Friesian Chickens

entertaining and inquisitive - Krista, 20 January 2013

Purchased our fresian (Jess) at two days old she is very entertaining always looking for food, if we leave our back doors or windows open she along with our appenzeller (lilli) break in and raid our dogs bowl! They can fly extremely well but have never attempted to leave our garden. I would recommend this breed for adults and older childen but not suitable as a pet for young children, our ten year old daughter recently got a little to close and Jess pecked her eyelid. Jess came into lay in December at seven months old and lays approx five lovely white eggs a week.

Entertaining and Friendly - Jeff, 1 December 2012

These birds are. "Birds with a character". If you have ever owned any - you will be for ever attached to them. Although nimble on their feet and flightly, they show great intelligence and curiosity. They follow you around, fly up to the coops you are cleaning to see what you are up to and and are great to hand feed. They create very little mess in their coops, eat little and very fox friendly. By Fox friendly I mean - they can avoid the fox by flying out of their reach. I keep a few breed lines and let them all out together, the cockerels are like naughty boys playing together - no bickering at all - between hens or cockerels. They are quite vocal birds - so dont expect a cockerel to be quiet just because its small!

Trouble comes in threes - Denise, Berkshire, 18 November 2012

Never having kept chickens before I chose this breed as they attractive and not as big as some breeds. Every day is a delight with my posh chicks. They were a bit skittish at it first but were soon bribed with mealworms treats. They are not laying yet as they re only 16 weeks old to be honest I don't care if they don't. I can't wait to get home each day they are a great stress relief. As pets they are perfect, I have hours of fun watching them running around the garden and chasing the resident robin who is making he most free meals on offer.

Alert entertaining and sociable birds - Anabel, 19 July 2012

I ended up with a hatch of 7 boys and two girls last year! But try as I might could not source further birds to pair my boys off too or a unrelated husband for my girls. The boys were super fun and very entertaining, got on fine with my mixed flock of big hens but since no one wanted boys we had to hard cull and then managed to rehome two boys with some one who just wanted pretty, hen friendly cockerals with their big hens. So now since the breed seems stilted in this country I'm in the process of bringing in new strains from Holland to finally get new wives for my remaining boy and a husband for the girls. Along the way I'm bringing in a diferent colour in the bantam variety: The official weights for the breeds are : Rooster large: 1400 - 1600 gram hen large: 1200 - 1400 gram rooster bantam: 700 - 800 gram hen bantam: 600 - 700 gram

Friesian hen - Jan, 11 March 2012

I have one Friesian and two at 6 weeks old to join her. The oldest is among 14 large hens and holds her own well, able to get out of trouble when necessary. She can squeeze under the garden gate but once she is in the garden, she does not cause such destruction as her fellow hens. She is quite a wild little hen and definitely not tame, despite being handled frequently as a youngster. She started laying quite early, eggs slightly smaller than a small egg and pure white which she produces almost 6 days out of 7. I can recommend Friesians highly both as a decorative and as an egg producer but I would not say that she was suitable as a pet for children.