Living Homegrown Podcast Episode #12 Choosing Your Backyard Chicken Breeds Show Notes: www.livinghomegrown.com/12 You re listening to the Living Homegrown Podcast, episode #12 Announcer: Welcome to the Living Homegrown Podcast, where it s all about how to live farm fresh, without the farm. To help guide the way to a more flavorful and sustainable lifestyle is your host, national PBS TV producer and canning expert Theresa Loe. Theresa: Hey there everybody and welcome to the Living Homegrown Podcast. I am your host - Theresa Loe. Now this podcast is where we talk about living farm fresh without farm and that s through artisan food crafts, growing your own organic food and living a more sustainable lifestyle. If you want to learn about these topics or my online canning courses, visit my website LivingHomegrown.com. Today s episode is all about choosing your backyard chicken breeds. I did an episode a few weeks ago on keeping backyard chickens and that was episode 08 if you want to go check that one out and I got a lot more requests for more information. So episode 08 was about what to consider before getting your chicken breeds. And it s an important episode because if you re just starting out it can sound kind of fun and exciting but it s not something that you just want to dive into without giving it some thought. If you don t give it some thought you ll wind up being an irresponsible chicken keeper and I know you don t want to do that! So check out number 1
08 for some of the basics and then when you re ready to start picking out your chickens then this is the episode for you. So the questions I have been getting are What breeds do you recommend for a beginning backyard flock? What breeds of chickens do I personally have? Where do you get these chickens? Okay, so let s dive into these questions one at a time Now before you decide which chicken breed you want you have to stop and ask yourself, What am I doing this for? What is the purpose for me in keeping backyard chickens. And everyone will have a different answer. The reason this is so important is it s just like when you are picking out a new dog. You don t want to just run to the pet store or run to the humane society and pick up the first dog you see without thinking through what are you requirements and your needs and the dog breed. Like if you have a tiny apartment you probably would want to get a giant great dane because it wouldn t fit with your lifestyle. Well it s the same thing with chickens. Also I don t recommend that you go just pick up the first chicks that you see without thinking this through because it s just like picking a puppy - they are all adorable. But they grow up to become different just like a puppy grows up to be a different size or a different temperament. A chicken grows up to be a different size and a different temperament. You want to give it some thought so that you have success and your chickens are happy and you re happy. So think about what is it you re looking for. Are you wanting to have chickens just because it s cool and you really don t care about anything else? Well that s fine but you still might want to think about some of these things. 2
If you re wanting just to have the eggs because they re fantastic and delicious then you will probably want to get chickens that are known as good layers. Some chickens lay eggs very consistently and other breeds do not and they are really raised for other reasons. So if you really most importantly want to have the eggs then make sure you are picking a breed that is considered a good layer. If you have kids or just want to have the chickens as pets, then you want to really research their personalities. Just like every animal, every breed has their own personality and it s really funny how those personalities will interact with people. So if you have children for example you re going to want to look for a chicken that has a sweet temperament or perhaps is more docile and doesn t mind being picked up and carried. You really want to look at that. Also if you have children, you may want to look at getting a speciality breed. I ll talk about the different ones in a little bit here but a speciality breed are some of the more unusual looking chickens and they can be a lot of fun for kids. If you are raising your chickens because you want meat birds then you definitely want to look for the chickens that have a larger build and are really bred for meat if that s what you re into. If you have a really small confined space, well then you want to look at that as well because you may have to consider getting smaller chickens like bantams. Now a bantam chicken is like a miniature dog. It s a smaller breed of chicken. A lot of the bantams have larger varieties so for example there is a large normal standard size chicken and then a bantam version. So you may find a certain breed that you want and you can look to see if it comes as a bantam size which is a little bit smaller or miniature chicken. Now true bantams don t have a larger version. So that small size is the only way they come. And that s fine, but some of the traits of the true bantams is that they are not always very good egg layers. And that s okay. 3
You can have maybe one bantam and because you want the smaller size and then maybe a different breed that is known as a good layer so you can have the best of both worlds and that s fine too. One thing to consider about the smaller breeds if you have a small space is that a lot of those lighter weight chickens can be flyers. In other words they have a light body weight so they are able to get higher up off the ground. And this was a consideration for me because I have a six foot fence in the back of my yard and on the other side of it is a 15 foot drop where there is dogs. So I had to be very careful in picking my breeds that I was not picking a chicken that had a lot of lift or could get up off the ground because if it did manage to get up on that six foot fence and over to the other side it would not have survived. So I had to really be careful in the way I was picking my chickens and that s something for you to consider as well. Another consideration is if you live in a very, very cold climate, the heavier birds are generally better for cold climates because they have more body heat. And also the chickens that smaller combs and waddles are better for really cold climates because they are less likely to get frostbite. And I ll be listing in the show notes for this episode some sources for where you can get a list for which are the best chickens for weather, for meat, for egg laying, so that you can look up certain breeds to see what might best fit you. And if you re really just wanting to get some chickens that are cute and adorable then you absolutely need to look at photos of those chickens because every chicken has a completely different look. It s a lot of fun to do the picking of the chickens and it can be a little overwhelming at first. But I also will have in the show notes for this episode a breed selector tool. And you click off what things are important to you and then a list of breeds are given to you at the end so you can then start researching those different ones and see if one of those really stands out for you. And I ll have those links for choosing your breed at LivingHomegrown.com/ 12, that s slash one-two. 4
Now when you re looking at these different considerations you might find that you really have a bit of a combination of things that you want. And that s fine. I know that was my situation. I definitely wanted good layers, I wanted docile, friendly chickens and I had kids. So I wanted some of the speciality breeds. Now the advantage here is that you can get more than one kind of chicken. You can get different breeds to go together into one flock. You don t have to get all the same. And that s exactly what I did. So let me tell you what some of the breeds are that I have. I had specific requirements in that I have only 1/10th of an acre in the heart of Los Angeles where I homestead and grow most of my food. I have a very small area that I can have chickens so I couldn t have a lot of chickens and I could not have a lot of large chickens. Also, I wanted really friendly, fun chickens. I wanted them to be kind of entertaining for the kids. I wanted to get them turned not to the idea of having chickens. And I ve had my chickens now for about six years. So my kids were much younger my kids are teenagers now and still help me take care of the chickens but at the time they were younger I wanted them to be totally excited about the chickens. So I was looking for speciality breeds that were friendly and I still wanted to have at least one really good egg layer so I was always guaranteed to have some eggs. So the different breeds that I ve had are Golden Laced Polish named Charlotte. She is a really fun chicken. She s been on television. We ve put her on Growing A Greener World on our first season six years ago. One of my oldest chickens and also the one that really captures your heart. She has the most amazing personality. She comes when you call her. She loves to be held. She loves to sit on your shoulder. Very, very friendly. 5
But the polish chickens have feathers on top of their head. They kind of look like vegas showgirls and their feathers kind of flop as they walk. They are really funny to watch. But the problem with a polish chicken is they are very, very vulnerable to predators. Their eye sight is very limited by all these feathers on their head and they can t see really anything that is coming up to get them. So if you live in an area where you are going to have these chickens free-ranging, a polish chicken might not be a good choice for you. As far as personality, they are known for being very friendly and very lovable but they also can be scared very easily because if they don't see you walking up on them you startle them a lot. You know they are very jumpy. You might come around a corner and you scare the heck out of them because they didn t see you coming. Some people do trim the feathers around their eyes, it s very tricky to do without poking them in the eye. It s really hard. But they can have a lot of issues with those feathers growing completely over their eyes where they can t see very well at all. That can be a problem. So polish chickens are a great, fun speciality breed but you definitely want to keep them in a more enclosed or safe environment because they are so vulnerable to predators. Now Charlotte is not a good egg layer. I got her really because she s an unusual breed. She does lay white eggs but she s not real consistent. Even though she is six years old, she is still laying eggs, which is kind of unusual. But I only get maybe an egg from her a week and in the winter time she does stop completely like most of my chickens. But in the summer I will get an egg maybe every 4 days from her. I also have Blue-Splash silkie named Savanahha who is absolutely adorable. She is a little tiny ball of grey fluff. Now a silkie is a bantam. They are very small, she can practically sit in the palm of your hand. A blue silkie normally has a very blue color to their feathers and their feathers are kind of fluffy. They are more like fur. They are not really like regular feathers. 6
I have a splash silkie which means she doesn't quite come out as solid blue. In the world of silkies or in the world of blue silkies, when the hen lays her eggs some come out blue which is like a steel blue, some come out black, and some of the chicks come out as a splash, which is a light grey or a white with splashes of color. And my Savanahha is a splash. So she has feathers on her feet and a little ball of fluff on top of her head and they also have black skin and five toes instead of four. So they are definitely unusual looking. They are kind of like the lap dog of chickens. They re very docile, super sweet. They are easy to keep. And they lay cream coloured eggs. The only issue I ve ever had with my silkie is that she can be quite broody. Now broody means she wants to be a mother really, really bad. So she will lay eggs and then sit on them trying to hatch them, even though we don t have a rooster and they ll never hatch. The other thing that she does is every once in a while she will start hoarding everyone else s eggs in the henhouse and she will roll them all over into her little nest and she will sit on them for days and days and days. Even if I take them away she still sits there, hoping that one of her eggs will hatch. They are known for being really good mothers. So if you even wanted to have them raise other chickens or even ducklings, they are fantastic mothers. So they are really good if you are doing any kind of cross breeding. You can pretty much always get the silkie to mother the chickens. She s very small. I don t have to worry about her flying because she doesn t really have regular feathers. She can t get up off the ground at all. And she s absolutely adorable. I ve also had a Barred Rock or also known as a Plymouth Rock they are black and white. They are known for being really good egg layers. They lay brown eggs. And I really like the barred rock breed. They are generally friendly. They are not as friendly as like the silkie or my golden laced polish, but they are a good solid breed and I always have gotten consistent eggs from the barred rock breed. 7
Another breed that I have had now for six years that I absolutely love is an Easter Egger and her name is Gertrude. We all her Gerdie. An easter egger is a hybrid breed and they can have a varied look. So most are great layers, most of them are very easy to care for. And the reason they are called easter eggers is because they can have a variety of different coloured eggs and you won t know what you get until they start laying. Ours lays an army green coloured egg which my boys thought was so cool when she first started laying. But the color of the eggs can be blue, green, whitish-plink or something kind of in between those colors like a blueish green or a pinkish blue. It s kind of weird. You never really know what you re going to get. But she has been a very consistent egg layer. I still get a few eggs from her every week even though she is six years old. And she is currently the head of the pack in my little tiny flock. She is the top dog. There are two other breeds that I highly recommend for backyard chicken keeping. One is the Rhode Island Red they are very happy, easy birds, they are excellent layers. You get consistent eggs from them. An egg everyday while they are young. And they lay a light coloured brown egg. And another breed that is very good for beginners is the Buff Orpington. It s a heavier bird, it has light brown eggs and it s very friendly and docile. So either of those are really great breeds to have. So you have decided what you re looking for in keeping backyard chickens. You have done a little bit of research and you are starting to narrow down your list of what particular breed you might be looking at. And now you re ready to get your chickens. And you re wondering where do I go now? Well there is a couple different places you can go. There are some online sources. Most of them require that you buy a dozen or two dozen chicks at a time. And this is okay if one you need that many birds, or if you are going 8
to be pooling together with some friends and ordering all your birds together. Now I do know of some sources of where you can buy as few as three baby chicks at a time. And those sources do ship the baby chicks overnight. And in case you re thinking, Oh my gosh, are you kidding me? They put them in the mail? They really do! They put them in the mail. When a baby chick is first hatched, it does not need food or water for about 24-48 hours. And so that the minute they are hatched they do put them in a box to ship. But if you have a feed store near you, that is a great way to get the baby chicks. You re able to look at them right at the moment and see that they re healthy and happy. The problem there though is that most feed stores will usually just carry what is popular in your area. And they do that because they have to keep the chicks moving. If they order something unusual and they don t sell it then they have adult chickens that they have to get rid of. So they only will be carrying only the most popular breeds in your area. So if your area seems to be more into backyard chicken keeping with families, then most of those breeds will be very friendly, productive birds. But if your area happens to be an area where people are raising chickens for meat you may get very flighty, unfriendly birds that are not necessarily good layers. So you definitely want to have already researched this when you walk in and that s why I am telling you to absolutely do some of your research before you walk in so that you have already got in your head some of the breeds that you are looking for. And you can call around and see if they carry those particular breeds. If you really have your heart set on some speciality breeds, then I absolutely think you re going to end up having to order them. It s not very common to find polish or silkies at your local feed store. You have to either find a breeder in your area. Or you have to order them through the mail. 9
Now in the show notes for this episode, I ll have links to some of the places that you can order chickens as well as that tool for selecting your breed. And I ll also include some books for further reading because I think once you start down this path you re going to want to learn a whole lot more information. And there s a couple really good chicken books out there that I would highly recommend that you get. Now the show notes for this episode are at LivingHomegrown.com/12. That s one-two. And you get all that information right there for you. And I would also love to hear from you if you have a particular breed of chickens that you think is awesome, I would love to hear in the comments. So let me know there! So there is a little bit of information there to get you started on picking your chicken breeds. I know it s a huge world. It really is like picking a cat or picking a dog. There are so many different choices. But if you start out with deciding what is most important, what is your goal, what are your reasons for keeping chickens, it will narrow down your choices quite a bit and then it s not so overwhelming. So thanks so much for listening today. And let s keep on working on those food choices that are local, seasonal, and home grown. I ll see you next time! Take care. Announcer: That s all for this episode of the Living Homegrown podcast. Visit LivingHomegrown.com to download Theresa s free canning resource guide and find more tips on how to live farm fresh, without the farm. Be sure to join Theresa Loe next time on the Living Homegrown podcast. 10