ive had fowl a few years now and as hard as i looked i havent been able to find a laying breed that i really like... i like mottled leghorns but hate the comb on the hens, i like dutch bantams but their too small and dont lay enough eggs, i like phoenix but they are too short in the leg. i want them to be nearly as good as a hybrid as a layer but i also want them to go broody a few times a year and to be of a light countryfowl type, i want them to have longer tails with good tidy tail carriage and to be a little on the wary of people side as i dont really like hens following me all over the place. i want a single comb that isnt too large in hens, white cheeks, feathers to be a bit tighter which warrants adding hardfeather game to the mix
using the breeds above along with a couple of other breeds that have features i want im going to produce an asthetically pleasing bird that is a decent broody and a good layer
the breeds i already have are;
light sussex hen
buff sussex hens
blackrock hen
dutch x oeg cockeral
lavender leghorn bantam hens
birds im looking for;
frisian
mottled leghorn,
bassette bantam
phoenix
lakenvelder
american game
i know it will take a lot of time and selective culling to get there but im looking forward to each step of my experiment progressing, i wont be selling my birds as they are for my own pleasure!
would have been further along but i had to start again from scratch after a fox came in and killed a few of last years purebred adults and crossbred youngstock;- birds lost that day were; sussex x oxford oeg cockeral... real beauty. mottled leghorn cockeral, ancona pullet, frisian hen, frisian x american game chicks, several sussex and hybrid hens, oxford oeg pair.