Picking the correct breed for you and your family is vital. It can be the difference between you and your chickens flourishing together or you regretting the day you brought them home!
Firstly you need to think about why you’re choosing to have chickens in the first place. Is your aim just to have fresh, tasty eggs daily and to keep your chickens as pets? Do you want to raise the birds to become part of the dinner table? Or are you looking at conserving a rare breed?
There are specific chickens that are really reliable egg layers, like Rhode Island Reds and Leghorns, which lay a high amount of eggs. Whereas other breeds such as broilers are much better for meat, but won’t lay you many eggs!
Secondly, you need to think about how much time you want to spend with your chickens. Some variety of chickens can be very high maintenance and require a lot of time from you. Whereas a lot of other breeds are pretty self sufficient and won’t require much time from you at all.
Thirdly, you need to think about the climate where you are. Make sure that the breed you choose is suitable to your area. Most breeds seem to cope in all climates, if you’re buying your chickens locally, then they are probably already suited to your climate. If you’re buying them from further a-field, just check with the supplier that they will be suited to your area/region.
The fourth thing you need to think about is the amount of space that you have to give your chickens. Some breeds require more space than others and if they don’t get that space, they can sometimes turn violent toward each other!
If you’ve got any questions about any of our breeds and you’d like to know if they’d be a good fit for you, please don’t hesitate to contact us! info@higheroakfarm.co.uk
Have a look at a recent blog post on keeping chickens for beginners.
