Choosing chicken breeds

Chicken breeds are like dogs. They come with all different personalities and traits.

You may want chickens that lay different egg colors. For blue eggs, consider Americaunas, Easter Eggers, or Cream Legbars. Certain breeds of Easter Eggers lay pink eggs. If you want a deep chocolate colored egg, choose a Copper Marans. For green eggs, there are olive eggers (a cross between a blue egg layer and brown egg layer). Of course there are many breeds that lay a standard white or light brown egg.

Some chickens are known to be especially friendly pets. Silkies, while not the best egg layers in terms of egg size or frequency, are extra soft and cuddly. Easter Eggers are also often quite friendly. However, Easter Eggers are chicken “mutts” so their friendliness will partially depend on their pedigree. For example, Legbars tend to be more flighty than Americaunas. If you are a desert dweller, look for heat tolerant breeds. If you live in a cold climate with snowy winters, choose cold hardy breeds.

If you are looking for chickens that are smaller in size, Bantams are a good choice. There are a variety of breeds.

Other considerations when picking breeds include, whether they are good foragers or tolerate coop living, noise level, tendency to become broody, and how many eggs they lay in a year.

I chose my chickens based on egg color, friendly nature, and quieter demeanor. They each have their own personality, despite several being the same breed. We have an Easter Eggers that lays pink eggs and she is the friendliest of our chickens. Another of our Easter Eggers is much louder and dislikes being picked up. The third Easter Egger is our broody girl. Our Copper Marans loves to forage and is always the last one in the coop. With these 4 chickens, we have a lovely combination of blue, pink, and chocolate eggs.