There are many different types and breeds of chickens (over 60 in fact). And you would certainly want to research the breed of dog you plan on buying before you actually go out and buy it, right?
You wouldn’t want a dog breed that generally doesn’t like children if you have children, or a breed that’s aggressive towards other dogs or animals if you already have a dog. This is just as important when you are buying chickens.
Please don’t miss understand what I am trying to say, generally chickens are great pets and are very sociable animals, but there are certain breeds that have specific purposes such as producing more eggs, or offer you more meat and many have different behavioral tendencies. This isn’t to say that they won’t make for a great pet in your backyard.
As you learn more about the various chicken breeds you will find that some will produce more eggs, lay certain color eggs, some will be more suitable for your backyard and have very specific personalities. What will need to be determined is which breed will best suit your lifestyle.
Choosing the right breed of chicken will depend on what you want to get out of raising chickens. So you will need to ask yourself some questions when trying to determine which chicken breed will suit your needs or lifestyle the best.
Let’s take a look at some of the different chicken breeds.
The Brahma Chicken is originally from India, and is a great bird for meat. This breed is also a great pet because they can handle confinement and also have a great playful personality. Some people keep Brahmas for their eggs too.
The Australorp Chicken are one of the best breeds for pets. They are sweet, peaceful, shy, calm and very friendly. These amazing birds are from Australia and grow to be between 7lbs and 8lbs, producing large brown eggs.
The New Hampshire Red Hen is a new breed that is known as a meat producer. But there are people who have them as pets also. Their personality varies depending on the individual chicken, so this breed is not going to be the best breed to select if you have small children.
These are just a few of the many different breeds that are available for you to raise for whatever purpose you want them for. The best way to uncover which chicken breed will best suit your needs is first by determining what you expect out of your chicken raising experience.
Do you want to use them for producing eggs, meat (both) or just keep for a pet?
You can use one of the breed finding tools that are available to you for free online. It will give you a list of the breeds that will best suit what you are looking for by simply answering a series of questions.
It’s also important that once you find the breed that you think you want, that you do a little bit of research in order to learn more about them. You will want to learn if there are any special requirements or certain diseases that might affect that specific breed over others. Take your time doing your research and it will most certainly pay off in the end. There are some beautiful birds out there that will make for a great pet.