ragdollcatlady
Herd Master
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2011
- Messages
- 2,237
- Reaction score
- 2,875
- Points
- 353
I have to put in my 4 cents here 
My number one favorite is Salmon Faverolle.
Our best fav was Weird Al and he was the absolute sweetest rooster you could ever have. He was nice to his ladies, gentle with the babies and snuggly with people. Our salmon girls have always been at the bottom of the pecking pile, so I have to watch for that, but they are wonderful pets. When our babies were just old enough to be out during the day with the flock, but it was still too cold at night, we would just collect them at dusk and bring them in. Occasionally it would be too dark and someone would come in crying that they couldn't find the babies. We would go out with the flashlights and after checking the 2 or 3 favorite spots, I would suggest looking for Weird Al. He would have little baby chicken heads and butts poking out from underneath him.He didn't care what babies or how old. When they were too young to roost or fly up, he would tuck them in under a bush. When they could get up off the ground he would take them into the garage and tuck them in on top of a bale of hay.
This isn't Al, it is his replacement Weird Altitude. Not as snuggly as Al but maybe once I have babies on the ground we will be able to sweeten them up (bought him as an adult)
Here he is leaning back and his beard looks all flat. Not sure why but his color is just fabulous!
My other suggestion is Cochin.
Julia was our cochin rooster. He would also feed his ladies and take care of the babies, also tucking them in at night under his wings. Our first birds were hatchery stock (McMurray) and for more eggs I would still suggest some hatchery blood. These birds were raised in the kitchen and snuggled every night after dinner. These 2 boys were my personal pets and over the years I have given up letting the kids pick the birds they want as they end up preferring "my" birds anyway. I think that all the time I spend with them (mind you that isn't much, some days only 20 minutes after dinner) makes them sweeter and they end up being family favorites.
I specifically chose these breeds for calm and docile temperaments and would have eaten any that didn't stay sweet. I don't do mean or high strung anything. Once I fell in love with these birds I wanted show stock as they are so much bigger and have better coloring. But they don't have as high of production levels in my experience.
The other main breed I have is silkies and they are also some of my favorites, but I have had to get rid of a few roosters that aren't as sweet to people. Then again I have Hannibal, the ugliest chicken I have ever seen (blue barred showgirl), but he literally runs to follow me around and snuggles down so much in my arms that I just melt.
But for a standard roo I suggest Faverolle or Cochin or you could do a best of both worlds and get a J.J.....he is a mix of both and huge. My DD was just in the newspaper with a pic of her holding her giant rooster letting little kids pet him at farm day.
My number one favorite is Salmon Faverolle.
Our best fav was Weird Al and he was the absolute sweetest rooster you could ever have. He was nice to his ladies, gentle with the babies and snuggly with people. Our salmon girls have always been at the bottom of the pecking pile, so I have to watch for that, but they are wonderful pets. When our babies were just old enough to be out during the day with the flock, but it was still too cold at night, we would just collect them at dusk and bring them in. Occasionally it would be too dark and someone would come in crying that they couldn't find the babies. We would go out with the flashlights and after checking the 2 or 3 favorite spots, I would suggest looking for Weird Al. He would have little baby chicken heads and butts poking out from underneath him.He didn't care what babies or how old. When they were too young to roost or fly up, he would tuck them in under a bush. When they could get up off the ground he would take them into the garage and tuck them in on top of a bale of hay.
This isn't Al, it is his replacement Weird Altitude. Not as snuggly as Al but maybe once I have babies on the ground we will be able to sweeten them up (bought him as an adult)
Here he is leaning back and his beard looks all flat. Not sure why but his color is just fabulous!
My other suggestion is Cochin.
Julia was our cochin rooster. He would also feed his ladies and take care of the babies, also tucking them in at night under his wings. Our first birds were hatchery stock (McMurray) and for more eggs I would still suggest some hatchery blood. These birds were raised in the kitchen and snuggled every night after dinner. These 2 boys were my personal pets and over the years I have given up letting the kids pick the birds they want as they end up preferring "my" birds anyway. I think that all the time I spend with them (mind you that isn't much, some days only 20 minutes after dinner) makes them sweeter and they end up being family favorites.
I specifically chose these breeds for calm and docile temperaments and would have eaten any that didn't stay sweet. I don't do mean or high strung anything. Once I fell in love with these birds I wanted show stock as they are so much bigger and have better coloring. But they don't have as high of production levels in my experience.
The other main breed I have is silkies and they are also some of my favorites, but I have had to get rid of a few roosters that aren't as sweet to people. Then again I have Hannibal, the ugliest chicken I have ever seen (blue barred showgirl), but he literally runs to follow me around and snuggles down so much in my arms that I just melt.
But for a standard roo I suggest Faverolle or Cochin or you could do a best of both worlds and get a J.J.....he is a mix of both and huge. My DD was just in the newspaper with a pic of her holding her giant rooster letting little kids pet him at farm day.
