What Are the Best Chicken Breeds for a Backyard Coop?
If you’re new to raising chickens, then you want to look for the best chicken breeds that are easy for beginners to raise. One of these is the Jersey Giant. As the name implies, these are the largest of the chicken breeds and are approximately 10 pounds in adulthood.
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They produce about 150 eggs a year and are good brood chickens. They also have calm demeanors and like to be petted. The Rhode Island Red is a good breed for beginners to start with because they’re hardy.
These chickens produce a lot of eggs and are known to lay between 200-300 eggs a year. They can be docile, but some within this breed are more aggressive. The Leghorn chicken is more widely known and can lay just over 300 eggs a year, and these eggs are quite large.
Though the most common color is white, these chickens can be purchased in other colors. They’re good to raise in both cold and warm climates. This chicken is good at foraging, but is a high-energy chicken.
So while they make great backyard chicken, if you have neighbors close to you, they won’t appreciate the noise this breed is known for. These chickens do not make good chickens around small kids as they don’t like to be petted or cuddled.
Another good breed to get is the Buff Orpingtons. The hens can average around 8 pounds in adulthood. They’re friendly chickens that do enjoy being petted. They do have to be kept dry because when they get wet, they don’t have good thermoregulation, so their temperature can plummet, and they’ll get sick or die.
They’re excellent brooders and can lay nearly 300 eggs a year. These are good chickens to have around children. You can buy chickens for your backyard from your local hatchery.
You can also get them from farm supply stores as well as poultry associations in your area. But if you don’t find what you want locally, then you can order them online. Many hatcheries ship to other states, but there may be a quantity limit as well as additional shipping fees.
How many chickens to get for your backyard depends on your space and reasons for raising them. But if you’re thinking you’ll just start with one, you need to rethink this because chickens are flock birds.
They need the social aspect of having another chicken around and don’t do as well alone. If you’re buying them for eggs and meat for your family, a good rule of thumb is to buy at least two chickens in order to feed and supply eggs for every person in your family.
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