By Melissa Wynn
[media-credit name=”Stacy Fisher” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]
So you’ve decided to raise some chickens. The first question is what are you raising , the chicken or the egg? Many first timers are just looking for a few birds that can peck around and lay some eggs, others want table chickens for meat production and some would like a bit of both. Next do you want white eggs, brown eggs or blue-green colored eggs? Here are a few details to help you choose the breed best for you.
Leghorn chicken breeds are arguably the best laying chickens around save the Rhode Island breeds. A small, white, noisy bird with red comb and waddle, Leghorns like to move about. They are good foragers and can often glean much of their diet from ranging over fields and barnyards. Leghorns are light and like to take flight and often roost in trees when available. Leghorns lay more than 300 white eggs a year.
If colored eggs for fun is what you’re after then perhaps the Aracuna is the breed for you. The Araucana is a South American bird that is rumpless and a producer of 180-200 medium-sized blue/green eggs a year. Although the eggs are smaller, no dying needed for the Easter basket.
These are just a few of the breeds available for your own backyard barnyard. For a longer list and more details an awesome visit is countryfarm-lifestyles.com.