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Why Chickens?
In the early to mid-twentieth century, throughout the countryside and in cities large and small, backyard chicken coops were the norm. Chickens furnished table meat and eggs, and most everyone kept at least a few hens. Years passed and attitudes shifted; small-scale chicken keeping became gauche. By the end of the twentieth century, while agri-biz egg and meat producers, immigrants, rustics, and hippies were keeping chickens, urban dwellers and suburbanites were not!
Selecting Your Chickens
The times they are a-changin’ once again. As our world becomes increasingly frenetic, violent, and stressful, a burgeoning number of Americans are seeking a quieter existence. “We’ll move to the country,” some decide. “We’ll live on a small farm and commute or work from home!” “We’ll garden!” “We’ll have chickens!”
Nowadays, from Minneapolis to New Orleans, from Los Angeles to New York City and all points in between, throngs of city and suburban residents raise and praise the chicken. A few miles farther out, more hobby farmers are likely to raise chickens than any other farmyard bird or beast. Hens are the critter du jour.
Why keep chickens? For their eggs, of course, and (for those who eat them) their healthier-than-red-meat flesh, whether strictly for your own table or for profit as well. Chickens are easy to care for, and you needn’t break the bank to buy, house, and feed them. You may also wish, like many hobby farmers, to keep livestock for fun and relaxation. Surprisingly, chickens make unique, affectionate pets. They offer a link to gentler times; they’re good for the soul. It’s relaxing (and fascinating) to hunker down and observe them.
This information is meant to educate and entertain rookie and chicken maven alike. Are you with me? Then let’s talk chickens!
Chicken Classifications
Early on, the American Poultry Association (APA) devised a system for classifying chickens by breed, variety, class, and sometimes strain. A breed is a group of birds sharing common physical features such as shape, skin color, number of toes, feathered or nonfeathered shanks, and ancestry. A variety is a group within a breed that shares minor differences, such as color, comb type, the presence of a feather beard or muff, and so on. A class is a collection of breeds that originate from the same geographic region.
The APA currently recognizes twelve classes: American, Asiatic, English, Mediterranean, Continental, All Other Standard Breeds, Single Comb Clean Legged, Rose Comb Clean Legged, All Other Clean Legged, Feather Legged, Modern Game Bantam, and Game Bantam. A strain, when present, is a group within a variety that has been developed by a breeder or organization for a specific purpose, such as improved rapid weight gain and prolific egg production. Chickens may also be classified as light or heavy breeds or as layers, meat, dual-purpose, or ornamental fowl.
When the APA published its first Standard of Perfection in 1874, the following chickens were recognized: Barred Plymouth Rocks, light and dark Brahmas, all of the Cochins and Dorkings, a quartet of Single-Comb Leghorns (dark brown, light brown, white, and black), Spanish, Blue Andalusians, all of the Hamburgs, four varieties of Polish (white crested black, nonbearded golden, nonbearded silver, and nonbearded white), Mottled Houdans, Crevecoeurs, La Fleches, all of the modern games, Sultans, Frizzles, and Japanese Bantams. Today, close to 120 breeds and more than 350 combinations of breeds and varieties are described.
Bantams are one-fifth to one-quarter of the size of regular chickens. They come in sized-down versions of most large fowl breeds, although they aren’t scale miniatures: their heads, wings, tails, and feather sizes are disproportionally larger than those of their full-size brethren. A few Bantam breeds have no full-size counterparts. In addition to being cute, bantams can be shown, they make charming pets, and their eggs and bodies—small as they are—make mighty fine eating. The APA issues a standard for bantams, as does the American Bantam Association (these standards don’t always agree).
| A Matter of Breeding Some of today’s purebred fowl (chickens whose parents are of the same breed), such as the gamecock breeds, trace their roots to the distant mists of antiquity. Egypt’s elegant Fayoumi dates to before the birth of Christ. Stubby-legged, five-toed Dorkings came to Britain with the Romans. Squirrel-tailed Japanese Chabo Bantams, miniature chickens weighing between 1 and 3 pounds, emerged in the seventh century AD. Dutch Barnevelders were developed in the 1200s, about the time that Venetian merchant Marco Polo wrote of the “fur-covered hens” (Silkies) of Cathay. Another Dutch chicken, the deceptively named Hamburg, has existed since the late 1600s and is likely far older than that. The crested fancy fowl we call the Polish was developed even earlier, and France’s V-combed La Fleche dates to 1660 AD. Naked Necks, also called Turkens (possibly the weirdest-looking chicken of them all), originated in Transylvania before the 1700s. The first all-American fowl, the Dominique, is an early nineteenth-century New England utility fowl. |
Which Chickens Are Best for You?
There are countless varieties and hundreds of breeds from which to choose, and it’s important to pick the ones that will meet your needs. With the passage of time, humans have designed chickens to fill every niche: cold-hardy chickens, heat-resistant chickens, chickens that don’t mind being penned up. We haven’t designed the perfect chicken—yet! All breeds have certain shortcomings. Furthermore, a breed that would be a bad choice for one chicken keeper (such as hens meant to be confined who can fly out of enclosures) would be perfect for another (as free-ranging chickens, those flying hens would be able to evade dogs).
Before you can settle on the kind of chickens to buy, you need to determine what purpose they’ll serve and what environment they’ll live in. Do you want them for their eggs? Sunday dinner? Feathery companionship? Will they spend most of their time inside or out? Will they have to contend with sweltering summer days or frigid winter nights? All of these factors make a difference in your choice of breed.
Next, you must decide whether you want day-old chicks or full-grown birds, as well as how many of them to get. What advantages are there to buying a pullet rather than a chick? Is it better to start with a small flock? If you haven’t already done so, you should find out what zoning laws may apply to your keeping chickens and how they affect your decision. Do you need birds on the quiet side?
Ask yourself the following types of questions:
•Will your birds be sequestered in a chicken house, or do you favor free-range hens? Certain breeds don’t like being confined. A cramped coop of ornery Sumatras is a disaster waiting to happen, and find-your-own-feed Cochins might starve.
•How much room do you have to devote to chickens? A few bantams can thrive in a doghouse. A dozen 10-pound Jersey Giants? They’ll need a heap more space.
•Are your neighbors close by? Squawking, freedom-craving, fence-flying breeds likely won’t do. This is especially true if you live in the city or suburbs.
•Are there toddlers in your family? Testy roosters of certain breeds can injure an unwary tot.
•Do winter temperatures plummet below zero where you live? Roosters with huge single combs get frostbite easily, and some breeds simply won’t thrive in this type of weather.
•Are you in a region with hot temperatures? Fiery summer heat wilts heavy, soft-feathered breeds such as Cochins, Australorps, and Orpingtons, while other breeds take heat more in stride.
