How to Choose the Perfect Chickens Breeds For Your Homestead

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Wondering How to Choose the Perfect Chickens Breeds for your homestead? Here are 4 quick tips we’ve learned over the years that will help you too!

We weren’t able to have chickens in town, but when we moved into our barn last July, I knew that come spring, I would order chickens. There are so many breeds, so many options to consider that it’s taken me a long time to figure out what to do. I’ve done a lot of research, talked to a bunch of people, watched a bunch of chickens in action, and I’m ready to report – I made my first ever chicken order!

Here’s how I went about

How to Choose the perfect chicken breeds for your homestead

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How to Choose the Perfect Chickens Breeds For Your Homestead

1 Learn about Chickens

We visited friends in Georgia and New York, and a few locally too, who have chickens. No, we didn’t drive to Georgia and New York just to see their chickens, but they were certainly an added bonus.  I loved watching their chickens in action. The free range chickens are so funny. Did you know they roost in trees?? I never knew that. Seeing those chickens roost in trees was so awesome and cemented my desire for old, heirloom breeds, breeds that haven’t had being a chicken bred out of them for the sake of production.

chickens roosting in trees

2. Talk to friends who have chickens.  

I never considered getting a rooster until I talked to my friends who have roosters and met their roosters. Roosters play an integral part in flock management. Who knew males can be useful? 😉 But seriously, folks, roosters help protect their flocks. They alert their girlies to potential predators and help keep them safe.  We live in a rural area and have hawks, coyotes, raccoon, owls, all kinds of predators for chickens. Until I met a couple nice roosters, I never knew that different rooster breeds have different qualities. I want a protective rooster, but I don’t want one that will hurt my kids or be super aggressive to his women. Talking with friends helped me realize it is possible to get a rooster like that. I also talked to people on facebook and instagram. I love all of the useful information I get via social media!

3. Read catalogs and books.

My kids and I have poured through catalogs like Murray McMurray and read books like Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, and ebooks that I downloaded for free a while back, but are really reasonably priced now: Backyard Chickens Book Package and Backyard Chickens: The Beginners Guide to Raising and Caring for Backyard Chickens. The books are packed full of useful information and will come in very handy when we finally get our chicks.

Farm & Fleet chicks

4. Talk to more knowledgeable professionals.

Ultimately, I decided to order my chickens through our local Farm & Fleet store. The prices are good and the chicks come from Cackle Hatchery, which seems to be a good hatchery. It was my discussion with a really nice, knowledgeable employee of Farm & Fleet that cemented my breed decisions. Turns out this kid is my neighbor and I am excited to go see his chickens. He’s only in high school but has quite an organic egg production business of his own and he lives less than a mile from me! He recommended breeds based on characteristics I want: good egg layer, winter hardy, potential to be broody, and nice rooster. – I also need birds that I can order in only batches of 5. I’m not ordering 25 silkes for my son. The Farm & Fleet kid also recommend a showy bird for my son who’s been begging. I went to the store with a plan, but after talking to this kid for about an hour, I had to go home and do even more research. I decided to go with his recommendations.

So here’s my order!

7 Black Astralorps (1 rooster and 6 hens)- winter hardy because of their black color, one of the best brown egg producers there is, nice roosters.

3 Araucana (hens) – Easter Eggers. My daughter is especially excited about green and blue eggs.

3  White Sultan (hens) – white egg layers, fancy hair, nice chickens, broody.

I’m so excited about my chicken order! The baby chicks come in on May 14 and I can’t wait to share pictures. I will finally feel like a legitimate homesteader! What’s your favorite chicken breed? I’d love to hear about your experience with chickens!

If you liked this post on how to choose the perfect chicken breeds for your backyard homestead, you might like these posts too:

Beginners Guide to Raising Baby Chicks

How to prepare for mail order chicks

Keeping chickens warm in winter

Inspirations homesteading books every home library needs

 

 

About Michelle Marine

Michelle Marine is the author of How to Raise Chickens for Meat, a long-time green-living enthusiast, and rural Iowa mom of four. She empowers families to grow and eat seasonal, local foods; to reduce their ecological footprint; and to come together through impactful travel.

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6 Comments

  1. Ohhhhhhh this makes me want to move out of the little lake house sooooooo bad!!!! I want chickens and we can’t have them on the lake property 🙁

  2. I would love to have chickens someday! The idea of getting our eggs from our own backyard sounds so nice…but it won’t happen until/unless we move someday! We’ll see…maybe someday. 🙂

  3. You’re gonna love them. I’ve had my chickens for about a year now. I had bought eggs from a friend and hatched out 10. Thanks to our critter population, I’m down to 4. I love my chickies, and they love me back. Wait until they get big enough and come running for you to pet them. With their hawkeyes they see me as soon as I step outside, even if they are across the woods at the neighbor’s yard. Mine even talk to me like I’m one of them. They bring me so much pleasure. I’m waiting for warm weather to let them set and hatch the next batch.

  4. This is just so exciting! I may have to take a road trip to Iowa to observe your chickens in action. 😉 At the pace i’m going I will need a week on a farm to recuperate sometime soon. I can’t wait to see pictures of the easter eggers especially!

  5. Thank you for sharing these tips!
    I am excited to try my hand at chickens once we move to a better climate. It is possible for me to have some where we live now but our weather poses some extra difficulties I’m not quite ready to take on yet. I will be back to see how the little chicks are doing!