Three birds,
maybe four.

The tension in one line. The cutest, most unique bird on this whole page is the White Crested Polish, and it is also the only one you cannot buy as a guaranteed hen. Every plan below is a different answer to that.

What the default weighting says. Peninsula birds take the top five slots, because a guaranteed hen and a rare egg color together outweigh a single very cute face. Drag Guaranteed hen to zero and the Polish jumps to first. That is the whole argument on this page, and you can watch it happen.

Two Polish costs $20 and takes half your slots, and a quarter of the time you end up with two hens, which is a fine outcome since a pair raised together look after each other. A quarter of the time you end up with none. Oakland allows hens and not roosters, so a cockerel means a rehome around sixteen to twenty weeks, before he starts crowing.

The hedge worth knowing. The Cream Legbar is crested too. Smaller crest than a Polish, but the same jaunty look, and it is auto sexing so you know it is a pullet at hatch. If you take the Legbar, a bad Polish outcome does not leave you with no crested bird at all.

The other risk. A crested bird in a flock of eleven non-crested birds is the classic head-pecking target, and a bad case can blind one. Two Polish raised together helps because they have each other. Go slowly at integration, watch the crest, and trim the feathers around the eyes if they are getting hit.

Silverudd's Blue young hens. Wikimedia Commons.

1Silverudd's Blue Peninsula

1 on the Aug 22 list · DNA sexed female · listed by the store as Silverrudd's Blue

Cute Unique Egg

Mint green, sometimes speckled

Swedish breed developed by Martin Silverudd in the 1980s, also sold as Isbar. Slate blue plumage with a sheen, small and efficient, around 200 mint green eggs a year. Genuinely rare in the United States. Calm, quiet, strong forager.

Tops the default ranking on rarity plus a brand new egg color plus certainty. Only one was available last week, so it is a call-ahead bird rather than a plan bird.

Adult Cream Legbar hen. Wikimedia Commons.

2Cream Legbar Peninsula

2 on the Aug 22 list · auto sexing, hens certain at hatch

Cute Unique Egg

Sky blue

British breed from the 1930s, cream and silver with fine barring and a small backward swept crest. Auto sexing means chicks are visibly different by sex the day they hatch. Around 200 sky blue eggs a year, active forager, a little flighty.

The single most useful bird in the plan. A bluer egg than your Ameraucana gives, a crest that hedges the Polish bet, and a guaranteed hen. In every plan I would actually run.

Marans hen, black with copper hackle. Wikimedia Commons.

3French Black Copper Maran Peninsula

7 on the Aug 22 list · DNA sexed female · $40, per your call with the store

Cute Unique Egg

Deep chocolate, the darkest there is

The prestige Marans. Black body with a copper hackle, lightly feathered shanks, calm and quiet. Around 180 eggs a year, and the color is why people keep them: a genuinely dark chocolate brown that stops people mid sentence when they open the carton.

The biggest single jump your egg basket can make. Handsome rather than cute, which is the only reason it is not first. Seven were available, so this is the Peninsula bird most likely to still be there.

Bielefelder hens. Wikimedia Commons.

4Bielefelder Peninsula

1 on the Aug 22 list · auto sexing

Cute Unique Egg

Large brown, slight pink tint

German breed from the 1970s, big and unhurried, hens run 7 to 8 pounds in a warm partridge pattern called crele. Auto sexing at hatch. Famously the calmest bird in most flocks, tolerant of handling, and a reliable winter layer at around 230 eggs a year.

The gentle giant with a guarantee attached. If you want the Brahma feeling without the coin flip, this is it. Loses to the top three only on egg color.

Easter Egger pullet. Olive Eggers are crossbreds with no fixed appearance, so this is representative rather than exact. Wikimedia Commons.

5Olive Egger Peninsula

1 on the Aug 22 list · DNA sexed female

Cute Unique Egg

Olive green

Not a breed, a cross. A blue egg parent over a dark brown egg parent, and the brown pigment washes over the blue shell to make olive. Because it is a cross, no two look alike and the shade varies bird to bird. Hardy, good tempered, around 180 eggs a year.

Great egg, ordinary bird. Ranks below the Silverudd because the mint green is rarer and the Swedish bird is a more interesting animal for the same money.

White Crested Black Polish hen. Wikimedia Commons.

6White Crested Polish Oasis

Available Oct 2 · unsexed · $10 · first on cuteness, tenth on certainty

Cute Unique Egg

Small to medium white

A pompom of white feathers over a dark body, docile and curious, about 150 small white eggs a year. The only bird on this page that scores five on both cuteness and uniqueness, and the only one you cannot buy as a hen. The crest blocks upward vision, which is why they get pecked and why they need perches with clear approaches.

Sixth by the numbers, first by the two levers you actually named. The model penalizes it for the coin flip; you can decide that ten dollars makes the coin flip cheap. That is a taste call and the model does not get a vote.

Ameraucana pullet, silver variety. No lavender photo exists on Commons, so this shows the breed type rather than the color. Wikimedia Commons.

7Lavender Ameraucana Peninsula

7 on the Aug 22 list · DNA sexed female

Cute Unique Egg

Blue

Same breed as your spotted bird, different color variety. Lavender is a soft dove gray held all over, with the muff and beard and pea comb the breed is known for. Around 180 blue eggs a year, friendly, cold hardy. The face is genuinely one of the cutest in the hobby.

Loses only because it repeats a color you have. If the Cream Legbar is gone on Saturday, this is the substitute, and you keep the blue egg while losing the crest.

Brahma. Wikimedia Commons.

8Buff Brahma Oasis

Available Oct 2 · unsexed · $10

Cute Unique Egg

Medium brown

Feathered legs and feet, small pea comb, up to 10 pounds. Extremely docile, handles cold, rarely flies. Slow to mature at around seven months, then steady right through winter when the others stop. The feathered feet are the cutest thing on this page after the Polish crest.

Second on cuteness and it costs ten dollars, but with only three or four slots it is hard to justify a coin flip that adds no egg color. If a slot opens up, this is the first bird back in.

Welsummer hen. Wikimedia Commons.

9Welsummer Oasis

Available Oct 16, the final chick day · unsexed · $10

Cute Unique Egg

Terracotta with dark speckles

Dutch heritage breed, salmon breast with fine gold penciling, around 160 eggs a year. Deep orange brown eggs with dark speckles, and the speckling is unlike anything else on this page.

Your backstop. If both Polish turn out to be cockerels, Oct 16 is the last chick day of the season and this is the bird to take.

Cuckoo Marans. Wikimedia Commons.

10Cuckoo Marans Oasis

Available Oct 16 · unsexed · $10 · the cheap route to a dark egg

Cute Unique Egg

Chocolate brown, dark but not the darkest

Same dark egg family as the French Black Copper, one shade lighter and a quarter of the price. The cuckoo pattern looks close to your Barred Rock but with clean pinkish legs and a stockier build. Around 180 to 220 eggs a year, quiet and easy.

Last only because it looks like a bird you already own. Purely on eggs per dollar it beats the $40 Maran, and if the cost lever matters more than I have weighted it, drag that slider up and watch this climb.

Off the list

Broody hen versus brooder

A broody hen will adopt day old chicks if you slip them under her after dark. She has to actually be broody: sitting flat and tight, breast plucked, hissing or growling when you reach under her. Chicks need to be under five days old. She will raise two to four comfortably, keeps them warm, teaches them to scratch and dust bathe, and defends them, which means they grow up inside the flock instead of being introduced to it later.

Buying from two hatcheries

Mixing birds from two sources is the one new risk this plan introduces. Both hatcheries vaccinate for Marek's, which is the main thing you want. The vaccine is leaky though, meaning a vaccinated bird can carry and shed field virus without ever looking sick, so two vaccinated flocks meeting is not automatically zero risk. Respiratory disease travels the same way, mycoplasma and infectious bronchitis in particular.

This plan quarantines itself. The Peninsula pair lives at your house under the Silkie and the Polish live at your friend's until Nov 13, so the two sources never share air for the first ten weeks, longer than any quarantine anyone would recommend. Keep it that way. If a schedule change ever puts both batches under one roof, hold them apart for at least two weeks and watch for sneezing, bubbly eyes, or a bird sitting apart from the others.

How far apart two batches can be

• Same day. One brooder from day one, nothing to manage.
• Two weeks apart. Separate brooders for the first week or two, then combine once the younger group is wing feathered and can dodge. Fully merged by five or six weeks. A wire divider so they can see each other speeds it up.
• Four to five weeks apart. Separate the whole time. A six week old is three to four times the weight of a two week old and will push them off food and water. This is the Aug 29 to Oct 2 gap, which is exactly why the two batches live in two different houses.
• Into your existing flock. Wait until the new birds are close to full size, around fourteen to sixteen weeks. Look but do not touch for a week behind a wire divider inside the run, then merge at dusk with extra feeders and hiding spots for the first two weeks.

Roost space

The rule is 10 to 12 inches of roost bar per standard bird.

If you are short, add a second bar parallel to the first, 12 inches higher and 12 inches back, so birds can step up without landing on each other. A Brahma or Bielefelder is heavy and a poor flyer, so keep at least one bar low, around 18 inches off the floor.