Re: Choosing a new breed - help please

On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:16:49 +0100, "Christina Websell"
<spamfree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Steve Newport" <steven@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:fi9re39ljrt8kfl2n95kk2abs116ml8h3j@xxxxxxxxxx
Hi all,

just found a new home for three of our four black rock/RhodesIsland
Red crosses after a year of pecking problems etc. (stopped now but
want to try something else. They have gone to a good home in a
woodland free ranging small holding.)

However, want to get a different breed to keep in our urban garden
with a large pen. I have looked through several breed types and
wondered if anybody has any comment or suggestions?


If I could only keep one pure breed I would choose the Appenzeller
Spitzhauben. I have kept them for a number of years alongside a few other
breeds. They are classed as a large fowl (light) rather than a heavier one
which you are veering towards. The advantages of them being lighter in
weight means they don't eat so much. They take well to a large pen (I had
to confine mine due to daytime foxes) but they can range with the best if
you can offer it which means they eat even less layers pellets. I have
never had an aggressive male, either with me, or with each other. One of my
pens has 3 cocks and four hens in and never a cross word and neither do they
"overtread" the hens.
They are good layers of white eggs, have a long life - seeming almost immune
to any disease in my own experience as I have never had an ill one until
they are ancient - and I have still had hens laying a couple of times a week
at ten years old.
If you can cope with a chicken that looks like a Dalmatian and has a crest
like a thistlehead I strongly recommend them.

Tina

Love it, thanks.
.