Egg Color
You may be accustomed to seeing brown and white eggs at the store, but some breeds lay blue eggs, others green, others deep chocolate brown, cream-colored and almost everything in between! We adore the variety of colors we get from our flock. These are the breeds to look at if you want a colorful egg basket:
For blue eggs: Araucanas
For green/blue eggs: Ameraucanas
For deep reddish-brown eggs: Barnvelders, Welsummers
For very dark, chocolate brown eggs: Cuckoo Marans
For pinkish brown eggs: Plymouth Rocks, Salmon Faverolles
For cream-colored eggs: Polish, Sussexes
For white eggs: White Leghorns, Anconas, Minorcas, Andalusians, Campines
For normal brown eggs: Rhode Island Reds, Australorps, New Hampshire Reds, Delawares, Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes
Save a Rare Breed
In today's homogenous world of agro-farming, just a few breeds of chicken are produced en masse and the continuance of hundreds of other "heritage" breeds ultimately depends on small farmers and backyard flock owners like us! Consider raising heritage breeds for your own flock.
Endangered breeds include:
Purebred Araucanas
Dominiques
Dorkings
Spanish (a.k.a. White Faced Black Spanish)
Buckeyes
Asils
If you need help making your decision, give our free Which Chicken tool a whirl!
To Chick or Not to Chick?
An important choice is whether to start with baby chicks or "started pullets": hens that have just started laying.
We love starting with baby chicks. They're too cute to pass up! But there are drawbacks: they require much more tender loving care than full-grown hens and it'll take 4-5 months before they start laying. Plus, they can be difficult to come by in small quantities. The large hatcheries ship a minimum of 25 at a time, so if you only want a few you'll have to find other people to split your order with. However, our minimum is 3-10, depending on your location and the types of birds you're ordering! Visit our baby chicks category at left to see all the breeds we carry. (Also, you can read more about baby chick care in the next chapter, and you can learn about how we ship baby chicks.)
Shipping baby chicks can be expensive, too. (Our shipping cost is $34.95 if you're ordering fewer than 25 chicks.) Get around that by buying them from a garden or farm supply store. Some carry baby chicks in the spring and you can purchase as many or as few as your want. But these stores can be difficult to find and have limited selection - so if you want a fancy or rare breed, you may be out of luck.
Finally, be sure to purchase "sexed" female chicks as opposed to "straight run" (mixed male and female), otherwise you will end up with roosters - lots of them! Which leads right into...
Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!
Thinking about keeping a rooster? We don't recommend it for first-time flock owners... at least not to start! Contrary to popular belief, roosters are not needed for hens to lay eggs. Plus, they are loud and may cause a problem with zoning ordinances and neighbors. Many people think roosters just crow in the morning. Consider that myth busted! They crow throughout the day. That said, they are GORGEOUS and do help protect hens against predators. Once you have experience with hens, neighbors, zoning ordinances etc., you'll be in a better position to give one a try.
Where To Get Chickens
Baby chicks can be purchased at a bird hatchery, garden or farm supply store, or check out our day old baby chicks at My Pet Chicken!. Grown chickens you can obtain either at a hatchery or a local farm near you.
My Pet Chicken
