Eric Stromberg: [00:00:00] A few reasons to keep roosters on the farm. Some people like the actual noise that they crow and they make a lot of people will keep a rooster as kind of that first line of defense for the hens. If you look at a flock of chickens, All the hens are kind of down pecking at the ground, right? But the rooster, he’s up looking around, making sure they’re safe.
And if he does hear something, he’ll be first to sound the alarm and last into the coop, which that’s a very valuable thing. He protects the girls, sounds the alarm. What I found, if that’s the reason why you’re keeping a rooster, a lot of people don’t like roosters that are real tall and can jump up on them. So I get a heavy breed that can’t jump high. That’s one of my tricks. See if your listeners agree.
Josh Wilder: Welcome to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. At Mother Earth News, for 50 years and counting, we’ve been dedicated to conserving the planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources in this [00:01:00] podcast. We host conversations with experts in the fields of sustainability, homesteading, natural health, and more to share all about how you can live well wherever you are in a way that values both people and our Mother Earth.
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Kenny Coogan: Good day, everyone. I am Kenny Coogan and joining me on this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends is Eric Stromberg. Eric is the director of the poultry division at Stromberg’s. Today we are talking about easy chicken [00:02:00] breeds for new chicken owners. Welcome Eric.
Eric Stromberg: Hello, Kenny.
It’s nice to be here.
Kenny Coogan: I’m excited to have you. I’m sure the listeners are as well. Growing up, I loved getting my Stromberg’s Catalog in the winter and dreaming about the chicks and ducklings I would be purchasing in the spring. And I loved studying their sizes, colors, and purpose.
Today we’re going to be talking about easy chicken breeds for newbies, but I was thinking what would be a characteristic of a chicken that would make a breed more difficult to raise? Like what would be a not easy chicken breed.
Not So Easy Chicken Breeds for Newbies
Eric Stromberg: So this is a difficult question, Kenny. I don’t have any breeds that I would just say like, ‘Alright, this one’s a tough one to raise’, right?
But I would start to characterize different breeds that have characteristics that make them hard to raise, right? So, one of the characteristics that I would say that especially [00:03:00] new chicken owners should watch out for our birds that are considered flighty. And so a lot of times when you’re going through a catalog or a website, you might see this term flighty.
And as a new chicken owner, you’re thinking ‘ what does that mean’? They’re birds, they’re all flighty. They all have wings. Well, that’s not what they’re trying to express when they say that. So if you think of a flighty bird versus a non flighty bird, so all chickens are domesticated, right?
But some chickens are a little bit more wild than others. And so what I always think of is that two different breeds that you could kind of characterize this way would be a Buff Orpington. I would consider non flighty, a white leghorn I would consider very flighty. No matter how much you kind of approach and, let’s say handle a white leghorn or feed it treats, all that kind of stuff, it seems like no matter what, they’re always going to be more wild. They’re going to try to get away from you in the pen. They don’t really want to [00:04:00] come near you and things like that. So when you see flighty on a website or in a catalog, new chicken owners beware. It’s not necessarily that they’re bad chickens. It’s just they’re more independent, we’ll say.
So, just understand that not only will they be independent and not necessarily want to be near you, but they also like to, we’ll say, fly the coop. If you have a pen that’s got an open top, a lot of times they’ll like to jump out. And kind of forage on their own and do their own thing and then come back at night, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be difficult for a new chicken owner.
Big combs and waddles in cold temperatures can cause frostbite. Feather legged birds, legs can get, they drag in the mud and they can get dirty now, while that’s not a problem for me, some new chicken owners might want that, crisp, clean look of a clean chicken leg.
So some characteristics to avoid, but nothing that the chicken owner can’t overcome.
Catagories of Easy Chicken Breeds
Kenny Coogan: And just like many [00:05:00] domestic animals, people have been domesticating chickens for thousands of years, and we have over 500 breeds can you describe some different types of chickens available and what people could be looking into when they go down the rabbit hole of chicken breeds.
Standard vs Bantam Chicken Breeds
Eric Stromberg: Yeah, this is important, for a new chicken owner to understand. I’m not going to steer you necessarily towards a specific breed here, and we can talk about specific breeds of each type, but what we really want to talk about is kind of categories of chickens. And so we’re going to break that down into like five or six categories.
So it’s kind of bantam, standards, hybrids, egg layers, heritage, meat birds or dual purpose. So let’s kind of delve in to say, you know, ‘Hey, I got my new catalog’ or ‘I’m on the website. What am I looking for? What do these terms mean’? And so let’s just talk about the first general category that I would talk about with chickens is the size category, standard versus [00:06:00] bantam.
A standard size chicken is just like what we all think of, well, just we’re chickens, you know, they’re 7-8 pounds, maybe some of them bigger, some a little bit smaller, but generally, generally they’re in that range. Bantam size is going to be about half that size.
And so these really were developed, I believe it was when we started to move away from a rural setting and into an urban setting. People still wanted to keep chickens, just kind of like a toy poodle was bred from a regular sized poodle, we bred out these bantam chickens. Even if you’re in an urban setting, you can still have your chickens and collect your eggs and they’re smaller size. Some bantams are true bantams in that they don’t have a standard size counterpart. However, those are, those are a little bit more rare. That would be a silkie or a seabright. So, the bantam size of a Rhode Island Red would share a lot of the same characteristics of the standard size, just in a compact form.
Hybrid Chicken Breeds
Hybrids would kind of be the next category. [00:07:00] So think of hybrids, like you would a labradoodle or something like that. So you’re taking a lab and a poodle, you’re mixing them together and you’re getting the best of both worlds, the friendliness of the lab and the non shedding of the poodle. What they do with hybrid chickens, it’s kind of the same thing. A lot of times they’re aiming for a specific character trait like kind of like a super egg layer. So instead of 200 eggs a year, they’re going to get 270 plus. That’s a very desirable trait. You’re spending less on feed and getting eggs all the time. And people really like that.
Kenny Coogan: So you’re talking about useful hybrids. a few years ago for Backyard Poultry Magazine, I wrote an article about cinnamon queens, paint strippers, and showgirl chickens, bred just for their looks. You mentioned a silky chicken. I loved my flock of naked neck chickens. Some people started breeding the [00:08:00] fluffy silkies to the naked necks, and they call them showgirls, and I would say that’s kind of a useless chicken. But they are beautiful.
Eric Stromberg: Right? You can talk about those ornamental birds,
Kenny Coogan: They lay eggs
Egg Laying Chicken Breeds, Heritage Breeds, Meat Birds
Eric Stromberg: I wouldn’t say useless. They lay, they do lay eggs. We’re talking about new chicken keepers, fun personalities one thing that a new chicken keeper doesn’t necessarily realize is that they’re more like pets and you’re, you get to raise ’em and they’re fun to watch you get to know the different breeds and their personalities. so that kind of brings us to like egg layer chickens. So egg layers, you’re going to get the super egg layers, like what we discussed with the hybrids. But then there’s also some really good egg layers that would be heritage breeds. And so those would be like your Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire’s, Delaware’s, your meat birds, the most traditional is the Cornish Rock Cross, which is going to take a Cornish, and a Plymouth Rock, mix them together, and then you [00:09:00] get your, your super meat bird. Now, I will say for the, the beginner, I usually don’t recommend the Cornish rock cross.
I recommend a red broiler or a Red Ranger. There’s a few different variations on the market, but they grow a little bit slower. So a traditional Cornish Rock cross will grow in seven to eight weeks. I recommend for the new chicken keeper, something that might grow in 10 to 12 weeks. And they just feather out a little bit better, they’re a little bit easier to raise, and I feel like it’s a better process for the new chicken keeper.
Dual Purpose Chickens
Eric Stromberg: Dual purpose, best of both worlds, egg layer, meat bird. they’re not as prolific with either one of them. So, you’re not going to get as much meat, nor are you going to get as much eggs out of them as the hybrids. However, what you’ll do is you’ll raise them to about 17 weeks.
You’ll process the roosters that you don’t want for meat, and then you’ll keep your hens and there’ll be your egg layers. So that I feel like that covers any of the big categories [00:10:00] for us. So hopefully that helps the newbie chicken owner navigate that first question, right? It was, what do I want? Why is there so many different terms?
Pros and Cons of Mixed Flocks and Single Breeds
Kenny Coogan: Of course, this is a huge topic and I’ve always had mixed flocks, but sometimes on social media, full backyard of Speckled Sussex or Dominique is beautifully striking a lot of people who are getting into chickens, they’re going to buy maybe seven to 25. And they like to pick out a few of each breed. Can you tell us the pros and cons of having a mixed flock versus one breed?
Eric Stromberg: For new chicken owners, I recommend a mixed flock. it’s more fun to see different personalities how they grow, what they like. For instance, I just had a customer that called and what should I get? And it’s a friend. I’m going to recommend some of the ornamental that you talked about. That might be a more of a worthless [00:11:00] chicken.
Well, they’re fun to see in your flock. fun for kids I’ll say get a few of the egg layers. So you always constantly are in egg supply. Then some of the females, I’ll recommend that of the heritage breeds, just because they’re the traditional breeds. They’re really friendly, you know, like the buff Orpingtons or maybe the Speckled Sussex, but the biggest thing that I always recommend is just this variety, which is fun for chicken keepers.
I always recommend getting a Polish because they’re fun with the crested hat. So I really like the variety of them. However, if you want to breed your own chickens, I would recommend, a single flock.
And then keep your male ratio to about, five to seven females. you can start to breed them. You can keep an eye on how much feed your breed is consuming. You can track their health better because they are uniform. There are benefits to having, a flock of the same birds.
Kenny Coogan: Growing up, I was a member of the Western New York [00:12:00] Poultry Club. We had a veterinarian who was president. He was a veterinarian of dogs and cats, but his hobby was leghorns. He had every size, bantam, and standard, and every color. All the variations, breeding and hatching hundreds culling choosing the best he was really invested in leghorns.
Eric Stromberg: You see a lot of that, especially for show breeding towards the APA standard, the American Poultry Standard. And so then they’re selecting based on certain breed characteristics and really honing in on that breed, whether it, you know, might be leg color or feather color or shape of the bird. That’s when you get into one breed.
Healthy Chicken Breeds and Healthy Coops
Kenny Coogan: Are there some chicken breeds that are healthier than others? You mentioned a Cornish or Cornish cross, may be growing too fast for the newbie, or if you have a big waddle or comb, it might be not great in old climates. Are there any unhealthy chicken breeds? That have made it over the [00:13:00] centuries?
Eric Stromberg: We’ve really bred away from, breeds that have genes that are inherently unhealthy, you hear a lot about the Americana, there used to be an Araucana the reason why they never really took off is they had a lethal gene and they just couldn’t breed right. That’s why you hear the Americana term now, we’ve really gotten away from that and figured out the breeding.
For the new chicken owner, what’s the best thing I can do for my chicken’s health. I always recommend getting a good brand of feed and making sure they always have clean water, you always hear me say a clean coop is a healthy coop. I don’t feel like that comes down to the breed but more the husbandry of the chicken keeper or, you know, like health practices and things like that.
So I feel like through modern breeding as well as good feed practices. And if you’re a little bit concerned, there’s a lot of probiotics, vitamins, electrolytes that you can start to feed your chickens throughout their life [00:14:00] and it can really help.
Nosiest Chicken Breeds
Kenny Coogan: For newbie chicken owners who want to create a flock, you’ll notice that a lot of times chicks are available as straight runs, pullets, or cockerels. And my next question is there a noisiest chicken breed Somebody’s living in a suburb area that they should avoid? if you’re ordering cockerels, you should know they will be loud.
Eric Stromberg: You mentioned a few industry terms. A lot of times I’ll mention these and people are like, what is a straight run?
Kenny Coogan: Glazed over.
Eric Stromberg: Straight run means straight off the hatcher. You should get approximately 50 percent males, 50 percent females. Everyone always says you get more males than females. I feel like you get about 50 50. If you live in a city, you don’t want to order that. Cockerels, all males you definitely don’t want to order that. Females. That’s what you’re going for if you’re the urban chicken keeper, especially the urban chicken keeper, [00:15:00] or somebody that just enjoys peace and quiet on their property. So the loudest chicken breed, I don’t know if there’s a loud chicken breed versus another. However, I will say this. I feel like if you get a really large rooster, they’re going to be the loudest.
So if you get a real big rooster, they’re going to be just real loud. some people get used to it after time. You won’t even notice it, but I’m not going to say your neighbors won’t notice it. So.
Kenny Coogan: I wrote in my notes, Sereamas, one of the smallest chicken breeds. Those little roosters, might not be the loudest, but they are noisy.
Eric Stromberg: Yes.
Kenny Coogan: Producing a lot of noise.
Eric Stromberg: Different noises chickens make, rooster makes. which is crowing, but then the females also make a lot of noise, but they’re more quiet noises. Like you’ll hear, when they lay an egg, they make like a certain egg laying noise and, just kind of like [00:16:00] little personality quirks of each breed, and that’s why I always recommend a mixed flock because there’s all these different little noises that you get to hear from even the hens, which are, more subtle.
And fun to listen to.
Kenny Coogan: Sometimes those Sereamas, like a Chihuahua going up to a lion. Don’t realize how small they are.
Eric Stromberg: Yeah, I like that, for sure.
Kenny Coogan: We’re gonna take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsor, when we return, we’ll be focusing on the friendliest chicken breeds.
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Kenny Coogan: We are back with Eric Stromberg, director of the poultry division at Stromberg’s. We’re talking about easy chicken breeds. An easy chicken breed would be a friendly chicken breed. Are there maybe half a dozen chicken breeds that are very domesticated and very friendly you can think of?
Friendly Chicken Breeds
Eric Stromberg: if anybody ever asked me this question, the first breed that I say is a Buff Orpington, and I’ve had many Buff Orpingtons, not only do they seem to be really healthy, but they’re also super friendly. And I’ve always, any flock that I’ve ever had, I always find that that’s. Go to next. I would say Cochins they’re large birds. So they’re gonna lay large brown eggs They’ve got feathered feet people seem to like that and they have a [00:18:00] unique look they’re really friendly. Speckled Sussex. I’ve always thought that was a good one. I would also say Salmon Faverolle That is one of my favorite breeds. I’ve always loved them. They have a good personality, cool egg color, and just one of my favorites. So, you know, besides that, I think you just let your imagination go wild and try to find a good breed.
Kenny Coogan: If you allow them any free range, flighty birds are going to be going up in the trees, and you’re going to need a little coercing to get them back into the coop at night.
Eric Stromberg: Yep. Sometimes they’ll free range a little too far, and all of a sudden you’re saying, where are my chickens? if you have one flighty bird, it drags the other good birds away from the coop. The flighty bird seems to know how to get back easier than the other birds, the heavier breeds do seem more friendly, not only because they’re not flying into trees, but they’re sticking around. They’re more reliant on you.
Kenny Coogan: [00:19:00] When you were mentioning the cochins have a unique look I, think they remind me of like 1800s Victorian, like hoop skirt.
Eric Stromberg: Yeah, they’re a great bird. they’re super friendly. I recommend those.
Favorite Egg Layers
Kenny Coogan: A lot of people getting into chickens are looking for egg layers. That’s probably the gateway between dual purpose and then maybe eventually meet the birds. What are some of your favorite egg layers? Who are the most productive bird breeds?
Eric Stromberg: I mentioned red sexlings before. That’s my go to. Let’s say you’re getting a flock of 25 birds. I would always tell you get five red sexlings there’s a little variation like cinnamon queen. They’re hybrid egg layers and they’re, they’re actually really nice docile birds. But the nice thing about that, it’s kind of the anchor of your coop that is going to lay a bunch of eggs. So you’re not disappointed when your fancy looking birds stop laying eggs. And [00:20:00] then, what I think about for good egg layers is when I present my neighbors, family, friends with chicken eggs, is like the different colorations. So I like, an Easter Egger, an Americana bred to lay more colored eggs, the blues, greens, then I’ll say, let’s get some dark eggs like Welsummers, Cuckoo Marans now you have, this technicolor look to your egg cartons, maybe you get a white leghorn, which I did say this, those are flighty, but you know, you have a white lagern that’s giving you your white eggs, your Easter egger that’s giving you some colored eggs, your Buff Orpington’s giving you a standard brown egg and then a Welshmer that’s giving you a real dark egg. So then you have this really cool look to your egg carton when you hand it off to your friends and a lot of people don’t know about green eggs. So they’re freaked out at first but you assure them they’re the same they get to show their friends these cool looking eggs. So. That’s what I would recommend is kind of a for the newbie. If you’re looking for eggs, try to get a [00:21:00] different mix of eggs in your carton.
Kenny Coogan: How many chicken breeds are in the APA or the ABA? It’s over 500, maybe 600.
Eric Stromberg: I don’t know the exact counts, to be honest That’s a great trivia question. I wish I would have known.
Kenny Coogan: I’m not going to hold you accountable, Australorps are also one of my favorites.
Eric Stromberg: Yep, great bird.
Kenny Coogan: Egg layers and very friendly. not sure about Jersey Giants, but they’re
Eric Stromberg: Jersey Giants are an excellent large egg layer. and a friendly breed
Bad Egg Laying Chickens?
Kenny Coogan: Are there any mean chicken breeds that are also good layers? Malay are very tall birds, and they only lay one to three eggs a week.
Eric Stromberg: Right. So that would be your Old English. And so people love those birds, especially for their show quality. We were talking about, you know, the APA standard and things like that. Well, they’re show quality and people really enjoy showing both the bantams and the standards, but I would not [00:22:00] classify those as friendly birds. Also I get a lot of questions. How do I make my roosters more friendly? Well, I have never found the secret to making your rooster more friendly. However, I have met friendly roosters, but I don’t think it had to do with me. And I don’t think it had anything to do with the breed really. I just think I lucked out. So if anybody figures out the secret feel free to reach out.
Why Keep Roosters?
Eric Stromberg: A few reasons to keep roosters on the farm. Some people like the actual noise that they crow and they make a lot of people will keep a rooster as kind of that first line of defense for the hens. If you look at a flock of chickens, All the hens are kind of down pecking at the ground, right? But the rooster, he’s up looking around, making sure they’re safe.
And if he does hear something, he’ll be first to sound the alarm and last into the coop, which that’s a very valuable thing. He protects the girls, sounds the alarm. What I found, if that’s the reason why you’re keeping a [00:23:00] rooster, a lot of people don’t like roosters that are real tall and can jump up on them. So I get a heavy breed that can’t jump high. That’s one of my tricks. See if your listeners agree.
Kenny Coogan: That brings us to our last question: keeping chickens alive. Predators are the enemy of chicken keepers. Any breeds better adapted to predators? My neighbor made fun of my Polish, Silkies, she says if they have a lot of feathers on their head, they’re not great at avoiding predators. Some predators are built to eat small birds, talking about flighty birds. I imagine some are good at avoiding predators.
Eric Stromberg: The flighty birds are the best because they don’t seem to trust anything. Not only do they not trust me, but they’re not going to trust any kind of situation, like guys sitting in the backs of restaurants with their eyes on the door, that’s what I feel like a flighty bird is, is they’re always keeping an eye on the [00:24:00] situation, which I think is good for all birds. There’s birds that are the first to sound the alarm, those are the flighty birds like your white leghonrs, lakenvelders any of them that are, flighty, will stay alive and help sound the alarm, at night you mentioned sometimes you have a hard time getting them in.
I remember I had a group of white leghorns, five, 10 years ago, and they would roost in this tree right outside my second story bedroom window. You would look outside they’re, 20 feet in the air staring in the eye and you’re going, well, it looks safe enough. That does show that their natural instincts are to get real high up and stay away from predators. You, you mentioned the Polish, any breed that has that big crest well, that prevents them from seeing up real well, and where do a lot of predators come from? The sky. So they’re gonna be the last to know.
So as far as a good breed to avoid predators, Keep your birds inside, build a sturdy [00:25:00] pen with a top over it. These are your pets and there’s nothing more disappointing than getting 20 weeks into raising your pets and then all of a sudden they’re gone a lot of predator issues you can prevent as long as you’re, you know, checking on your pens daily.
I’m in Minnesota, so we have a lot of bear issues. we have to, electrify some of the runs I would recommend a good time door. That’s my recommendation if you want to avoid predators.
Kenny Coogan: Thank you Eric, for a great conversation about easy chicken breeds for newbies. It’s February now, but it’s a great time to be planning for your spring and summer chick arrivals.
Eric Stromberg: Order your birds early. They go fast.
Kenny Coogan: Thank you, Eric.
Eric Stromberg: Yeah, thank you. Nice to meet you, Kenny.
Jessica Anderson: Thanks again to Brinsea, our sponsor for this Mother Earth News and Friends podcast episode. You too can experience the Brinsea difference and maximize your hatch rates with Brinsea [00:26:00] incubators that monitor temperature and humidity and are made of antimicrobial materials.
Brinsea ships worldwide and provides stellar customer support to answer all your questions. Hatch your chicks with Brinsea, the leader in innovative incubation research. Learn more at Brinsea.com. Again, that’s www.Brinsea.com
Josh Wilder: thanks for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. To listen to more podcasts and get connected on our social media, visit motherearthnews.com/podcast. You can also email us at podcast@ogdenpubs.com with any questions or suggestions. Our podcast production team includes Kenny Coogan, Alyssa Warner, and myself, Josh Wilder.
Music for this episode is the song Hustle by Kevin MacLeod. The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast is a production of [00:27:00] Ogden Publications.
Jessica Anderson: Until next time, don’t forget to love your Mother.
