# Choosing A Breed



## BLG

Hi, I'm interested in having a small sustainable farm and having chickens is at the top of my list. I would like a chicken that needs little-to-no management and can graze in the pasture. 

I would like eggs and some meat too. Perhaps I'll need to have two different breeds to accomplish that but if one breed could be a happy balance between the two that would be good. I would like something hardy that can stand the Texas weather and is not susceptible to disease etc. I'm willing to trade off on egg and meat production for a bird that can meet those more important criteria. I'm totally new to this so I really am starting at ground zero. What suggestions do you guys have for me?


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## AuroraHawk

In addition to the breed specific information here:

http://www.chickenforum.com/chickens/

You can get a free catalog and a lot of good information from:

Murray McMurray Hatchery

And Mother Earth News has some fantastic articles about chickens:

The Chicken and Egg Page


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## Sundancers

You need to look into duel purpose chicken breeds ... meat and eggs from the same bird.


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## Energyvet

Pickin Chicken app is great. You put in what you want as far as egg size, color and they tell you the best breeds to accomplish that. I use it all the time, just to learn more about chicken breeds.


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## creeperolie

I agree with energyvet. The Pickin Chicken app is great!!!


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## Sundancers

Energyvet said:


> Pickin Chicken app is great. You put in what you want as far as egg size, color and they tell you the best breeds to accomplish that. I use it all the time, just to learn more about chicken breeds.


Oh My gosh ... I thought this was a joke!

To be honest ... (while many things come to mind) ... I don't know what to say ...


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## Energyvet

Too funny. It is a great app though.


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## earlyt89

I Personally believe first time owners should start with something like production reds or dominiquers and as well as a hardy bird buy a few game fowl and breed them into your stock. The babies will produce your larger brown eggs but have the immune system traits of gamefowl


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## Happeesupermom

I looked for the Pickin Chicken app & can't find it. Do I have the name right? Who's the creator? TIA.


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## creeperolie

It is spelt 'pickinchicken' and it is available on the Apple app store. I am not sure about others


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## creeperolie

Sorry it is spelt ' Pickin Chicken ' and it is made by Funny Farm Industries.


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## Energyvet

And spelt is spelled "spelled." lol. ;-)


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## BLG

Thanks for the info guys. I'll check out the apple app and check back in if I have anymore questions, and I'm sure I will


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## BLG

I got the pickin chicken app and was looking at the description of the Rhode Island Red chickens. It says they are not inclined to seek out naturally occurring food sources. Can anyone confirm for me whether or not that's true?


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## cogburn

Mine are the best foragers I own, hunt from daylight til dark.


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## Energyvet

I think they mean that RIR will be happy in a coop and won't fly out to get to "greener pastures.". But given the opportunity I think all chickens will free range. That's what they are designed to do.


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## earlyt89

Mine do. All of them. Even the gamefowl I have


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## BootedBantam

Since I am new at this, I wanted to start out with one breed, Bantams, because that is what my rooster is. I figure I should learn as much as I can about this breed first. Then look into other breeds. Kinda falling in love with the frizzles and silkies. But I do want good egg layers who can withstand cold winters. What breed would you mix with them?


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## earlyt89

You can mix anything with anything. That's whats cool about chickens. Even if you breed a rhode island red to a barred rock and they have 5 babies. Each one of those babies will look different. I eventually want to have all gamebirds. But I like my laying breeds.


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## BuckeyeChickens

Buckeyes are an excellent dual purpose (meat & eggs) large fowl....require very little "management" in either free range or coop conditions! I highly recommend them and have raised a lot of different chicken breeds over the years. Welcome to the forum, too BTW!!!


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## creeperolie

Energyvet said:


> Pickin Chicken app is great. You put in what you want as far as egg size, color and they tell you the best breeds to accomplish that. I use it all the time, just to learn more about chicken breeds.


'iChicken' on the apple app store is good too if you are looking at hybrids, though it shows less pure breed chickens. It also includes information on how to diagnose illnesses and much more.


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## Energyvet

Ooooo. I will take a look at that. Great info thanks. New app!


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## BootedBantam

Dang no apps here I am old school, I just have a plain old cell phone by choice. Does anyone know of an online chicken resources page that would offer something like that?


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## creeperolie

BootedBantam said:


> Dang no apps here I am old school, I just have a plain old cell phone by choice. Does anyone know of an online chicken resources page that would offer something like that?


Booted Bantam, look on:

http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/which-breed-is-right-for-me.aspx

It looks ok, but I haven't tested it


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## BootedBantam

Thank you, I have noticed some breed pages list different birds.


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## Roslyn

First, choose small bantams or full sized? People will tell you their faves based on their experiences, naturally. It isn't just the breed, but the hatchery it comes from. I have read all about Rhode Island Reds, but I have only owned 2 out of 20 that I thought were good stock. The rest were small, scrawney, flighty and some were just plain stupid. They all came from the same hatchery. I haven't given up, I may try a Heritage strain or even the New Hampshire Red or Buckeye.

I would recommend a GOOD STRAIN of Rocks (any color), however I have also had weird Rocks that are more like Leghorns, again, it's the hatchery.

Personally I really like the Delawares and Rocks from Meyer Hatchery http://www.meyerhatchery.com/ The roosters were calm, no mean and nasty ones, the hens grew well and were true to type and quality birds.

A TRUE dual purpose breed will be just that, a chicken that lays well (maybe not exceptionally), yet has enough meat on their bones for dinner!


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## molly2254

Another helpful source of breed information is the breed selector tool at mypetchicken.com. You can sort by purpose (meat or egg production, or dual), weather tolerance,egg production, temperament, etc. . I think it's probably a lot like the Pickin' Chicken app, but it's web-based. I have also used Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart--do a google search for the web page.


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## kejmack

The best chicken depends on where you live, too. Buff Orpingtons are heavy and did great at my farm in VA, but I found they don't do so well here in TX. Speckled Sussex seem to do better in the heat. I like them because they are good foragers. Dominiques are also a good dual purpose breed. If you have free range birds, be aware that you are going to loose some the predators.


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## cogburn

Booted Bantam (Sablepoots) Bantam is not a breed, but a group of smaller versions of full size chickens, miniatures, if you will.. Thats why theres a breed name in front of bantam, like Dominecker Bantam.. Bantams are Also called Bantys.. 
Heres an awesome site Check out http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKChickensA-C.html 
Cogburn


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## earlyt89

We always call them bantys. I didn't know what a Blanton was until just a few years ago.


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## earlyt89

*bantom ......


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## infonitum

www.mypetchicken.com and www.mcmurrayhatchery.com are both good sites for chicken breed info. If you are looking for a book, Pickin' A Chicken is a good resource. It lists breeds of chickens that work in a variety of situations and gives detailed descriptions or each breed. If you have a kindle and an Amazon Prime membership, you can borrow it from the lending library for free. http://www.amazon.com/Pickin-Chicke...d=1360289623&sr=1-1&keywords=pickin+a+chicken


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