Reviews by 0wen

I purchased a pair of these from My Pet Chicken (overpriced I know, but I only needed a small order) and still have them. They'll turn a year old in a few days and overall, they've been good birds. I skimmed reviews of them for a year or two - back when they were 'rare' and expensive and became curious about them. They're decent enough layers, but not the 'egg laying machines' early reviews made them out to be - They're about on par with my Orpingtons, Rocks, & Marans - but a far cry from Leghorn productivity. Disclaimer here that they are hatchery birds and not from a breeder, so I'll concede that may be a factor there. I probably average 4 eggs/week from each of the girls - not terrible as I raise 'Heritage' birds and don't usually expect an egg/day. They did take their first winter off.. The eggs are an attractive enough baby/sky blue..

Temperament - skittish for a long time. They've calmed down a lot as they age despite no regular handling. They don't want to be petted or cuddled, something I don't really do with my birds anyway but they'll let me catch them for vetting, testing, exams - although an occasional cornering is necessary. I have great roosters in my flock, and I attribute their calming down to the presence of the pair of roosters. In general, they don't panic and run when humans are around and you can walk among them in coop, run, or yard without them becoming alarmed.

In summary, they're good "middle of the road" chickens to me. Decent enough layers and active enough foragers with attractive enough feathering. My only "cons" are personal preference I suppose, in that I'd easily take a heritage breed over them. That being said, I have colored egg layers on hand on-and-off (for my kids) and do prefer these to Ameraucanas I've had in the past.

I purchased a dozen exhibition quality barred rock bantams from Dick Horstman in April 2016. Almost a year old as of this writing and I'm 100% pleased. The entirety of the remaining flock (5 hens, 1 rooster) are some of the friendliest birds I've owned. The few I sent to other homes give similar reviews when I see them and everyone who got by extra cockerels last year are on a waiting list to get more of this years hatch when available. They've proven cold hearty as I winter them in an open air hoop coop with no heat, only a huddle box to get out of the wind and we had single digit weather this past winter (below 0 with wind chill) and there were no issue of illness, injury, frost damage, etc.

They are consistent layers for bantams and I get 4-5 eggs/week from each pullet on average. The rooster is friendly, as are the hens, and all can be handled by my 9 year old without issue. They're currently housed with my general flock and get along well with more than half a dozen large fowl hens and a large fowl rooster (my Svart Hona, also a great gentle breed). I'll be moving them into their own coop this spring (building it now) to establish a breeding program, and will be adding another order from Horstman to give some lineage variety to my current stock.

My Svart Hona are among my favorite birds. They always come over to interact or see what's happening when I go to the coop/run and neither the hens or roosters have shown anything but the best behavior. My SH rooster is my dominant flock rooster and is easy when mating the girls. He's in a coop with 14 pullets and another rooster (barred rock bantam) and they get along fine - both crow, both mate the hens, etc.

I hatched a few just to add to my flock and all ready planning on expanding in the spring and eventually moving them to their own breeding pen (along with some hobby project crosses). I can't recommend them enough - the only down side is that their production isn't great, but I knew that going in.