Polish Chickens - love them or hate them

[victorias poultry]

Would love to hear from you all about what you think about polish chickens........

What do you love about them? What do you dislike about them?
What made you have Polish hens?
What colours of polish do you have?
Are there any drawbacks from having polish?

Will get the ball rolling:

I love polish as they are so friendly, mine don;t like to be held but will perch or sit on your hand / shoulder all day. I love their head feathers, they hear you and come running up to have a nose. Fell in love with them when I first saw them and knew I just had to have some. I have polish in Gold Laced and Chamois in both plain and frizzle.
Drawbacks - due to their head feathers they can get mites in their heads.

 

[Davidd]

Hi Sue, I keep Polands ( they are called polands not polish and have nothing to do with Poland either
I only keep large fowl white crested blacks and blues. Plain feathered, but have a couple of self black frizzle at the moment. I had them as a child ( a long time ago ) The main drawbacks are they need to be kept dry and also they can feather peck at moulting time - especially the white crested ones- i have to keep them all separate at this time of year until their crests are moulted out otherwise they peck each others heads- they also take a lot of work to keep in good condition. Lice/mites etc can be a problem in their crests-as can breeding from birds with too large a crest- some are virtually totoally blind and would need their crests trimming to be able to see properly Having said that, they can become very tame as they cant see you coming 07 so make good "pets"
regards, David

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Sue

I've only had my Polands not Polish (lol) for a few months, but i love them to bits.
They already come running to me every time they see me they jump up on my knee and eat meal worms from my hand. When i come home from work they sit at the gate and wait for me, my wife say's it's ever so funny and you can set your clock by them, at 4.30 everyday they come across the garden and sit at the gate waiting and stay there till i come in.
I have a black & white crested cock, a blue & white frizzle hen, a silver laced frizzle hen and i'm currently waiting for a creole smooth hen to be dropped of when ready.
And i love em.
Martin

 

[pebojuno]

I actually used to think that polands looked quite grim- especially the frizzles- I didn't like them at all! We went to an auction to fill an incubator and my husband bid on 6 chamois poland eggs- despite me telling him they were horrible looking and I didn't want them- I liked chickens which looked like chickens if you know what I mean!

One (ugly!) chick hatched and Bobble was sooooo friendly, daft and generally hilarious that she was quickly our favourite- she grew up with large white orpingtons, legbars and pekins and I'm pretty sure they thought she was from another planet but they were all fine together.

We wanted more so hatched another lot of eggs and had one more girl and some boys but the girl was a weak one from the beginning and we had to cull her a few months ago as she was going downhill- We decided on more frizzle hens but I couldn't find any near me so we made an 8 hour round trip to get 3 11.

I now have a group of chamois poland bantams- Bobble, Andy the cockerel, Toil and Trouble (one of the hens we bought in died) and lots of growers of which I am hoping to keep a couple of girls for a future breeding group. I also have one large white crested black from David- had some more but they were all boys

Drawbacks - They are like marmite- people do either love them or hate them! We haven't had trouble with mites (yet!) but the three we bought in had been feather pecking each other and their crests are only starting to re-grow now - they look pretty ugly bald! The frizzles are also really hard to sex, as they are bearded so don't have visible wattles.

Personality wise they are hard to beat though

 

[Anonymous]

Love them...had 3 little chicks i brought from local livestock market sadly lost them all within a week...will be getting some more as soon as i find some near devon!!! begining to think im the only chicken keeper down here :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

LOVE THEM! I first saw them at Greenacres Animal Park near Harwarden, before we started to keep chickens. I think they are lovely to look at, are so friendly and make great pets. We got our first Polish in June and currently have 3. I have to admit now to other readers that they all came from Victorias Poultry! 2 hatching eggs which turned out to be a chamois pullet (Sunny) and gold laced cockerel (Bud) and one POL chamois (Babs).
Unfortunately I found Lice on Babs this week everyone has been dosed up as a precaution. We haven't had any other problems (except for the 2 frizzle polish which came to an untimely death within a few days of me having them - gulp, sorry Sue!!). Would love to get some more in other colours next year!

 

[victorias poultry]

Has your cat learnt the difference between polish chicks and wild birds yet 07 Poland Killer :evil:
Glad they are all well..

 

[Castle Farm]

I feel really sorry for the poor creatures. Life can be difficult enough for a chicken without blinding it with feathers. As for Frizzled Polish there should be a law against breeding them.

 

[Timmo]

Love them! Kept them for a few years now. Our large fowl ones have nice crests but we always make sure we give them a trim now and then so they can see a bit more of whats going on. I think it's also really important to let them know your there before picking them up because they do get quite startled when someones hands grab them despite even realising there was anyone around!

They are definately one of the friendliest/cheekiest. Ours jump on the wheelbarrow for a ride and even will jump up into the car boot if you're not careful. Also 2 of the 4 hens come in the back door and lay in the dogs bed, only 2m from the kitchen, pretty efficient I think! Tend to find they are not too great at using nest boxes and lay just about anywhere but.

Our new run is fully roofed as they do get a bit soggy, for that reason we haven't kept many frizzles either.

 

[karlooben]

i want some but cant yet need to build another run first got the house for free already though its ethier a 8'4 or 6'4 or 8'6 shed could not quite hear on the phone appartently its in very good condition just ahs a leaky roof which can be fixed my farmer friend was told to dump it but he knew i wanted one so i am hving it sure as heck i can fix a leaky roof .