Choosing Your Chickens

There are many different breeds of chicken to choose between, from tiny bantams that fit in the palm of your hand and would be fantastic for the urban chicken keeper to the really large breeds like Jersey Giants and cochin. The general temperament of the different breeds varies so it is best to carefully research to find the breed which best fits your situation.

Light Breeds

These are pure bred chickens which tend to be good egg layers and not be prone to going broody. The light breeds do have a reputation for being flighty, however some breeds are more prone to this than others. Leghorns, Silkies, Araucana and Friesian belong in this category of chickens.

Heavy Breeds

These were often originally bred as table birds. Heavy breeds include the famed Ixworth, Wyandotte and sussex which are dual purpose birds (surplus cockerels good for the table and decent laying hens) They usually lay slightly fewer eggs than the light breeds but are generally very friendly and calm birds, making good pets for children. The largest chickens like Jersey Giants and cochins belong in the heavy group

Heavy breeds generally make good broodies and breeds like the wyandotte are reliable mothers and will also lay a decent number of eggs.

Bantams

Bantams can be grouped into two groups- the true bantams which do not have a large fowl equivalent for example pekins, dutch and sebrights and those which do have a large fowl equivalent like the wyandotte bantam, poland bantam and Buff Plymouth Rock Bantams, Bantams are a great choice if space is limited as they are small. Bantams lay smaller eggs than their large fowl equivalent- from half the size to a third of the size. Children tend to love the bantam eggs and they are great in cakes (use 2 in place of 1) as they have a good percentage of yolk to white.

Hybrid Chickens

Hybrid chickens were developed around the time of the second world war, when farming became more industrialised with the advent of battery farming and the broiler industry. Many hybrid chickens were originally bred to cope well with intensive farming but more recently, hybrids have been developed to cope with free ranging situations.

Colours

Within many chicken breeds there is often a myriad of colours to choose between in that breed. If, for example you decide to keep pekin bantams there are many standard and non standard colours to choose between, including white, black, blue, lavender, millefleur, black mottled, blue mottled, red, buff, salmon, columbian, silver partridge and gold partridge with more colours being developed all the time! Some people, myself included keep a mix of colours of a breed to add variety- We enjoy hatching our mixed dutch bantams as it is always a surprise to see the interesting colours and patterns as the youngsters feather up.

Coloured Eggs

Some chickens both hybrid and pure breed have been bred to lay unusually coloured eggs e.g. araucana and cream legbar (blue eggs), maran (deep brown eggs) and campines and leghorns (white).

Hard Feather/ Soft Feather

Within the heavy and light breed system, chickens are further categorised into hard feather or soft feather breeds. Hard Feathered birds have feathering that is not fluffy and lies close to the skin. Game breeds like the Old English Game are hard feathered. Soft Feathered breeds are more numerous and include Wyandottes, Marans, Jersey Giants and Rhode Island Reds.

We currently keep twelve different pure breeds of chicken, each of which have their own temperament and breed traits. For more information on the breeds we keep please feel free to contact us to see if we keep a bird which suits your requirements.

There are some fantastic books available, detailing the many breeds of chicken and their origins or try www.poultrykeeper.com where there are detailed descriptions and photographs of many of the different breeds of chickens.