Keep Chickens!: Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs and Other Small Spaces (12 page)

If you don’t have a computer in your home, go to your local library. Most libraries have computers with Internet access that you can use for free. If you are computer shy, read the books at the library to get you started. Great books about keeping chickens are available at all good bookstores, feed and supply stores, and yard and garden shops.

Picking chickens is as much as, if not more fun than, designing the coop. After reading about breeds, you can make informed decisions on which chickens you want to keep in your urban flock. Perhaps the color or pattern is the primary criterion for picking your chicken. Should you get big chickens or small ones? Maybe you want a mellow friendly bird, or one more inquisitive? Have several breeds (and styles) in mind when shopping for chicks. When you visit your local feed store in spring, it may not have all your first picks. The eclectic or rare breeds are almost always available from reputable Internet poultry hatcheries and poultry supply stores.

Purebred chickens are organized according to class, breed, and variety.
Class
is the broadest category of chickens, and it generally refers to the regions where the chickens were originally bred or with which they are traditionally associated. Chicken classes include Asiatic, American, Continental, Mediterranean, English, Oriental, and Miscellaneous.

Within each class of chickens are particular
breeds.
Chickens of the same breed have a similar body type, features, and markings. The breeds are basically divided into two categories.
Standard
breeds are medium to heavyweight chickens.
Bantam
breeds are smaller, lightweight chickens. The standard breeds tend to be mellower, while the bantams are known as “flighty” for two reasons: They are somewhat nervous all the time, and they can fly up to 6 feet (1.8 m) into the air, giving them plenty of clearance over most fences. Some breeds are excellent egg layers; others are well regarded for their meat.
Dual-purpose
breeds are known for both their meat and their eggs. Breeds with striking features or feather arrangements are sometimes known as
ornamental
breeds.

A breed can contain several
varieties.
A variety generally has a specific pattern or color of plumage. For example, Plymouth Rock is a breed in the American class that comes in several varieties, including a pattern known as barred (black and white herringbone) and colors like white, buff, blue, or silver. Wyandottes, one of the prettiest dual-purpose breeds, come in several varieties of solid colors as well as a vibrant silver-black or gold-black fish-scale pattern.

The
American Standard of Perfection,
published by the American Poultry Association, describes the ideal conformation and standards for each breed.
Show strains
are chickens whose physical type and traits conform to the breed standard. These supermodels of chic chickens travel nationwide to compete in poultry shows.

While the show strains in a breed are the upper-crust birds of chicken fancier society,
utility strains
are the blue-collar, working-class chickens within their breed. These chickens are purebred, but they possess certain imperfections that render them incapable of conforming to the breed standard required in poultry showing. These imperfections might be something as sinful as a narrow breast in a breed whose standard is a wide breast, muted or runny colors in a breed with a patterned plumage standard, or misshapen beaks or feet. There’s nothing really wrong with these birds — they’re just not perfect supermodels! They are the “regular folks” of the chicken world. The birds you find for sale in local feed stores are usually utility strains of certain breeds. Though not up to show standards, these chickens have no problem laying eggs, digging compost into your garden, and making you laugh.

The hens of dual-purpose breeds tend to be tamer and less broody than hens of other breeds.

In addition to purebred chickens, you may also come across chicken
hybrids
. Most hybrids, also known as
crossbreds,
were developed by commercial poultry growers so that they could obtain the maximum amount of eggs and/or meat from a chicken. Hybrids tend to be plainer-looking than purebreds, and they can be quite nervous, a trait you may not want in your urban flock. An example of a popular commercial hybrid meat production chicken is the Cornish-Rock. This meaty bird was the result of an English Cornish being crossed with an American White Rock. Good egg-producing hybrids include Black Sex Link and Red Sex Link hens.

Below is a partial listing of chicken classes, breeds, and varieties to get you familiar with the wonderful world of chickens.

While many standard breed chickens have a bantam equivalent, there are few true bantam breeds. The most popular of these are the Silkie, with its fine, white flowing plumage, and the Japanese, with its long, elegant tail feathers. Ah, so many chickens, so little time!

Chickens are social creatures. They like company: their own company and yours. My chickens like it when I talk to them out the window, or when I sit and read with them in the yard. However, I can’t always be with my chickens. That’s why I have several — they keep each other company. No matter what breed or variety you decide on for your pet urban flock, don’t get just one hen, because she will get lonely when you are not around to talk to her. Nothing is sadder than the mournful moaning of a bored, lonely chicken. Chickens can be quite vocal about their emotions.

When thinking about what chicken to get for your flock, keep in mind the climate where you live. Standard breeds don’t tolerate extreme heat or humidity very well. Bantam chickens, by contrast, which weigh just 2 to 4 pounds (1–2 kg), have less body mass to cool off and can take the heat. On the flip side of the coin, standard breeds have ample insulation against the cold, while bantams in a cold coop will shiver themselves down to nothing.

If you live in a region with freezing cold winters (Northwest, Northeast, Midwest), pick chickens of the heavier standard breeds. In the Southwest, Southeast, and Deep South, where winters are milder and most summers are consistently hot and humid, heavy hens would do as well as a polar bear in a hot tub. Bantams or lighter medium-weight standard breeds are best for such temperate or subtropical climates.

Having learned a little bit about breeds, you now have a better idea of what kind of chickens you may want. You already know that chickens come in two different sizes: bantam (small) and standard (large). Of course, besides the size differential, not all the chicken breeds are created equal. Some hens, like Plymouth Rocks and Rhode Island Reds, can weigh in at 6 to 7 pounds (3–4 kg), while others, like the Jersey Giant and the Brahma, tip the scales at a hefty 10 pounds (4.5 kg). A 10-pound chicken? That’s the size of a small turkey! While such hefty chickens are the exception rather than the norm, they do exist. But before investing in one of these “big-boned” breeds, remember: The bigger the chicken, the more it eats. And chickens love to eat. If a low feed bill is important to you, pass on the big Brahma and Jersey Giant and consider a svelter breed, like a Rhode Island Red or Partridge Rock.

The Sebright (left) is a good example of the size of a bantam breed, and the Leghorn (right) of a standard breed.

Chickens come in a vast array of colors and feather patterns. They can be plain or fancy. They can have fluffy tufts on top of their heads, or have bare naked necks. They can have long slender legs, or legs so thick with feathers they look like waddling, fluffy pears. Some chickens have big, showy combs atop their heads, while others have just a short, blunt mohawk for a comb. Chickens are black, white, buff, brown, red, orange, gray. Chickens come with spots, checks, barring, or solid patterns. As with any species, it takes all kinds.

As I’ve mentioned several times, my Girls include a Barred Plymouth Rock (Zsa Zsa), a Rhode Island Red (Lucy), and an Australorp (Whoopee). Out of the three, Lucy is the best layer, despite her breed reputation as a moderate laying dual-purpose breed. Lucy gives me a medium-sized, speckled brown egg nearly every day.

The next best layer in my flock is the Barred Plymouth Rock. Zsa Zsa lays four to five large or extra-large eggs on me a week. If Zsa Zsa misses a day or two of consecutive laying, she will leave a huge egg the next session to make up for it — and not infrequently it’s a double yolker!

The Australorp (Whoopee), the biggest hen in the flock, lays eggs the most sporadically. Australorps are reputed to be prolific layers, but my Whoopee is not one of those. Thank goodness Whoopee is fun and good looking, because she sure is lacking in the egg-laying department!

I mentioned the Girls’ laying habits for a reason. Individuality counts. You may pick one breed because it’s reputed to be an Olympic-quality layer and another breed for its good looks, but chickens, like people, are not all created equal. A chicken you choose for plumage may end up being a veritable egg machine, while the reputed layer drops an occasional egg as little more than an afterthought to a day of grubbing and clucking. Since garden flocks are usually kept as much for fresh backyard eggs as their fowl company, I’ve listed what are considered the most dependable egg-laying hens in the table
below
. These are all light- to medium-weight hens that would do well in most any climate (or what I otherwise refer to as the All-Season Hen Collection). Most of these hens are friendly, quiet, and not overly active. All are dependable egg layers, but none is reputed to be broody (that is, to have a tendency to sit on a clutch of eggs to try to hatch them). Brooding is a rather moot endeavor for the urban hen, as she has no rooster to fertilize the eggs. Brooding is also an eggless time for you, as the hen will not lay new eggs while being broody.