Our First Chicken Breeds on the Farm

Last Updated on February 27, 2023 by TheFarmChicken

This spring has been busy and one of the reasons for that are the little chicks that we got in the beginning of May. I have always wanted to have laying hens and ask around…I have always had a thing for chickens. Let’s talk more about our first chicken breeds to come to the farm.

After moving out to the farm I knew that there could be an opportunity to raise our own chicks and when my husband wasn’t against the idea I got excited! I didn’t know much about raising chicks and I am still learning the ropes of caring for chicks.

The process I used to choose the breeds in our flock

At first I didn’t know what I wanted for breeds of chickens. My husband had grown up with chickens around the farm and he liked Buff Orpingtons so I knew we would get a few of those. Other than that I hadn’t researched them much. So here I was my baby swinging away at nap time (I talk about the swing here) and me knee deep in chicken research! Ha If you guys haven’t picked up on it yet I enjoy researching things.

Here were the things I was looking for when choosing my chicken breeds:

1. Temperament – I wanted my hens to be docile and friendly birds.
2. Winter Hardy – We live in ND so the winters are long, cold and snowy. I wanted chickens that would be able to fair well with sub-zero temps.
3. Color Variation – Chickens that had interesting color and would make a beautiful flock.
4. Egg Production – One of the main reasons for getting chickens is for the eggs so I wanted good layers.
5. Egg Color – I figured if I could get good layers and a colorful egg basket then why not!? I think the different colored eggs will be fun for me and our little girl!

The internet always seems to have such a vast amount of helpful information so that is where I did my research. After a few hours and quite a few different web pages I narrowed it down to 4 breeds that I wanted to start our flock with. They are listed below with some facts on each breed.

The chicks we decided to order:

Buff Orpington

• Egg Shell Color:              Brown
• Egg Production:              Estimate of 200-280 per year
• Temperament:                Docile
• Plumage:                        Golden

Easter Egger

• Egg Shell Color:              Green, Blue, Pink, Multi
• Egg Production:              Estimate of 200-280 per year
• Temperament:                Active
• Plumage:                        Variations from white/grey/black /red

Welsummer

• Egg Shell Color:              Dark Brown Egg/ Speckled
• Egg Production:              Estimate of 200-280 per year
• Temperment:                  Active
• Plumage:                        Variations of Red and Black

Black Australorp

• Egg Shell Color:              Brown
• Egg Production:              Estimate of 200-280 per year
• Temperment:                  Active/Gentle
• Plumage:                        Shiny Rich Black

 

The next step was to find a good hatchery to order from and after, you guessed it researching, I narrowed it down to one.

Cackle Hatchery

They had an easy to navigate website with helpful pages on the different chicken breeds. I read their reviews and customers had given a lot of good feedback on both their customer service and their birds.

I wanted a smaller flock of about 12 hens. We decided to not get a rooster. Each person is different though and if you want to hatch out your own chicks or if you want one for the hen’s protection you should get a rooster. We might still end up with a rooster depending on if they were successful in sexing all of our chicks.

Here is what we order: 16 chicks

• 5 Buff Orpingtons
• 5 Easter Eggers
• 3 Welsummers
• 3 Black Australorps

We did this to avoid the small order fee that the hatchery has for orders under 15 chicks. When they arrived they had sent us 20; which was great! I guess we will have more eggs to share now.

I write this as we have had the chicks for about a week. They are doing well and growing fast! I hope to tell you more about them in future posts but today I wanted to tell you about the breeds I choose and why. We are happy to have our first chicken breeds on the farm!

I hope this helped you identify some chicken breeds that you might like to try.

Also, I would love to hear about your flock and the different breeds you have. Drop a comment below with your favorite or favorites (it’s hard to pick just one)!