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Literally, you can find countless chicken breeds to choose from for whatever you'd like one for: eggs, a pet, or meat. Picking out a chicken for your backyard flock can appear difficult, with all of the possible choices in beautiful exotics, fabulous egg layers, and dispositions that there are.

Top Types for Egg Laying

Every chicken lays eggs, but not all will lay every day until they're 4 years old. The trade-off with good egg layers is that they typically do not like to sit, so fertilizing and hatching most likely are not possible without an incubator.

The best layers for white eggs are:

Catalina: shy, nervous

Hamburg: Stressed, timid

Ancona: Stressed, Crazy

Andulasian: Flighty, can be anxious

Minorca: Moderate disposition, can be amiable but tense

Redcap: Crazy, poor disposition

Holland: Good disposition, Friendly

Lakenvelder: Beautiful breed, nervous

Leghorn: Loud, tense, shy

The very best brown egg layers are:

Australorp: Good disposition, friendly

Java: Friendly, Exotic

Naked Neck Turkin: Good disposition

Plymouth Rock:  Good disposition, friendly, docile

Rhode Island: Aggressive

Delaware: Good disposition

Dominique: Good egg production and personality, will also brood.

Sussex: Good disposition, friendly

Wyandotte: A favorite egg layer because of their friendliness.

Most suitable Kinds for Meat

The chief purpose with meat production is chickens which put on a good bit of weight in the first 16 weeks of life. For most, because they are not predicted to be long-lived, the breed's temperament is not as relevant as with egg layers that you deal with on a daily basis for years. Superb meat producers are:

Cornish: Thin feathered, will have to be protected against cold; poor egg layers

Cornish Cross: hybrid with fast growth, but prone to heart attacks and broken legs

Quite a few kinds are good dual purpose options, striking a balance between growth and egg laying. Virtually all of these types will lay between 4 and 5 eggs every week.

Araucana

Australorp

Barnevelder

Brahma: Very nice to look at, though not a top layer this chicken lays a respectable mount of eggs and makes a great pet, too.

Buckeye: a heritage breed

Catalina: A dual purpose bird that is also a top layer.

Delaware

Dominique

Dorking

Holland

Hungarian Yellow

Orpington

Plymouth Rock

Wyandotte

Whether your goal is egg laying or meat, the variety of breed alternatives can be difficult.

Pet or Ornamental Varieties

If you want to spend time with your hens, then temperament is crucial. Gathering up eggs from aggressive birds is a struggle. If kids will be involved, breed temperament is all the more essential.

Quite often, Silkies are towards the top of people's list of leading breeds as pets. They should be kept warm and dry. Their feathers are more like fur than feathers, really. If they get wet,  they become immediately soggy.

Silkies don't just look great, but they have a wonderful disposition for pets also. They have no issue with small kids or grown ups carrying them around. This little docile chicken will both lay eggs and tend the nest. The eggs are a third of a ordinary chicken's egg, but are excellent eating.

Additional ornamental breeds include:

Serama: A tiny perfect miniature chicken. Proud upright stance in a two to 3 pond package. Wonderful disposition.

Showgirls: These hens have fluffy feathers on their body and the peak of their head but a bare neck.

Sizzle or Frizzle: These chickens have curly or wavy feathers and appear as it they have been through a windstorm.

Sultan: Has a "hat" of upright feathers - fluffy and fancy

Yokohama: another long tailed breed

Phoenix: Very long tail feathers that require special roosting conditions - very beautiful

Cochin: Both standard and Bantam Cochins are viewed as decorative, but they are reasonable egg layers. They are fairly docile and attractive with full long feathering and a waterfall type tail. Their feathers make them appear twice as large as they actually are. The feathers go completely down to their toes.

Selecting the best breed to meet your needs could be a overwhelming job, but it is worth the effort.

For much more information on the subject, viewCommon Breeds of Chickens.  If you're looking into building a hen house, view Chicken Coop Plans.

If you are worried about the chicken laws in your area, check with local authorities to find out what they are. Chicken keeping laws vary from place to place.

Some restrictions only allow a certain number of chickens and no roosters, make it mandatory that coops be a specific distance (fifty to a hundred feet is common) away from other structures, and more. Some areas prohibit poultry altogether unless you have a specified amount of land (often an acre or more).

Here are a few of the regulations about hen keeping nationally:

Dallas does not allow roosters.

Coops in Austin must be 50 feet away from other buildings/properties.

Ft. Worth limits the number of chickens by property size and requires that coops be at least 50 feet away from buildings.

In Houston you must have a special permit that gives the number of chickens and their purpose, whether they are for personal use or commercial.

Los Angeles does not have many laws regulating backyard chickens.

Oakland, CA prohibits roosters.

San Diego allows chickens, but limits you to 25 birds, containers of hen feed must be impenetrable to rats, and all droppings have to be cleaned out at least one time a week.

Key West, FL requires daily coop cleaning and gives specific guidelines for waste disposal which prohibit its use as fertilizer.

Charlotte, NC requires a $40 permit to keep chickens, limits the number by property size, limits the size of coops/pens, etc.

Concord, NC prohibits keeping chickens.

Columbus, OH requires a minimum of five acres to keep hens and they must be 100' away from roads or other properties.

Huntsville, Al allows chickens as long as you keep the 150' away from neighboring homes.

In Homewood, Al it is against the law to have chickens in the city limits unless they are 300' from neighboring residences and buildings, and one hundred feet from any roads.

Denver, CO has several requirements.  You must place two signs in your yard for a month to find out if neighbors object, pay a $50 application fee, 100 dollar permit fee, and a $70 annual fee and be subject to periodic inspections of the sanitary conditions of your flock.

Washington, DC requires you to get written permission from your neighbors and keep hens at least fifty feet from other homes.

As you can see chicken laws vary widely. Some cities have no regulations regarding hens, but will cite you for disturbing the peace if your hens are too noisy for your neighbors.

Be sure you have checked local regulations before you begin your own flock.

For more information on this topic, view Laws About Chickens. If your are thinking about building your own hen house coop, visit How to Build a Chicken Coop.

Chicken coop plans are usually available in your local building center as well as online. Some plans are a free download with a list of all the materials needed for building. Some of the best chicken coops are built by hand, with your needs in mind.

When you are planning your chicken housing and runs, make sure to plan for your climate as well as the number of hens that you want to provide for. Each full sized chicken needs at least 4 sq ft of space. This means that for every 3 chickens you plan to have, you will need twelve square feet of space.

Of course, the more space you give them, the happier the chickens will usually be. Larger spaces means less squabbling, more exercise, and less illness.

There are also chicken coop kits available that have all of the construction materials included. These are usually sized for about three hens and can be cost prohibitive.

If you are only going to keep a couple of chickens, you can buy a coop and run ready made online or by mail order. Most of these kits will sit directly on the ground and will not be proof against predators. They are convenient, however, because they can be easily moved. As a secondary day pen, they can be perfect as a way to easily allow movement to fresh areas of the yard.

Be wary of building materials that can be a hazard to both birds and eggs when building your own. Pressure treated lumber often has arsenic in it, which will be ingested when the hens peck at the wood. Do not use paint with lead or aluminum in its base. Anything your chicken eats can end up in her eggs and thus on your plate.

Chicken wire should not be used as your only fencing to keep out predators. Dogs, coyotes, raccoons, fox, skunks, and many other predators can tear right through chicken wire with ease.

When designing your chicken coop plans, only use chicken wire for the bottom of the cage so that predators cannot dig under it. It's a good deterrent to digging under the cage because the predator doesn't have the leverage there to break through. He will get discouraged and give up.

Heavier gauge wire should be used on the sides and top of your pen to protect your chickens. Even if your coop provides for lock down at night, many predators will still try to get through to eat leftover grain, drink from their water, and will try to get into the coop itself.

If there are raccoons in your area, you may have to use a padlock to keep them out of the coop. A slide bolt or hasp is easily beaten by a chicken-killing, veteran raccoon. So be sure to plan for the types of predators in your area.

A diy chicken coop can be the beginning of a fun, enoyable hobby for you and your family.

Feeding chickens is more than just throwing grain, you must take into account the age of the hens and your goal for them. You'll need to use different feed for hens which will be egg producers than you will for those meant for meat production.

Feeding Chicks

Baby chicks should always start out on a chick starter that is 20 to 22% protein for egg producers, and up to twenty-four percent protein for meat chickens. Starter should be used until the age of 6 to 9 weeks, depending on the chicken's breed and its maturity level. After maturity, the feed should be switched to "broiler finish" grains until they are ready for slaughter (if meat hens) - otherwise, continue with the egg feed.

Often, antibiotics are added to the feed of meat hens to prevent Coccidiosis. This is also a good idea for any chicken unless you are planning to sell products that are "free range" or "organic".

Commercially grown meat hens are often loaded with hormones, so raising meat chickens at home is a popular way to avoid ingesting those.

Adult Chickens

Adult chickens should be put on a 14 percent protein feed. Calcium is extremely important for laying hens and in the extra-large breeds like Jersey Giants that need strong bones to hold their weight.

Adult hen feed comes in mash and scratch, pellets, and crumbles. A balanced diet for hens is usually made by mixing scratch with pellets or crumbles and supplementing with calcium and vegetables.

Adding clean, crushed egg shells into their feed can supplement the calcium for the hens. They will eat what they need if it is available.

Peelings and Vegetables

All leftover vegetables such as spinach, romain, apple peelings, and whole grains like oatmeal, barley, and small amounts of fruit will make for healthier hens. Just remember this is a supplement to chicken feed, not a replacement. Chicken feed has all the protein and nutrients the chickens need.

So long as it's fresh and not a meat product, it can be thrown to the chickens instead of the garbage.

A Chicken Tractor/Mobile

Chicken tractors give you the ability to move your flock from place to place in your yard. This allows the vegetation, available bugs, and grit fresh and the hens exercised. If you haven't the room for free ranging, you can use a chicken tractor to move them in a relatively small space without ruining it.

This movement will keep your yard from getting brown areas where the chickens have been.

Hazards

Beware of using fertilizers or pesticides in areas where the chickens will be scratching. They are not picky when pecking at granules on the ground and can poison themselves and your eggs.

They can also become poisoned from grass and plants where you have used weed killers or spray fertilizers. Whatever your chickens eat ends up in them and their eggs. Pesticides and chemicals can be in your eggs before the hen shows any sign of illness.

Chickens raised properly can provide eggs and meat with great nutritional value for your family. Well fed hens can greatly enhance your breakfast and dinner tables.

For information about building a chicken coop, take a look at Chicken Coop Plans.

Read Chicken Coop Kits for an even easier project.