How to Choose the Right Breed for Your Poultry Flock
With so many options to choose from, selecting a good breed for your poultry flock can feel overwhelming and there are many different factors to take into consideration such as climate, scale of anticipated project, level of commitment, whether or not children will be involved, and more.
The following is an excerpt from The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery. It has been adapted for the web.
Meat Breeds
A few traditional breeds were developed primarily as table fowl: Jersey Giants (White and Black) in America; Cornish in England; and in Asia, Brahma, Cochin, and Shamo. These days, though, such breeds have been supplanted by fast-growing hybrids, foremost among them the Cornish Cross, currently the foundation of the broiler industry (broiler is another word for a young meat chicken), grown worldwide at an estimated thirty-two to forty-two billion per year. A fundamental question is whether meat chicken at your house will mean fast-growing broiler strains, grown in batches to fill the freezer, or the product of routine culling of a dual-purpose flock, discussed next.
Dual-Purpose Breeds
The most typical farm chickens in the past were breeds now called dual purpose. While such breeds will not lay as well as the egg-specialist breeds, nor grow as fast as meat hybrids, they serve as the best compromise of the two: They are reliable layers but grow fast enough to a generous size to make good table fowl. They tend to be more tranquil than the flightier egg-specialist breeds—a bit easier on the nerves. Most breeds in this group lay brown eggs; in some, occasional hens may retain the broody trait and make good mothers. These breeds are likely to be your best bet for a small-scale flock, and there are many to choose from: Buckeye, Delaware, Dominique, New Hampshire, Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, Wyandotte, and more from America; Chantecler from Canada; Faverolle, Houdan, Orpington, and Sussex from Europe; Australorp from Australia. Many of the traditional dual-purpose breeds are seriously in need of conservation breeding.
Breeds We Have Raised
The following are some of the breeds we have worked with over the course of almost three decades to make up our typical mixed flock of adult layers, young growing replacement birds being continually culled as table fowl, and a working subflock of broody hens:
New Hampshire: Our first flock of chickens were New Hampshires, developed out of Rhode Island Reds by Andrew Christie in the 1920s. Christie bred for a superior meat bird, ensuring their hardiness by keeping his breeders in pasture shelters through his harsh New England winters. His success is attested to by the fact that the New Hampshire was at one time the dominant broiler in the poultry industry; numerous broiler crosses were made with the New Hampshire as half of the mix. We took care to locate the Newcomer strain, developed by Clarence Newcomer in the 1940s for better egg production. (I’m not sure it’s even possible to find the original Christie strain.) Our New Hampshires were vigorous and hardy, laid a lot of large brown eggs, and made plump table birds. Some of the hens would go broody and were excellent mothers. Though I have not raised them for several years, I have just started a new batch of seventy-five in the brooder and intend to make them a mainstay of our flock in the future.
Rhode Island Reds: Both male and female rich, lustrous red, darker than the New Hampshire. Among the best layers of all brown-egg breeds, and an excellent dual-purpose breed. This breed has a reputation for being more aggressive, especially the cocks. Both New Hampshire and Rhode Island Reds lay well in winter.
Barred Plymouth Rock: A quintessential rock-solid American farm breed, with sharply defined parallel bars of dark gray and lighter color (not quite white). It is said that this barred gray pattern is the best camouflaged of all color patterns against the eye of the predator. Among the best of dual-purpose breeds.
Cuckoo Marans: This dual-purpose breed (much the same look as the Barred Plymouth Rock, though not as sharply etched) was developed about a hundred years ago in the town of Marans, on the western coast of France—known for extremely dark brown eggs (see figure 4.2). We found it an excellent table fowl, though its winter egg production was poor. Some of our Marans hens were excellent mothers
Welsummer: Another dark-egg breed is the Welsummer, bred in the village of Welsum in the Netherlands in the early years of the twentieth century. In our experience it’s not as large nor as vigorous as the Marans. The color pattern is black-breasted red—the one most typically seen in “cock at dawn” illustrations and photographs. (The male has flaming red hackle and saddle feathers, with a black breast and tail. See figure 4.8 as an example of this pattern in both cock and hen.)
Delaware: One of the crosses of the New Hampshire (with Barred Plymouth Rocks), in its heyday a foundation of the broiler industry. A handsome bird, mostly white, marked with black barring in the hackle and tail feathers (see figure 4.9). Though the Delaware was bred to be a meaty chicken and a good layer of large eggs, it is hard these days to find stock that lives up to its full potential. (For more about Delawares, see chapter 25, which includes a picture of both cock and hen.)
Partridge Chantecler: Bred in Canada in the early twentieth century as an exceptionally cold-hardy dual-purpose fowl (due in part to its minimalist comb and wattles, which are less subject to frostbite). Though they’re not champion layers, we keep a few in the flock because they hold their egg production well in winter. Most of our Chantecler hens have gone broody and been competent mothers.
Light Brahma and Buff Cochin: Both these Asian breeds are large and make good table fowl, though they are slow to mature. Neither is a champion layer, though both tend to go broody and make excellent mothers. I no longer keep either, since I prefer clean-legged chickens (both these breeds are fully feather-footed), but if you’re looking for a breed that is both beautiful and among the most docile of all chickens, either could be a fine choice for you.
Buff Orpington: A heavy general-purpose fowl, another extremely mellow breed for those seeking docile backyard companions. Though average in egg production (of larger-than-average eggs), they hold their production well in winter. Our Orpingtons have usually been excellent mothers.
Silver Spangled Hamburg: An ancient breed originating in Holland—the only egg specialist we have raised in the past (though recently we started some Light Brown and some Dark Leghorns to help keep egg production up). Though too small to be considered a meat breed, they are visually striking and prolific layers (the eggs are small). A breed once termed “thrifty,” both because they are economical eaters and because they forage well.
Australorp: Striking coal-black bird with bright red single comb, developed out of the Orpington in Australia in the early twentieth century (see figure 4.9). Though a bit on the small size for a dual-purpose breed, its egg production is excellent. We have a friend whose Australorp hen successfully hatched a clutch of eggs she laid in a bucket of rusty nails!
Wyandottes: Another quintessentially American dual-purpose farm breed, which originated in New York State in the 1870s. We’ve kept a number of the color variations available, especially the Silver Laced. Consider Wyandottes if a docile breed with a rose comb (less subject to frostbite) and good winter production appeals to you.
Dorking: If you want a bit of history in your backyard, consider keeping Dorkings, brought to England by the Romans with Julius Caesar over two thousand years ago. The varieties of this breed we know today were refined in England. Dorkings are short-legged, and males have quite large single combs. (There are rose-combed varieties as well.) They are scarcely champion layers, though friends of ours had a Dorking hen who at six years old laid more eggs than anyone else in the flock. They were valued in England in earlier times as an excellent meat breed. Dorkings are among a few breeds distinguished by having five toes (Faverolles and Houdans are others).
Old English Game: If I knew that starting tomorrow I could purchase neither feeds nor chicks from outside sources and could choose only one breed of chicken for my flock, I would take the Old English Game. Like Dorkings, the OEG also has a long lineage, going back a thousand years. Though much used during that time as “game” chickens for cockfighting, they have as well been valued as a utilitarian farm breed. While hopelessly unproductive by modern standards for rate of growth and egg production, they can feed themselves if given enough ground on which to range. Though small, they are surprisingly plump under their feathers, and rich in flavor—at one time in England they were considered the standard against which all other meat fowl were judged. The hens are among the best chicken mothers on the planet and are the backbone of my working broody subflock. Despite their aggressiveness toward one another, I have always found the cocks friendly toward both my visitors and me. (The one exception was an OEG cock I brought in from elsewhere who, I suspect, had not been respectfully treated.) Old English Games have contributed their vigor, hardiness, and longevity to innumerable modern breeds.