she will dust bath with the others.although she does look good .

To her credit she laid an egg yesterday after finishing being broody for 2 days and it was small, dark brown and with freckles...None since.

I love all my 5 girls but sorry Shadow ..No more Speckleys