In our quest to find the best birds for our farm, we have tried a pretty large variety! Below are all the breeds we’ve worked with and have moved away from.
Created in Germany, the Bielefelder just might be the ultimate dual purpose bird! They are extremely docile, large for the table, lay good-sized eggs, and are autosexing. What more could a homesteader ask for? The only flaw we’ve found is that they do eat more than other breeds, probably because of their large size. None of our roosters of any breed have ever attacked us and gone on to reproduce, but these boys have been the most mellow with us and are the least likely to cause drama in the bachelor pad or with the hens.
We LOVED our Bielefelders! They were all like giant teddy bears, laid decent amounts of eggs, and we appreciated that they were autosexing. Our roosters consistently had the best personalities out of all our breeds. Unfortunately, they ate a LOT, their eggs were only medium-sized, they were prone to frostbite, and they let the other poultry bully them too much.
Along with the Queen of Chickens, we also have the King! These chickens are HUGE, standing about 2 feet tall and weighing over 10 lbs. They are known for being gentle giants and they have cold-hardy pea combs. Ours are the Dark variety, with gorgeous silver penciling on each feather.
Brahmas are so pretty and, like Bielefelders, they were all friendly! They didn’t lay very large eggs in very large amounts, though, and they also tried to eat us out of house and home. We’re considering trying them again later, but we’re pretty happy with our current breeds for now!
Known as the “Queen of Chickens,” the Bresse originated in France. Like Chardonnay, it’s not a true Bresse unless raised in the Bresse region, but our American ones did descend from their lines. Because they metabolize food in a unique way, they have delicious marbling and are thought to be the best-tasting chicken in the world!
Our Bresse were nice, but didn’t really stand out in any way. We didn’t get a chance to try eating one and we sold them before they were laying age, so that might have changed our minds about them. We were worried about their combs getting frostbite, too.
German Deathlayers are renowned for their ability to lay eggs throughout their whole lives – most breeds slow down and stop after only a few years! Chicks need more TLC than other breeds – we are working towards increasing hardiness.
Deathlayers are so much fun – we loved how smart and active they were! We only hatched hens and couldn’t find a rooster, and didn’t really want to try another hatch at the time, so we sold them. We would definitely try them again, though! Their main fault is that their eggs were smallish.
America’s oldest chicken breed, Dominiques are very winter hardy due to their frostbite-resistant rose combs. These chickens are incredibly curious and almost as sweet as our Buckeyes! We love their gorgeous barred pattern, which also helps to camouflage them from predators while they’re out free ranging our pastures. Some lines are autosexing, but ours so far has not been.
After our rooster died, we couldn’t find a new one, so we rehomed our hens. We loved them and hope to get more one day! It was so fun watching our stripey girls zip around our property. Their eggs look EXACTLY like our Buckeye eggs, which can get confusing if someone mixes them in the basket *cough* Ken *cough* haha.
Langshans are an amazing dual purpose bird. They are large and sweet, and they lay a decent amount of brown eggs that are OCCASIONALLY coated in a gorgeous pink or plum bloom. Our exhibition-quality line includes stock from APA Grand Master Exhibitor Tim Ballenger. Chicks might be black, blue, or splash. Again, there is NO guarantee that they will lay eggs with a bloom, but they sometimes do!
We liked our Langshans – they were pretty birds, but they didn’t really stand out to us, and we worried about their combs getting frostbite in the winter.
Curious and spunky, Legbars do not like to sit still! Our hens love to perch on our shoulders or get into places they shouldn’t. The roosters must have a lot of testosterone – they are feisty! We do not keep mean birds in our gene pools here, but the roosters who have caused the most drama in the bachelor pad have all been Legbars. That being said, they are also the absolute best flock protectors we’ve seen! Legbars prefer to free range, but are also happy scratching around in their run.
We tried Legbars and Ameraucanas at the same time, and we decided that we prefer Ameraucanas. The roosters are more calm, hens lay more regularly, and they’re FAR more cold hardy. Legbars did lay larger eggs and we loved how active and energetic they are! We also appreciated that they’re auto-sexing so that we could cull roosters right away.
Orloffs are so cool looking, and they’re built for winter weather! Breeders are trying to improve them, but at this time, they do not lay very many eggs at all – less than any other breed we’ve had – so we sold them in favor of more productive breeds.
The only truly Norwegian chicken, the Jaerhon or Jaerhons is a small autosexing breed that lays large white eggs. They are active foragers and prefer to free range. We have two lines – one from Ideal Poultry and one from a private breeder who imported her birds directly from her family’s hometown in Norway back when it was legal. Chicks need a bit more TLC and are more fragile than other breeds – we are working towards increasing hardiness.
We loved these tiny birds SO much, but just couldn’t handle how fragile they are as chicks. And they had a LOT of trouble with frostbite, even with fully enclosed coops – they kept wanting to sleep and stand outside in the snow and would get depressed locked inside.
The preferred egg-layer of Julia Child (and James Bond), Black Copper Marans are a French breed famous for their chocolate-colored eggs. We select for both SOP and egg color here, with SOP having the edge. Egg color varies from season to season, but if one of our hens lays lighter than a 4 on the color scale more than once, we pull her from our breeding pen.
We tried a few different lines and had the same problem with each – most of the roosters were giant jerks! They’re the only breed that has regularly had roosters attack us. There were a few nice ones in the mix, but we’re over it. We adored the hens, though! We kept a few from Skip Bittner’s line to use in our Olive egger pens. They have gorgeous conformation, although their egg color is lighter than most people expect from Marans.
We were very excited to find our Welsummers – they come from an autosexing line and we are working to strengthen that feature. A Dutch breed, they are friendly and great foragers. They lay gorgeous speckled dark brown eggs – some even darker than our Marans! We breed more for SOP than egg color with this line because we want to keep our beloved autosexing trait. It’s so convenient! Our stock came from Deer Run Farm, who purchased the line from Will Morrow & Kent Ozkum at Whitmore Farm when they retired in 2017.
Our Welsummer roosters have consistently been among our favorites – they’re all so calm, keep other roos in line, and really look after their females. The females are more flighty – not totally feral, but they like to do their own thing. We love them and hope to get more one day, but unfortunately had to downsize due to companywide salary cuts at both of Jess’ jobs.
We have a mix of Wheaten, Blue Wheaten, and Splash Wheaten chickens and they will produce any of those colors. One pen started with genetics from Rachel Heldermon and the other from Brad Hensen. As our starter group of Wheatens from two lines grew, we removed two that had feather stubble on their legs, two whose combs were too large, one that didn’t have a high enough tail angle, and three that didn’t have beards.
We loved our Wheaten Ameraucanas and hope to get them again one day – we had to downsize due to companywide salary cuts at both of Jess’ jobs, and had to decide between the Wheatens and the Self-Blues/Blacks that we’ve been working with longer. We chose to keep the latter, only because their eggs are a tiny bit more vibrant.
Originating in Canada, Chanteclers are THE chickens for northern climates – they’re cushion-combed and have tight feathering for severe winter weather, are sweet as can be, love to free range, lay a ton of large brown eggs, and roosters grow to about 9lbs for those who have a freezer camp. We started out with the Partridge variety and love them so much that we added Buff! Our Buff Chanteclers came straight from the aaaamazing Mike Gilbert, who keeps absolutely stunning birds.
Parting with these guys physically hurt – we badly wanted to keep them, but had to downsize due to companywide salary cuts at both of Jess’ job. We sold them to a local farm and hope to buy more from her one day! They lay much better than the Partridge, but their eggs are almost identical to our Buckeyes and we kept mixing them up, so we picked them over others to part with.
Bourbon Red Turkeys are generally docile and curious, and they’re also great foragers when allowed to free range! With light-colored pin feathers, they make a clean-looking and tasty meal. The biggest perk is that, unlike modern commercial turkeys, the heritage breeds can all reproduce without artificial insemination. During breeding season, we have hatching eggs, poults, hens, and toms from an APA standard line available.
Selling these guys was rough, but we couldn’t find a vet willing to come draw blood for our NPIP testing while HPAI is still around. Their testing requirement is more complex and more expensive than it is for other poultry breeds, which just need a swab and small drop of blood. Since we couldn’t test them, we could only sell in-state and would have had to house them far away from our other birds, which just isn’t feasible at this time.
We liked the female Muscovy, but the males were giant sex fiends and kept going after ALL the other birds. After they killed a couple favorite females and hurt one of our geese, we had enough. The girls also regularly flew over our fencing and straight into our dogs who, although trained, can’t resist a meal that yeets itself straight at their faces. Their major pro was that they were our quietest birds. We hear they taste amazing, but never got a chance to try them. The dogs sure seemed to enjoy them, though!
Originating in New York, Cayuga are considered one of the hardiest domestic ducks, especially in harsh winter climates! They were the #1 breed used for meat in the US before the Pekin took over and are also famous for their eggs, which start out black and lighten over the laying season, like a printer running out of ink. Our line originated from Pete Dempsey and Master Breeder Laura Kershaw.
We liked the Cayuga – they and their eggs were both gorgeous! We only had 5 and they weren’t as friendly as the Welsh Harlequins, though, so we sent them on their way.
Critically endangered in the US, this is one of the oldest goose breeds in the world! In Roman mythology, they were the Goddess Juno’s sacred animal, and they are historically credited with saving the city during the invasion of the Gauls. Jess was a Classics major, so she is geeking out and we are incredibly excited to have started our flock from APA Grand Master Exhibitor Nate Rynish!
We’ve gone back and forth a LOT about selling our Romans, but decided to go through with it because we want to use their pen for another Pilgrim group. We’ll probably get more later! We love that they’re quieter than the Pilgrims are, and the males are less overprotective during mating season. The Pilgrims are just so much more curious and outgoing when it’s not mating season, though.
A few of the yearlings are finally starting to look a little bit less derpy 🙌
… definitely not all of them yet, though 😅
May 13
It’s officially spring! We caught our first non-pet basement snake of the season, checking out our newly hatched chicks 😅
#snake #gartersnake #rurallife #farmlife
May 11
Every year, Ken falls hard for one single baby goat - this year, the honor goes to Tanwen, Avalon & Smoothie’s teeny doeling 😍
#goats #babygoats #goatkids #goatlife #dairygoats #bottlebabygoats #mininubian #mininubians
May 11
It’s like a daily Easter egg (and chicken) hunt over here 😅
#chickens #heritagebreeds #rarebreedchickens #broodyhen #chanteclerchicken #partridgechantecler #backyardflock
May 11
We FINALLY got somewhat decent pics of Honey’s udder! That blonde roan coat of hers does not work well with our LED milk parlor lighting, and her udder always looks a zillion times lower and sadder than it really is.
May 10
Swiftie says, “Meh?!”
We’re starting the agonizing process of sorting through our adults & yearlings to make space for toooo many keeper kids!
So far, we’re listing a bunch of Mini Nubians of all ages & both genders, as well as a super nice BUT half-horned 2yo Oberhasli buck.
We’ve still got a few Mini Nubian and Ober bottle babies up for grabs, too, and will tryyyy to get updated pics this weekend!
May 9
Some of our does need a bunch of extras added to their feed to regain condition after kidding, but then there’s our bestie Honey here - she popped out triplets and still looks like a bulldog!
May 7
Tell us about your big bale feeders for goats! Our first attempt lasted for about a week before these crazies broke it down 😅
#goats #dairygoats #goatlife #hay
May 6
The good news is, our last Welsummer rooster is still fertile! The bad news is, he and his hen have a super low hatch rate going on. This is the only chick out of 2 dozen eggs we incubated. SO we can tentatively offer small groups of chicks this year, but sorry, no hatching eggs!
Our group originally came from Deer Run farm a few years ago. Their eggs have speckles, but they’re also dark - even darker than our Marans eggs were! Which wasn’t saying a ton, they were around 4-6 on the Marans egg color chart.
#welsummerchicken #chickens #heritagebreed #hatchingeggs
May 5
We’ve got our little Boomerang back from her unfortunate situation and she’s definitely thinner and her voice is hoarse from crying, but she’s happily eating hay and drinking a ton of water now. We’ve got her in quarantine while we work out a really nice pet home for her, with someone more experienced with goats!
#goats #petgoats #mininubian #hopefulhappyending
May 4
Okay, gather ‘round the milk can, it’s time for real talk after some drama today!
We’re touchy and exhausted after driving 10+ hours and spending $2500 last week to try to save the life of a doeling we had planned to sell for maybe $250, and then driving another 5 hours crazy late last night for her necropsy.
We will fight to the death to provide the critters we raise the best lives and/or endings that we can.
The drama today involved a different doeling. This is being resolved now, thanks to the help of some very kind folks who helped to restore our faith in humanity, so we deleted it.
BUT this is a friendly reminder: if you purchase a goat from us and it doesn’t work out, please let us know and give us the chance to buy them back - the right of first refusal/buyback is in the Terms of Sale that we provide with each non-market goat. By buying anything from us, you are agreeing to our terms that can be found on our site & our OpenHerd profile.
We don’t guarantee that we’ll always be able to take a goat back, but we’ll try! Especially if it has only been a couple days and if they’re still in quarantine.
Sorry, we unfortunately can’t do the same with poultry - certain goat diseases are scary, but most bird ones are way, way worse, and we can’t risk our flocks like that.
May 1
We finally broke down and bought a Reolink so that we can stare at the goat kids remotely, without worrying about draining batteries like we did with Arlo. Our Arlo cameras are still awesome in places without electricity, though!
#securitycamera #reolink #goats #babygoats #goatlife
Apr 29
Despite everyone’s best efforts and last weekend’s extended stay at UW Madison, Raindrop’s poor doeling just couldn’t pull through whatever was going on with her. RIP Thru the Rain, aka “Pants” 😭
Apr 27
Two blue-eyed doelings for Green Gables Amazing Black Petunia and Mosaic’s Smooth Criminal *B!
One has dark brown moonspots that will most likely lighten over time and the other is almost solid black. It looks like both might be polled.
2025 Tally So Far: 16 Bucks, 19 does!
Just one doe left to kid in a couple weeks - Windscape JB Last Call!
Apr 26
Everyone is all, “spots, spots, spots!” But Honey & Denarius’ little chocolate girl sure is cute 😍
#goats #dairygoats #mininubian #goatkid #babygoat
Apr 25
Seriously though, baby geese are THE best! At least until they learn how fun it is to eat hair 😅
Apr 24
It’s hard to tell in this pic, but this right here is something we’ve waited 2 years for - two pipped Pilgrim Goose eggs! Most years, we grab and incubate all eggs, but last year, we let the geese try to hatch their own, and both groups picked terrible nesting spots & ended up with zero goslings.
Apologies to those on our goose eggs waitlists - now that it’s warm enough to safely ship, they stopped laying. But we’re incubating somewhere around 30 eggs, which will hopefully give us at least a few goslings! Pilgrims are notorious for fertility issues - ours usually have around a 75% hatch rate, which is considered really, really good 🤞🙏🤞
#hatchingeggs #geese #domesticgeese #waterfowl #pilgrimgeese #pilgrimgoose #heritagebreeds #rarebreeds
Apr 24
Our emergency that we mentioned last week was related to two doelings that we skipped posting yesterday - they both came down with digestive issues right as we humans were also fighting food poisoning or stomach flu or whatever it was!
Some people consider animals completely disposable and will immediately hard cull them if they prove to be a little complicated or cost more than a couple bucks to treat. We just can’t do that - maybe it’s from growing up with ultra-sensitive exotics and horses, but we feel that it’s our responsibility to do everything in our power to give every single critter in our care the best possible chance at life. If we didn’t, what kind of stewards would we be?
SO, after our regular vet (who is amazing btw) was at a loss, we packed up the doelings and drove the 3 hours down to UW Madison’s large animal hospital.
Over the past few days, they did a zillion different tests and scans and, as we all suspected/hoped, one doeling just had a bit of coccidiosis - there were zero oocysts on any of the fecals taken by us, our vet, or UW, and she was still acting off after courses of both Baycox and Albon, but she’s recovering now after ultra high doses of ponazuril.
Our other girl was more complicated - she had some sort of intestinal obstruction, but thankfully, it seems to have passed now! She’s still not fully better yet, but she’s getting there and both girls were cleared to come back home today 💜
Apr 22
We finally got updated pics of all but two of the older doelings! We’ll provide an update about those two later.
Some more or less cooperated, others not so much 😅 We’ll add deets to these pics on FB - some will be up for grabs!
#goats #dairygoats #kiddingseason #babygoats #goatkids #mininubian #oberhasligoats #guernseygoats
Apr 20
These two at 12 hours of age are already ridiculous troublemakers, trying their best to jailbreak and visit the doe herd 😅
We normally pull all kids at birth and heat treat/pasteurize everything, but we’ve got an unexpected emergency and can’t feed these babies as often as they need it today, so we’re letting Kirlia take care of them until we can step back in. Hopefully they’ll stimulate her to increase her production, too!
#goats #dairygoats #oberhasligoats #babygoats #babygoat
Apr 18