How To Choose The Best Chicken Breed: See Important Guidelines

The best chicken breed to rear in your farm greatly depends on the purpose for which you want to have a poultry farm. It is always very difficult especially for beginners in the poultry business to identify the best chicken breed to rear in their farms. There are different chicken breeds available to choose from. The best chicken breed actually means different things to different people.

For the people that have an expectation of their chickens in their poultry farming business, we have come up with the list of the best chicken breeds that you can see around. Depending on your expectation from your chicken, this article contains the list of the best chicken breed for laying eggs, meat production, friendliness, beautiful appearance etc.

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Guideline To Choosing The Best Chicken Breed

In order to choose the best chicken breed for you, you have to first decide your purpose of raising chickens in the first place. If you want to raise chickens for meat production, then you must choose the best breed for quality meat production. Should your purpose for raising chickens be egg production, you must as well choose the best chicken breed for large number of quality eggs. For those of you that want to raise chicken as pets, there are very good and calm breeds of chicken that serves such purpose. The best chicken breed therefore varies from one person to another. This is because of the different purpose for which an individual rears chickens. These different chicken breeds have their own advantages and disadvantages. You must know that there is no one breed of chicken that has it all.

The Different Breeds Of Chicken That You Can Choose From:

The best chicken breed for beginners is listed here for you to really understand the different chicken breeds available.

1. Egg Laying Breeds

When it comes to the laying of eggs, the best chicken breed is often found between the Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds. These chicken breeds lay not less than 5 eggs per week. The top chicken breeds for egg production include:

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• Australorp

This Australian Orpington currently holds the world record for the greatest egg output in one year, which are 364 eggs. The good thing about this breed is that is can also serve as meat.

• Delaware

Also a wonderful breed of chicken for egg production. It lays at least 4 eggs per week. It can also serve a dual purpose for both meat and egg production.

• Buckeye

When you talk about the best breed of chicken for your farm, the Buckeye is a great addition. This chicken thrives in the cold environment. They produce as much as 200 eggs a year and be slaughtered as early as 16 weeks for their meat.

• Sussex

The Sussex is also a superstar in egg production. It can give you between 250-300 eggs per year.

2. Meat Breeds

When it comes to the best chicken breed for meat production, you must consider the following best chicken breeds for beginners.

• Cornish Cross

This Cornish cross is the real deal when it comes to meat production in poultry farming business all around the world. They grow so fast that their bodies fail to keep up with the weight, thus they are slaughtered in less than 10 weeks of birth. The only disadvantage here is that they consume a lot f feeds.

• Jersey Giants

This breed of chicken is one of the largest breeds of chick alive today. Their weight around 10-13 lb.  They are slow growers and can be butchered at the age of 16 weeks.

3. Friendly Breeds of Chicken

Many people actually grow chicken to serve as pets. If you belong to this category of people, then this special breed of chicken will be of great benefit to you. This very breed enjoys the presence of people. The friendliest and most interactive poultry chickens include;

• Cochin

This breed has fluffy feathers and love to be really cuddled by human beings. There is no doubt that it can easily become a lap chicken for the owner.

The other examples include, Brahmas, Faverolles, Orpingtons, Polish, and Sultan.

4. Chicken Breeds Known for their Appearance

For those of you that enjoy the eye catchy appearance of chickens, here is the list of the major eye catching and funny looking chickens.

• Polish
• Silkie
• Onagadori
• Phoenix
• Houdan
• Turken etc.

Things To Consider When Choosing The Best Chicken Breed

While it very good a very good chicken breed for whatever purpose you like, there are different breed characteristics you should consider as well. Your choice of best chicken breeds should greatly be influenced by these characteristics. Some of these important characteristics include:

1. Space Savers

This breed will be perfect for those people with small land space like backyard or tiny living quarters. The bantam sized chicken is ideal for you, if you find yourself in such living environment. These bantams breed are really fun to be with, and they lay moderate number of eggs as well. They prefer moderate environmental conditions. They don’t tolerate extreme temperatures.

2. Adaptability Of The Chicken Breed

Whichever breed of chicken that you choose to be the best for you, they must be able to adapt to different environmental changes, not extreme changes though. As a beginner, your chickens can adapt to different environmental changes so long as you provide good food, shelter, and medication to your poultry birds.

3. The Cost Of Keeping Such Breed

The cost of establishing any business is always a key factor to consider when venturing into any business. The chicken breed selector tools you choose should be able help you minimize the cost o doing business. Without having in mind the amount of money it will cost you to keep that particular chicken breed, you will be shooting yourself in the foot. Your chicken breed selector tool must never fail to put cost into consideration before choosing the best chicken breed.

Always remember that your purpose and need for venturing into poultry farming business comes first before your start considering the best chicken breed to suit that your need and purpose. I hope you find this guide very useful in choosing best chicken breeds for your business.

 

 

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