Breed Selection – the search for the perfect backyard chicken breeds

I love to research, and equally as much, I love to share my findings. So here goes…

There are more chickens breeds than you could ever imagine. They come in different sizes, different shapes and different colors, laying various sized and colored eggs with great range in temperaments and preferences.

What follows are points I feel are important for anyone considering raising a micro-flock in an urban backyard for the first time.

Suited for an urban backyard setting
That means, while we will try to let them free range in our yard when we can, they will mostly be confined to a fixed run and coop. Some breeds need a lot of room to roam, while others are happy in smaller spaces. And we want happy chickens even though we have a small space!  We will naturally try to make their small space as wonderful as possible.

Another very important trait is that they tend to be quiet. Not just for us, but for our neighbors. We live very close to our neighbors and do not want to make any enemies. That brings me to another point, our town doesn’t allow roosters. I believe mainly due to the fact that they crow, which could be a nuisance. Since you do not need a rooster to get eggs, we are totally happy with an all girl flock. Plus, roosters, regardless of breed can be more aggressive as they try to protect their hens. Not something we want around our toddler.

Good pets and flock mates (personality)
Some breeds of chickens are described as docile and friendly, both very important traits for backyard chickens who, like ours, will also be considered pets and will be around young children. From reading and asking around, some of the friendliest breeds are Orpingtons, Barred Rocks.

I had been thinking about getting a variety of Wyandotte but had read that while generally nice, they can sometimes be aggressive, and well, sometimes just isn’t acceptable at this stage for us. Perhaps when our daughter is older and we’re more experienced we could try one since they are beautiful and I have heard from some that have not had any issues.

If you are going to have a flock of a variety of breeds, you should also consider how they will get along with each other. We avoided any breeds that tend to be dominant. With a mixed breed flock I don’t want any more compliant birds getting dominated too much or there to be fights.

Traits you want are quiet, calm, friendly, easily handled and docile. Traits you probably want to avoid are flighty, aggressive, noisy, wild, does not bear confinement well, restless.

Another consideration is broodiness. That describes the chicken’s tendency to want to sit on eggs until they hatch, they also tend to be good mothers. When you only want eggs (have no rooster and will not hatch your own eggs) then you probably do not want a very broody hen. When a hen goes broody she stops laying new eggs and can stay in the nest for up to 3 weeks if you do not intervene. Thus, a breed that is seldom broody is desirable in our case.

Even so, we ended up with 3 breeds that have an “average” broodiness score and 1 that has a frequent one, the Orpingtons. Everyone said we had to have an Orpington, that they have the best personalities. When we had an opportunity to reserve a rare Blue Orpington we couldn’t resist despite broodiness. A good example of why you have to have a list of traits that are must haves, traits that are must avoid and those that are flexible. All trade-offs.

Decent layers of large eggs
Once you start reading about breeds you learn they are categorized into Laying Breeds, Meat Breeds or Dual Purpose. Laying breeds are ones that tend to be very consistent layers with high quantities. Meat breeds are, well, good for eating typically because they put weight on well. Then there are those that fall in both camps, the dual purpose birds. They won’t be the highest producers of the best birds for meat but they will middle of the road for both. We don’t intend to eat our chickens but we would like enough eggs to feed our small family plus some extra for friends. So we focused on breeds that would give us a descent amount of eggs, around 140-200 per year during their peak years sounded good to us.

Egg size may be a good thing to consider too. Since most recipes call for large eggs, and it what we have historically purchased, I figured if possible, it’d be best to get chickens that would also give us large eggs. Though, one that produce medium to large were also fine for us. There are a number of smaller birds that would make nice backyard chickens, but their eggs are smaller too.

Now is a good time to mention that most breeds tend to lay white and brown eggs like you see at the grocery store. However, there are some breeds that will offer you tasty eggs and intriguing colors! Ameraucanas and Araucanas, lay blue eggs, Easter Eggers (Ameraucanas breed with another breed) lay blue/green eggs and Marans lay chocolate brown eggs (Black Copper Marans specifically lay the darkest brown eggs). Once I discovered this I had to have a Marans and a blue/green egg layer in our flock!

Heritage
As with many things nowadays there are many wonderful chicken breeds that are in need of preservation. Funnily enough, heritage breeds tend to be better for small scale chicken farming anyway. I encourage you to seek out heritage breeds that meet your needs in terms of character, egg laying, etc., especially those that have a critical or endangered status. We almost got a Mottled Java but timing didn’t work out for us. You can learn more about the definition of Heritage, and what status different breeds have on the American Livestock Breeds Conservatory. 

Suited for the local climate
You will want to take into consideration your temperature extremes. How hot will it get and conversely, how cold will it get? Will your chickens be outside year round? Or do you have an indoor location for them when it gets really cold? Or could you consider a heated coop? We’re in Silicon Valley and our birds will be housed outside year round. We are actually lucky to live in a rather moderate area of the country so most breeds would do well here. However, I did lean toward breeds that were also cold hardy as there is always a chance we’d decide to move back to the Northeast, and these gals will be family and thus, I presume would move with us!

Beauty and brains
There are some really gorgeous chicken breeds out there and some amazing color variations. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so I suggest looking online, visiting local resources (breeders, hobbyists willing to show you their flocks) and this book, Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds. It has great photos and data points. You will have fun flipping through it. Our currently has a number of Post-it Flags marking breeds we like.

However, it is more important that your chicken have the right temperament for your family than be the prettiest you have ever seen. So don’t be swayed by looks alone, you will want to find breeds that meet your criteria based on all of the previous points. And then why not pick the ones you think are the cutest, or most distinguished or quirky?

Chickens will not win any awards in the brains department, but from my research I have gotten a sense that some are a bit smarter than others. And in this intellectual household, we want the smart ones! Someone mentioned that Barred Plymouth Rocks are smart, note they are one of our 4 selected breeds. I have heard many great things about Cochins, except that they are not the brightest chickens, and so that was enough to not have them on our possibilities list. But people do love them regardless. With so many breeds to pick from, you come up with your own ways to narrow the list down to your top choices.

Our breed choices
We have decided that 4 is the magic number for us for flock for now. It was very very hard to narrow it down to just 4 breeds! But here they are:

• Ameraucana (Easter Egger)
  • does well with confinement, great friendly personality, lays amazing medium to large blue or blue/green eggs, is suited for our climate and has a very unique look and a large variation in feather colors.
• Barred Plymouth Rock
  • does well with confinement, friendly and smart, a good layer of large brown eggs, suited for our climate, and very pretty. Heritage with a “Recovering” status.
• Black Copper Marans
  • does well with confinement, friendly, lays the darkest chocolate brown eggs, suited for our climate, lovely black feathers with a bit of copper. Native to France, not very common in the US.
• Blue Orpington
  • does will with confinement, friendly, docile, quirky, lays large brown eggs (often through the winter), suited for our climate, and Blue colored birds are rare and so pretty. Heritage with a “Recovering” status.

Other breeds we considered:

• Australop
• Conservation status: Recovering
• Very good layer of large brown eggs (250/year), great personalities for backyard flocks
• Mottled Java
• Conservation status: Threatened
• Pretty birds, that I have been told are fairly quiet, very hardy and do well in backyard flocks. The second oldest breed in the US!
• Brahma
• Conservation status: Watch
• Gorgeous birds, we especially like the buff and light colored ones. Calm and docile, one book I read described them as the Buddha’s of the chicken world. They are very heavy, with hens coming in around 9lbs. They have feathered feet which add to their looks and uniqueness but wouldn’t be good in very wet conditions.
• Welsummer
• Conservation status: Not listed.
• These lay medium to large dark brown eggs (though not as dark as Marans) at a rate of about 150-200 per year. They are described as intelligent and friendly. I heard from one person that they can be noisier than some breeds, so that could be a concern if you have neighbors near by.
• Wyandotte
• Conservation Status: Recovering
• Very pretty birds that lay large brown eggs  at a rate of about 200 per year. They are calm and docile, though I have read they can be dominant and sometimes aggressive, so we took them off our consideration list for our mixed breed flock, especially since we have a young child. 

Keep availability in mind
It can sometimes be difficult to find the exact breeds you want at the same time, especially with harder to find breeds or colors, so it may be good to have a few alternatives. Ideally, you’ll want to get all of your chicks at the same time at the same age so they’ll integrate well. I have been told that it is possible to integrate chicks that are slightly different in age, but 2 weeks at the most. Once chickens are older, it can be easier to integrate different aged chickens but if you do that you’ll want to sure to bring in no less than 2 at a time so that the new ones have a buddy should it take a while to be accepted by the chickens you already have. Thus…all the more reason to try to get all your chicks at the same age and at the same time if possible but that may require some flexibility and/or leg work.

 

Good resources for your own research on breeds and urban chicken farming:

• Online: Backyard Chickens – a great online resource with details on breeds, a learning center and a wonderful community of chicken enthusiasts.
• Book: Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds – this will remain a fun coffee table book even when you’re done picking your breeds
• Book: Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens
• Book: City Chicks: Keeping Micro-flocks of Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-recyclers, and Local Food Producers
• Book: Chick Days: Chick Days, An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens from Hatching to Laying – great photos, easy to follow guide to starting a backyard flock
• Join a local backyard chicken group.