So now you know that you can have chickens the question is what breeds will suit you the best. There are hundreds of breeds in all shapes, colors, and sizes. From your story, book classic Rhode Island reds to the rare and exotic phoenix. There are giant, full size and bantam breeds. Some with feathers on their feet some are clean legged. If you are looking for eggs, what color eggs do you want, white, brown, blue, green, or rose? Remember it is the feed the chicken eats that determines the nutritional value of the egg not the color of the shell. Do you want friendly hens or independent hens that can fend for them? Do you have unique climate requirements? Cold winters, hot humid summers? Also are they pets or for show, like at a county or state fair? I will help answers these questions and more, plus to come a breed of the month profile to help in the selection of your hens.
Question#1 What is the purpose of your flock, meat, eggs or both, or neither?
For meat birds the most common breeds are Cornish or Cornish X, this single purpose bird has lots of meat and produces very few eggs.
If you are just looking for eggs then a leghorn is the chicken that is most often use for mass production for the stores. They lay lots of large white eggs.
For most people though a good duel purpose bird will work, even if you never plan on eating your hens. There are too of these breeds to list them all, my favorites are Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks. Both are friendly, cold hardy, heat tolerant breeds. My reds give me about an egg a day, it did not take them long to go from medium sized eggs to large or extra large eggs, and they are brown eggs. As for the Barreds I have heard good things but we will have to wait a few weeks for to find out for sure. I will keep you posted as they grow. For a more complete list go to www.backyardchickens.com and look at the breed pages, they also have a new breed selection tool to help.
The other classification of chickens is oramantal such as the Seabright or the Phoenix. There are small breeds that are too small for meat and their eggs are at best small. I still like them in my flock for the variety that they add.
The following questions and more to follow.
Question #2 What size?
Question #3 What personality do you want?
Question #4 To Brood or not to Brood?
Question #5 What colors do you want?
Question #4 To Brood or not to Brood?
Question #5 What colors do you want?
