Chickens are one of the easiest and most popular animals to start your homestead with. Cows are more commitment than most beginner homesteaders are looking for (or should be looking for), pigs can also be quite the handful, and goats aren’t as useful immediately. That leaves chickens.
So, you’ve decided you want chickens on your homestead. Fantastic! There’s nothing quite like farm-fresh eggs. You’ll never go back to store-bought again, I promise you that. However, not all chicken breeds are created equal for beginner homesteaders. Some are more spirited, some may not do as well in your environment, and some just don’t lay as many eggs.
Do You Have the Right Setup for Chickens?
Grain or Grass?
Do you plan on having free-range chickens or do you plan on feeding them grain? Do you plan on supplementing with grain as necessary when grass is in short supply?
How Much Money Do You Have?
Chickens themselves are pretty cheap, that’s for sure. Buying the bird isn’t all there is to it, though.
Homestead hopefuls can dream about having chickens as a way to save on their grocery bill, but here’s the truth: it may cost just as much (if not more). If you’re feeding them grain, you’re cutting into your savings immediately. Even free-range chickens may need some grain if you hit a drought.
Do you know how to build a chicken coop? A chicken tractor? Do you know how to pen in your chickens? Do you know how to fence off your vegetables and herbs? Because your newfound tiny dinosaur friends will get into your vegetables and peck them to kingdom come.
Even if you’re doing all the building and fencing yourself, it can cost money to get started. If you’re buying all of that, your costs can easily triple.
Now, chickens get cheaper as you go. Once the upfront cost is out of the way, your margins aren’t so slim. The point is that if you’re strapped for cash, you may be better off buying eggs in the short run and saving your money to get chickens a little later.
Laying or Meat?
Both are great options, but the breed you choose will depend on which you want to do. There are, of course, dual-purpose breeds. Once ole Sally stops laying, give her the axe and have her for dinner.
That said, if you want to raise chickens for meat, you’ll probably want to look into broiler chickens. If you’re just looking for eggs, you’ll want laying hens.
Do You Need a Rooster?
If you want to keep making more chickens in-house, yes, you need a rooster. If you don’t mind buying new chicks, then no you don’t. Roosters offer some protection from predators, but you don’t want to count on them as your first line of defense.
How Much Space Do You Have?
Chickens aren’t particularly large, and they don’t need a whole lot of space. However, your feathered friends would prefer some breathing room. You want at least two square feet per chicken. Four is better, but two is fine. If you’re constructing a coop instead of a tractor, you’ll especially need to consider this.
Chicken Breeds for Beginner Homesteaders
Sex-link Poultry Hens
These are chickens that are bred to lay eggs faster. Expect them to lay daily from roughly the age of six months until they’re a year and a half or so old. After that, they tend to taper off, but they’ll still lay at least a couple of eggs a week.
If you want constant eggs on the farm, consider breeds like ISA Browns, Red and Black Sex-Links, or Golden Comets.
Tinted Eggs
Eggs come in plenty of colors! Tinted egg-laying hens usually don’t lay as often as Sex-links, but still produce a few eggs per week. These hens are great if you want to sell eggs because your customers will love the rainbow color palette in their weekly dozen eggs.
Fun-colored eggs come from chickens like French Black Copper and Cuckoo Marans, Whiting (True Blue and True Green), Ameraucanas, and Cream Legbar.
Chickens for Meat
This one is simple. You want to raise chickens to eat them? Not so concerned about their egg production? You want to look at Astralorps, Orpingtons, Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds (very popular), and Plymouth Rocks. All of these breeds produce males that are at least eight pounds full-grown – on average, of course.
Easy Going Chickens
Seriously, you may want to just start with more docile chickens. Easter Eggers, Barred Rocks, Brahmas, and Ameraucanas (tinted eggs too). These chickens are friendlier and easier to start with if you’re not used to being a chicken farmer.
Start with Some Chicks
Sometimes the best thing to do is just start. Go buy some chicks, read up on keeping them healthy, and just know that they aren’t all going to make it. It’s a bummer, but that’s just part of life on the farm. The more you go through this process, the more you’ll know about raising chickens, expanding your homestead, and getting the freshest eggs imaginable.
