Breed Considerations
Among the many considerations you must consider when deciding what breed to choose, these are the factors I felt were the most important:
Meat Production
If you plan to raise chickens for meat, you will want a breed that gains a lot of weight fast. Typically meat birds are culled (killed and frozen) at around
Cornish Game Hens are usually culled at 5 weeks, Broiler-Fryers like Cornish Cross chickens are culled at around 7-9 weeks, and dual-purpose chickens like Rhode Island Reds or Plymouth Rocks are usually killed after about 2 years, when their egg production starts to drop off.
Frying or broiling, you want to cull the chicken no later than 7-8 months for a decent size while still having tender meat.
Stewing/Braising: Older birds around 10 months to 1.5 years are fine for these methods of cooking.
Roosters raised for meat can be culled at 14 weeks if you want tenderness, or you can wait until they are 16 – 18 weeks for a good balance of size and tenderness.
Meat from egg-laying breeds may be tougher than that from meat birds, especially as they get older. In general, as birds age, their meat gets tougher. Tougher birds can be used for slower cooking styles like soups, stew, or pressure cookers, but you wouldn’t want to fry them.
Egg Production
Depending on the breed you choose, each chicken may lay anywhere from 80 – 320 eggs a year. Obviously, if your only concern is egg production, you would choose a “production” breed like the White Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, ISA Browns, or Australorps. For egg production you want to look at 2 main factors; how many eggs a year they lay, and how much food does it take to feed them. In general, a chicken that weighs less that can lay a large egg is what you are looking for. There are of course many other factors that I will cover below in the Breed considerations section. With those 2 factors in mind, there is a reason most of the eggs in the supermarket are white, they probably come from a White Leghorn. These are bred for their egg production, and smaller frame which means less food is required to feed them.
Egg Size
This tells you how large the average egg will be when they lay one. Most people want large eggs, but if you would rather have smaller eggs, there are breeds that lay small or medium eggs. Some people even raise Quail for eggs, and they are REALLY small. Egg size isn’t just about appearance. Keep in mind that when a recipe calls for an egg, they mean a large egg. So if you use smaller eggs, you may have to use 2 instead of one, or get creative if the amount of egg is critical. Also, it has been my experience that the smaller eggs tend to have a slightly thicker shell. This is not always the case, but keep it in mind. The thicker the shell, the harder it will be to crack it when it is time to eat it.
Egg Color
It sounds silly, but a lot of people get very excited about the color of their eggs. White, Brown, Tan, Blue, Green, Pink, and several other color variations are all possible including speckled. Only the outer pigment of the egg is colored. Just like humans, eggs are all the same colors on the inside. When I first started raising chickens, I didn’t care one bit about the color of the egg. I only cared about getting the best layers. Now, years later, I find myself wanting some green or blue eggers. Why? Mainly just because I want some variety in my flock. But also because I have found that if you plan to sell eggs, colors other than white or brown get people excited about buying from you rather than the grocery store. Also, if you have different breeds laying different colors, when they start to get older and fall of on their laying schedule, you can more easily see which breed isn’t laying much in your flock.
Bird Size
This tells you how heavy your bird will get when they mature. The more it weighs, the more it costs to feed it. Larger birds may also be able to protect themselves better against a predator than a smaller bird, or appear to be less of a target. Some people like Bantams (small birds) because they are cute, or take up less space, or are fun to hold and pet, or simply because they eat less.
Hot/Cold tolerance
This metric will tell you how a particular breed handles hot and cold weather and climates. If you live in a very hot, or very cold, climate you will need to adjust your breed preference to accommodate your environment. There is at least one breed for just about any environment you can think of (except underwater). Since I live in the south, I make sure my birds can handle both heat and cold since we experience all the seasons here. Sometimes all in one day. If you choose a breed that does not handle your environment well, you can always make accommodations for them if needed. However, it is generally better all around to pick a breed that can handle your climate without extra effort to ensure they won’t die.
Disposition – How tolerant is a certain breed for being around people, and being handled. Some breeds like the White Leghorn really show why being afraid is called being a chicken. They are very skittish, and don’t like to be around people, or be handled. On the other hand, breeds like Buff Orpington are very friendly and docile. Some birds are even aggressive. For instance, roosters are almost always aggressive, at least until you teach them otherwise. They feel it is their job to protect the flock, and if they see you as a threat, or think they can intimidate you, they will get aggressive with you. I had one rooster attacked my young daughter once when she was 5. But he ONLY did it once. After I made sure she was OK, and got her calmed down, I gave her a wiffle-ball bat and told her to go give him a whack or two to make sure he knew not to mess with her again. Needless to say, he left her alone after that. So keep this in mind when choosing a breed for your homestead and family.
Broodiness
This will give you and indication as to how likely a breed is to go broody which means they will sit on eggs to try to hatch them. Broodiness isn’t just an annoyance when you go to collect eggs, it affects their laying. When a chicken goes broody they stop laying eggs, and eat and drink very little. If you plan to raise your own chickens, you can get some chickens that are broody for this purpose, otherwise, you probably don’t want broody chickens. Honestly, if you plan to raise chickens, I recommend a good incubator instead. They are more reliable, and cost less in the long run.
Recommendations
If you are looking for egg production, I can recommend the following breeds based solely on their egg production numbers:
Amber Star ~300/yr (I have this breed now)
ISA Brown ~300/yr (I have this breed now)
White Leghorn ~280/yr (I have this breed now)
Australorp ~260/yr
Golden Comet 250 – 320/yr (I have this breed now)
Rhode Island Reds ~250/yr
Barred Plymouth Rock ~210/yr
Keep in mind, these are estimates. Depending on who you ask, you will get different numbers. Depending on your particular chicken, you will get different numbers. But overall, these are the kinds of results you can expect from these breeds. The ones I indicated above that I currently have are ones I have chosen for different reasons. I like to keep a mix of some calm chickens mixed in with the Leghorns to help keep them more calm. When they see that the other chickens don’t run like the sky is falling, they tend to run less or stress out as much. A stressed out chicken, will not lay normally, and may even get egg-bound, which can kill them.
Breeding Birds and Sex-Links
If you plan to breed your own chickens, you will need to understand that not all chickens will produce the same breed when bred to one another. Confused? Good! A lot of chickens on the market today are what are called Hybrids. This means they are the offspring of two different chicken breeds, which they do to encourage certain traits in the offspring. If you buy an ISA Brown Hen and breed her to an ISA Brown Rooster, you will not get the same ISA Brown offspring that you get when you order them. ISA Browns are created using Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns. Since they are a hybrid, any offspring will not have the same mix of traits, and will vary in some way. Breeders look for specific traits when they decide on the parents for their hybrids. It’s not always as easy as a bird of breed A and a bird of breed B. If you want to breed chickens, you either have to buy pure bred (like heritage) chickens that will breed true (produce the same breed with the same traits) or resolve yourself to having what are commonly called barnyard mix.