[calamityjane77]

Hi all my girls arrived today and have taken themselves off to bed. And I am already madly in love with each and eberyone of them!! We have 4 different breeds and I just wondered if any of them had any particular character traits.
Maisie is a Calder Ranger
Blossom is Speckeldy
Cassie is a Magpie Ranger
Penny is a Rhode rock.

thanks for any help

[hillfooter]

These are all hybrid layer hens ie female crosses between pure breeds bred to lay and they will be breeder specific.  So they may not have specific standarised characteristics other than they will have been bred to lay a lot of eggs.  Different breeders of hybrids produce these crosses because they believe they have specific qualities which are marketable but they aren't standarised.  Pure breeds are standardised and breed to type ie there's a cock and a hen who will breed to type.  Hybrids themselves don't breed to type (in fact you won't find such a bird as for example a Ranger or Speckledy Cock) and will produce offspring which will have varying qualities of the pure breeds from which they were bred.

So the short answer to your question is these birds and their temperments will be breeder specific.

Having said this some of these are widespread crosses produced by many breeders though not necessarily identical.  Speckledys are developed from Marans and produce mid to dark brown eggs, Calder Rangers are the archetype farmyard ginger brown layers who lay large tinted - mid brown eggs, and I guess a Rhode Rock is a Rhode Island Red cross with a Plymouth Rock.  No idea what a Magpie Ranger is though I doubt it's a cross between a Magpie so I guess it refers to the plumage markings.  Beyond that I couldn't define their characteristics.

One of the main reasons to keep pure breeds is that they are comparable across breaders and can be judged against defined breed characteristiscs which are standardised by breed clubs.  Hence my Vorwerks could be comparable to Joe Bloggs Vorwerks and judged against defined breed characteristics.  Belonging to a breed club provides a social context to chicken keeping through showing.  This is similar to pedigree and mongrel dogs (or cats).  You won't find any mongrels at Crufts.  No such infrastructure exists for hybrid hens and I always say if you want to make a hobby out of poultry keeping incuding breeding with a social element keep  pure breeds but if you just want eggs and hens for your own amusement keep hybrids.

HF