Breeders will sometimes part with a few hens or a breeding trio (a cock and two hens), and you can often find chickens for sale at country flea markets, poultry swap meets, or via classified and bulletin board ads. However, buying adult chickens can be risky. Not all sellers are honest, and it’s easy to buy someone else’s problem hens.
Ideally, you should buy fowl only from flocks enrolled in the USDA’s National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP). These birds are certified free of pullorum (a severe, diarrheal disease) and typhoid and are healthier than your run-of-the-mill chickens. Choose active, alert, clear-eyed chickens with smooth, glossy feathers and bright, fleshy, waxy combs and wattles. Refuse birds that cough, wheeze, or have discharge or diarrhea. Tip the chicken forward and scope out the area around its vent, and also check under its wings. If you spy insects or eggs and you don’t want to deal with parasites, you’d best not buy the bird.
If you want eggs or plan on eating the chickens, you must buy young ones. Young adults have smooth shanks; older birds’ shanks are dry and scaly, and their skin is thick and tough. Cockerels have wee nubs where their spurs will grow, and some pullets have them, too; long spurs denote an older bird. Press on the chicken’s breastbone; a youngster’s is flexible, while old chickens have rigid breastbones.
| Which Breed? Breeds most likely to make great pets: Barnevelder, Belgian d’Uccle, Cochin, Dorking, Jersey Giant, Naked Neck (Turken), Orpington, Polish, Plymouth Rock, Silkie, Sussex Other easygoing, friendly breeds: Ameraucana, Araucana (usually), Aseel (cocks are aggressive toward one another), Brahma, Dominique, Faverolles, Java, Langshan, Sultan, Welsummer, Wyandotte (usually) Cold-hardy breeds: Araucana, Ameraucana, Aseel, Australorp, Brahama, Buckeye, Chantecler, Cochin, Dominique, Faverolles, Hamburg, Java, Jersey Giant, Langshan, Old English Game (dubbed), Orpington, Rosecomb, Silkie, Sussex, Welsummer, Wyandotte Breeds prone to frostbitten combs: Andalusian, Campine, Dorking, Leghorn, New Hampshire Red, New Hampshire White, Rhode Island Red (Roosters are more likely than hens to suffer frostbite; their combs are larger, and they don’t tuck their heads under their wings while sleeping as hens do.) Heat-tolerant breeds: Andalusian, Aseel, Brahma, Buttercup, Cubalaya, Fayoumi, Leghorn, Minorca, Modern Game, New Hampshire Red, Rhode Island Red, Rosecomb, Silkie, Spanish White Faced, Sumatra Flying breeds: Ancona, Andalusian, Campine, Fayoumi, Hamburg, Lakenvelder, Leghorn, Rosecomb, Sebright, nearly all bantams Noisy breeds: Andalusian, Cornish, Cubalaya, Leghorn, Modern Game, Old English Game Flighty breeds: Ancona, Andalusian, Buttercup, Fayoumi, Hamburg, La Fleche, Lakenvelder, Leghorn, Minorca, Sebright, Spanish White Faced Aggressive breeds: Ancona, Aseel (cocks), Old English Game, Cornish (cocks), Rhode Island Red (cocks), Cubalaya, Modern Game, Rhode Island Red (some strains), Sumatra, Wyandotte (some strains) Self-reliant breeds (good foragers, ideal free-range chickens): Andalusian, Australorp, Belgian d’Uccle, Buckeye, Buttercup, Campine, Chantecler, Dominique, Fayoumi, Hamburg, Houdan, Java, La Fleche, Lakenvelder, Marans, Minorca, New Hampshire Red, Old English Game, Orpington, Plymouth Rock, Rosecomb, Sebright, Silkie, Sussex, Naked Neck (Turken), Welsummer, Wyandotte (Note: Avoid all-white individuals; they’re more easily spotted by predators than colored and patterned varieties of the same breeds.) Breeds that tolerate confinement reasonably well: Araucana, Ameraucana, Australorp, Barnevelder, Brahma, Buckeye, Cochin, Cornish, Crevecoeur, Dominique, Dorking, Faverolles, Houdan, Java, Jersey Giant, La Fleche, Lakenvelder, Langshan, Leghorn, Naked Neck (Turken), New Hampshire Red, Orpington, Plymouth Rock, Polish, Rhode Island Red, Silkie, Sultan, Sussex, Welsummer, Wyandotte Breeds that don’t tolerate confinement well: Ancona, Andalusian, Buttercup, Cubalaya, Fayoumi, Hamburg, Malay, Minorca, Modern Game, Old English Game, Spanish White Faced, Sumatra |
How Many Chickens?
If you’re new at chicken keeping, don’t overextend yourself. Start small and learn as you go. The downside to this advice is that adding new birds to an established flock upsets its pecking order and spawns stress. Overall, though, it’s better for your birds to hatch out a new hierarchy than for you to bite off more than you can chew.
By the same token, if you’re experienced or you’re certain about how many you want to keep, you’ll save your chickens a lot of stressful infighting—and possibly disease—by buying all the birds you need up front and then maintaining a closed flock (meaning that you don’t add new adult chickens to an established flock) until you start back at square one again.
Unless you can spend a lot of quality time with a pet chicken (as you might with a house chicken), buy at least two. Chickens are sociable birds; a solitary cock or hen will be lonely.
You should also buy at least one layer hen per family member—or more if your family eats a lot of eggs or if you choose a dual-purpose breed. If you plan to maintain a closed flock, you should allow for several years’ flock mortality. To do this, purchase 10–20 percent more chicks than you initially think you’ll need, but don’t buy more birds than you can properly house.
City Chickens
If you live in the suburbs or in a city, you can still probably keep a few hens. True, there are limits and stipulations, and some of them are strict, but chicken fanciers across the land in cities as diverse as New York City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Seattle, Des Moines, and Fort Worth keep city chickens. Chances are, your city or town allows them, too.
If you’re looking for a way to justify raising chickens, look no further. Here are seven very good reasons to raise city chickens:
1.Bring a sense of country to the city and a touch of the past to our busy, modern lives. Slow down. Watch your chickens scratching in the dirt, loping after bugs, being chickens. Kick back and dream of less hectic times.
2.The eggs! The yummy, fresh-from-the-hen eggs, with yolks so rich that your mouth will water. Eggs to bake with. Eggs to share with friends. And you don’t need a huge flock to supply them. Three or four young hens keep the average family supplied with tasty cackleberries, often with some to spare. And there’s a bonus: research indicates that chickens allowed to roam freely and nosh on grass and bugs lay eggs that are higher in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E. They’re lower in cholesterol than commercial eggs, too.
3.What to do with the leftover salad or last night’s broccoli with cheese? It’s bonus feed for the chickens, of course! Chickens safely and happily devour almost anything except large portions of meat or fat; raw potatoes, potato peelings, and potato vines; tomato vines; avocados, guacamole, or avocado skins and pits; tobacco (pick up those cigarette butts); and spoiled or excessively salty or sugary foods, especially chocolate. Avoid onions and garlic, as their lingering flavor taints those yummy eggs, and citrus or citrus peels tend to lower egg production.
4.Chicken manure in your yard and garden? Oh, yes! Chicken droppings are high in nitrogen and make excellent natural fertilizer. Your gardener friends and neighbors will stand in line for your chicken-coop cleanings, and if you let your hens wander around the backyard for a few hours a day, they will help green your lawn.
5.Chickens rid your yard of bugs. Cockroaches, aphids—they’re fair game to hungry chickens, and as the hens scratch around, seeking tasty bugs, they automatically aerate your soil. Chickens also eat grass and weeds, which can cut down on their feed bills. If you build a chicken tractor for your urban hens, you can put them to work anywhere in your yard.
6.By keeping your hens, you’re saving lives. If you aren’t familiar with the conditions under which factory-farmed hens are kept, research the subject. By keeping your own infinitely healthier and happier layers, you’re reducing the demand for store-bought eggs. Less demand means fewer cruelly imprisoned commercial hens. Simple.
7.And, finally, chickens are funny, low-maintenance pets. They’re surprisingly intelligent and have quirky, endearing