What are the friendliest breed of Chickens to keep at home?

Question

We are looking for some chickens that are good and placid around young children, but are also good at laying plenty of eggs.

Answer 1

Australorp chcikens are very great chcoice, I own them. I also recommend getting Araucanas. They are great as well. If you dont nessisarily like the color black, you can get the golden orange like color. Buff Orpingtons. They are the same thing as the Australorps except different colors. They are the #1 egg layers of 300+ eggs a year. They lay brown colored eggs. Some are light, pale, or dark. Araucanas lay green tented colored eggs.

This is what you need/need to do when you get these:

Oh, I recommend getting chciks so they will not be as scared of you.

If you do this is what you need to do."

Make sure that you have a good shelter. A brooder is needed for them for 1 month. Inside should have a heatlamp, feeder/waterer, and bedding. A brooder can be what I have, a rabbit cage, the one with the plastic bottom. Deppending on how many you are getting. If you get more than 2, I recommend gtting a kiddy pool. Filling it up with cedar/pine shavings. Putting a auto feeder/waterer in and a heatlamp hanging in there not too close to the chciks but not far. They wiull tell you if they are too hot or cold, if hot they will stay away from it if too cold they will be huddled under it constantly. Just fix it by gettting a higher/lowe watt bulb, or moving the lamp closer or farther away. They are to stay inside until they are 2 months old.

When they start to get there feathers, thye no longer need the heatlamp. So when there is no more fluffy down take out the heatlamp. When they are 2 months old, they can stay outside perminantly. Expecially since the weather is warm out. If the temp is under 50 degrees they may have to be in a warmer area or with a heatlmap. But shoul be fine without.

This is when they are older:

They need a coop. The coop needs to be big enuff preferabley 2-4 square feet per chicken. Inside needs to be nesting box. 1 per 2 hens. With bedding in it to make htm feel comfortable. Also there needs to be a roost. Its a wooden rod that goes across from one side of the coop to the other. Preferably 2 ft. off the ground. And access to feed and water. The coop needs to be safe from digging preditors and flying preditors. So make sure that you have a safe roof made from wood and stuff and also chciken wire as well. Put extra ampound of chciken wire around the bottom around the cage. This keeps raccoons from grabing and killing them. Also add rocks around the bottome to keep foxes out, this keeps diggers out. And add plywood if yous like, the3 long thin pieces instead of chciken wire idf you want.

They are to eat Starter for chcikens or all poultry. They should eat this until they are 2.5 months old. Then later start to mix the feed up with scratch feed. This has the protien they need. Youcan also feed them Romane lettuce(NOT ICEBURG), watermelon, corn on cob, and stuff of that nature. You have to figure out what they like. Mine love biscutes, watermelon pieces, and like to eat the bigs around the yard.

Anything else u need let me know

[e-mail]

Answer 2

Silkies are a really friendly and good breed for children to look after.

Check out this site: http://www.henkeeping.co.uk/which.html , it offers info on choosing various breeds and also how to look after the chickens.



Everything you need to know is on this site and it's been put together from the point of view of an enthusiastic beginner, so it's very easy to follow.

Best of luck with your friendly Chickens.  Send us some photo's!

Answer 3

  Yours is a question begging answer,  Being gentle depends entirely on how much handling and attention they get as they grow up. Buy baby's and hand raise them then they will always be tame and gentle.Japanese silkies are the most gentle Chickens I have ever dealt with and they have their drawbacks not laying huge amounts of eggs. another thing is by a chicken's undemanding standards they aren't very smart. Often you will have to pick them up and put them in their roost box Silver or golden Seabrites make beautiful pets that lay fairly well, and old english game bantams are very good  all around birds however the c***s are somewhat aggressive. We keep a two foot long string tied around our male  chicken's foot and when he is aggressive he is easily caught and 'roughed up' so he eventually learns better behaviour. If you are just looking for pets though go the silky route.

Answer 4

I would say probably silkies if you want something both interesting & friendly ....

http://www.Ovabid.com

Answer 5

Hi! :) We have recently become chicken owners, and have two millifleur pekins. They are wonderful, very friendly and great with my two small sons. They are hugely entertaining to watch (tug of war with worms is a favourite game of theirs!) and hardly any bother. It took literally days to have them eating out of our hands, and the kids pick them up for cuddles all the time. They are very cute looking birds, with fluffy feet and dense feathering. They do lay well when adult (ours are only 12 weeks old), but as they're bantams, their eggs are smaller.

Answer 6

I find that depending on how you are around you hens, how often they are handled and come into contact with humans, pretty much any breed can be placid and good around children.

The breeds that a particularly known for being suitable for children are Silkies, Pekin bantams, Araucanas (lay beautiful blue eggs too) and Cochins.

I have a black rock who runs up to me and will tap my leg waiting to be picked up. When I have hold of her she'll close her eyes and stay there until I put her down again and she loves to be stroked! I also had a lovely warren who would do the same and fall asleep in my arms whilst being stroked.

Black rocks are particularly good layers but if you're looking for more info on keeping chickens check out this site: http://www.henkeeping.co.uk

Answer 7

Try http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/c... -- this is the best resource we found when researching exactly the same question (though we added to it "cold hardy" and "lays well in winter")

We have speckled Sussex, Americana/Aracaunas, and Delaware hens here, who just started laying eggs (well the Delawares haven't yet, but the others have).  The speckled Sussex are the friendliest of the 3 breeds we have, with the Americana/Aracaunas next, and the Delawares are the least friendly but still fine around the kids.  Our 6 year old is the primary chicken caregiver, and the chickens have been great around her, as well as our almost-3 year old.  (They sometimes scare the 3  year old a little, but just because she feeds them "treats" sometimes so they all run over to her when she goes out in the yard, and she thinks they are chasing her.)   The 6 year old lets them out every morning to free range and locks them back up at  night, and usually picks them up and pets them sometime during the day.  (As an added bonus, the American/Auracana chickens lay lovely green and blue eggs, and the speckled  Sussex lay a light tan egg that looks pink next to the green ones, so they really are lovely.)  Ours have just started laying in the last 2 weeks, so it is hard to say how the laying will go by breed yet.  Everybody whose laying seems to lay an egg every 2-3 days, except one very enthusiastic Americana/Auracana who has laid 11 eggs in the last 12 days.

Good luck!  We've really enjoyed our first 6 months with chickens so far!