photo credit: AlishaV

People are sometimes unaware that different breeds of chickens have different personalities. Learning about the different breeds and choosing the best breed to fit your family is the first step in fulfilling your backyard flock needs.

A good example is the Brahma breed. They are an exceptionally gentle and loving chicken that bond well with the family, but because of their heavy size and thick feathering they do better in cooler climates. Those living in warmer climates may prefer Rhode Island Reds or similar breeds. Learning about the different breeds is also essential in setting up the proper coop environment. In our example above, the heavier Brahma breed requires low nesting bars as opposed to the higher tiered bars that the Rhode Island Reds prefer.

There are many different resources online to help you and your family to research the different breeds. Knowing the personality and special requirements that your chosen breed has will insure the healthiest and happiest backyard flock!

Chicken Breeds and Varieties via the Chicken Coup blog where you can get Backyard Chicken and Chicken Care news and info.

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Keeping chickens in your backyard can be very fun and rewarding. They make great pets and eating fresh eggs straight from your backyard can feel very satisfying. Some fairly popular breeds, which are all fantastic, are Rhode Island Red, Maran, and Light Sussex.

They each differ in size and colouring but will all provide good eating size eggs. If you live in an urban or semi urban Brahmas may be a choice as they are reputedly the quietest of the breeds and least likely to irritate the neighbours! If you are interested in keeping chickens more as pets than for the eggs, bantams could be a great option to explore. They have wonderful temperaments and come in wide range of breeds. Silkies are a very docile and exotically beautiful breed. Though of course bantams do lay and you can eat the eggs, they are much smaller in size! And if you do get into bantams perhaps you could have three eggs for breakfast rather than two!

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While people who like to eat poultry would prefer to think of chickens as mindless creatures, people who keep chickens as pets insist that these birds are surprisingly intelligent, that they have very distinct personalities and are capable of recognizing individual humans and showing affection. United Kingdom breeds range from the Norfolk Grey, which is ideal for free range, to the Rosecomb, a stylish bantam that doesn’t produce many eggs.

It’s always a good idea to investigate breeds before you get a chicken as a backyard pet, so you know what to expect. The Old English Game Fowl, for example, is a lovely looking bird, but the males are famously aggressive. Doing some research could also lead you to try one of the more exotic breeds, like the stunning Sebright, a bird with distinctive marks on its feathers that make it look like a living line drawing. Always check with local laws to make sure it’s legal to keep a chicken as a pet.

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One of the most interesting things for the backyard chicken owner is the preservation of now rare chicken breeds.In states like North Carolina the chicken population is over 10 million,but all of these are almost identical animals raised industrially.

The Plymouth Rock Chicken is not really threatened,but this American species has become far less common.The Rhode Island White is particularly well suited for backyard farmers as they are very calm.The best layers among them can produce upwards of 250 eggs per year so you may need your neighbors to help you if you have more than a couple in your yard.

Those are only a few breeds you might want to investigate.Before farming became an industrial enterprise there were literally hundreds of breeds of chickens and now many of these are becoming threatened.You may want to adopt one for your own. For the heirloom breed enthusiast there are far more exciting and beautiful options.One of my favorites is the Araucana or Ameraucana which originated in South America.It’s a beautiful bird with a great variety of plumages.It will lay both green eggs and blue eggs

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So you’ve decided that you want to raise a few chickens in your backyard. The next question you might be asking yourself is what color and breed to buy. Many of us here in the Ozarks like black chickens – they stand out in the landscape and are quite beautiful.

If you like small chickens or have only a small space, you should consider the Rosecomb Bantams. Bantams or ‘banties’ as they’re often called are small chickens – about one-fifth the size of regular chickens. The Rosecomb is black with a vivid red comb and white “cheeks”. Another breed to consider is the Black Cochin Bantams. These tiny chickens have feathered legs which make them look larger than they actually are. They are very gentle, excellent setters and require little space.

All bantams lay very small eggs; about six bantam eggs would equal one regular chicken egg. Most bantams weigh around two pounds. Unfortunately for city folk, bantam roosters have a screeching, very loud crow which can be heard many hundreds of feet away. Your neighbors will probably not like the sound. In fact, you may not either! At the other end of the size range (8+ pounds) are black Jersey Giants – the largest breed in the American Class. The breed was developed in the 1880s in New Jersey. These chickens grow more slowly than most breeds and their black feathers take on a green sheen within the black color. They are good natured birds and are good layers of large eggs which range in color from pale cream to dark beige. You might also want to consider Australorps, a breed created in Australia. Their weight is about five to six pounds. They are calm, friendly birds; the hens are good layers of large brown eggs.

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“Bantam” refers to a couple different kinds of chickens: those bred to be miniatures of standard breeds, and true bantams, chickens who as a breed as small. Bantams tend to be quite colorful, and have interesting feather patterns. They tend to do well in smaller areas than larger chickens, and are very distinct in the fact that the hens will nurture an egg and raise the hatching of another bird, not just other chickens.

While the females are quiet and sweet, the males still try to be aggressive, though being that size and all puffed up tends to make them more comical than frightening. There are numerous breeds of bantams. Silkies, which are one of the most popular breeds of true bantams, are known to be very gentle and friendly. The smallest of the true bantams are the Dutch, which were developed in the Netherlands. The Polish bantams are known for their extraordinary colorings, which include pink, purple, and blue. Bantams are often kept as family pets or shown in competitions.

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