What About Chicken Breeds

There are many breeds to choose from but it is important to choose the breeds for your particular area, and needs. Some breeds do better in areas where the weather is cooler and others do better in hot temperatures. You will also want to consider breeds for your particular needs and wants. Such as, do you want chickens that lay eggs or do you want chickens for their meat? Perhaps you want chickens who are egg producers and also meat producers. These are called dual purpose chickens. Chickens also come in two sizes.You can have both sizes in your flock. They will get along. The large size is considered standard size the small size are call Bantam. The Bantam are usually raised for ornamental purposes. Their eggs are edible, but they do not lay on a regular schedule and the eggs are considerably smaller than standard size eggs.If you live in an area where temperatures drop below freezing during part of the year or year around you would definitely want standard size chickens rather than the Bantam. You need to check the size of the combs and the waffles since the smaller they are it is less likely they will be affected by frostbite.If the temperatures go above 100° the large size feathery chickens would not do well in your area. You should consider the bantams except for the feathered footed varieties.If you are looking strictly for egg production, then of course you will look for the laying breeds. There are many people who consider the best layers to be inconsistent and nervous around humans. No doubt you will find it will depend on how you treat them initially and their individual personalities.If you want to raise chickens for their meat the dual purpose breeds will serve you well.The dual purpose chickens are the most common around the world. So if you want egg producers and meat producers the dual purpose chickens are the ones to consider. There are many breeds in that category.Perhaps you are considering raising chickens for game, exhibitions and show. For many years, chickens have been cross bred strictly for this purpose and so you have many many breeds from which to choose the chickens for exhibition.Obviously, as in anything you should educate yourself about the different breeds and what you can expect from them. You need to consider what you want from your chickens whether it be eggs or meat or both. You want to be sure you get the ones that will survive best in your area depending upon the extreme temperature changes.

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