Chicken Breeds Archives - Page 2 of 2 - DIY Chicken Coop Plans

Raising Silkie Chickens

April 24, 2013March 27, 2016 by John White

The Silkie Chicken is unlike any other and will add an eclectic flair to your backyard chicken coop. Known for its silky, fluffy feathers, the Silkie Chicken comes in full-sized and bantam varieties and is among the most docile of chicken breeds. Interesting to look at, famously friendly, and soft to the touch, this breed makes a great pet as well as a decent layer.

History of the Silkie Chicken

While no one knows exactly when or how this breed was developed, the Silkie Chicken has been around for centuries. Most notably, it was mentioned in Marco Polo’s travel journals in the 13th century. The Silk Route brought the breed out of Asia and into the west and with them came a lot of myths and stories about this strange looking bird. For a time, Dutch breeders claimed that the Silkie Chicken was a cross between rabbits and chickens. There was, of course, no truth to these claims. The American Standard of Perfection accepted the breed in 1874 and by the 21st century the breed was a popular ornamental chicken breed for backyard farmers.

Breed Characteristics

A small chicken, even a full size male Silkie Chicken weighs only 4 lbs. It is soft and fluffy and unable to fly. The Silkie Chicken has black skin and comes in a wide variety of feather colors, including black, white, blue, gray, partridge, and buff. Some Silkie Chickens are bearded and others are not. All have feathered legs and five toes. They are known for their friendly personalities, making them particularly good pets and great chickens for children to help raise. Laying about 100 eggs annually, they’re certainly not the best layers among chicken breeds. They are extremely broody, though, and even raise offspring of other birds if given the chance to do so. Their broodiness is a big reason for their relatively low egg production. To increase egg production, collect eggs as soon as possible each day before your Silkie Chicken has the chance to sit on them and attempt to hatch her
eggs.

Silkie Chickens are not generally raised for meat in the West, as their black meat is considered unpalatable. In some Asian cultures, however, it is a prized delicacy. Silkie Chickens are also used in Chinese medicine.

Acquiring Silkie Chicks

Silkie Chicks can be purchased online from a variety of companies. They may be available occasionally from your local farm supply store as well. Silkie Chicken breeders can easily be found online, offering carefully bred show chickens for a premium price. No matter how you acquire them, your new chicks must be kept warm in a box for the first few weeks of their lives. They’ll need a constant supply of feed and water. Silkie chicks are late to mature. This means it will be hard to tell the male from the female chicks for some time. Your first clue may be when they either start to crow or lay eggs, which can take eight months or even longer! This is unique among chicken breeds.

As your chicks grow up, provide them with plenty of living space and a secure place to roam, safe from predators. Keep your chicken coop clean, feed your chickens quality food, and they’ll live a long and productive life. With good care, a Silkie Chicken can easily live 7-9 years.

Silkie Chickens are great for novices and experienced backyard farmers alike. Their friendly personality, unique looks, and soft feathers make them a great addition to any flock.

Photo by Anne White

The Father of All Chickens – A Short Story of the Red Jungle fowl

April 20, 2013January 31, 2016 by John White

The Red Jungle fowl is an ancient bird said to have roamed the jungles of Asia as early as 5,000- 8,000 years ago. It sustained generations of mankind and appeared in early cave art in parts of SE Asia. The birds still run wild today. This tropical member of the pheasant family roams areas of India, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and even the Hawaiian Islands. The Red Junglefowl is the father of all chickens.

In July 2012, Dr. Alice Storey of the University of New England and her associates made a big discovery: the Red Jungle fowl was the ancestor of all modern chickens. This team of scientists studied the mitochondrial DNA of ancient chicken bones collected from a huge variety of geographical locations, including Spanish Colonial Florida, Europe, Chile, Thailand, and Pacific Islands. The results? Every modern chicken breed descended from the Red Jungle fowl. According to Science Daily, humans kept Red Jungle fowl as livestock 8,000 years ago. It’s believed that they were first kept for cockfighting. Later, they were used for religious reasons. Then, the Red Jungle fowl was raised for food.

Since then, hundreds of unique chicken breeds have emerged. Just how did one breed of jungle birds turn into hundreds of distinct chicken breeds? Swedish zoologists Daniel Nätt, Per Jensen, and associates tackled that question in early 2012. The results of their study were published in BMC Genomics. Nätt and Jensen studied how individual patterns of gene activity in the brains of modern chickens differ from the original gene activity patterns in the Red Jungle fowl. Throughout their research, they found that hundreds of genes showed distinct differences. Domestication has led to a variety of epigenetic changes. The greater amount of methylation in the genes of modern chicken breeds may have something to do with the huge amount of variation within the chicken species in such a short period of time.

The male Red Jungle fowl is even more brightly colored than its tame counterpart as well as larger. Deep red facial skin, a metallic-green tail, and orange or red crown and neck feathers make this fowl stand out. Females are smaller and a diminutive brown. In the wild, the Red Jungle fowl lives in small, mixed-gender flocks with three to five hens per each cock. Some groups have been spotted with up to twenty birds. Young cocks live in isolated groups of 2-3 birds. The Red Jungle fowl subsists on seeds, fruit, and insects. There are five subspecies of Jungle fowl recognized today. All varieties are extremely shy and will scurry or fly into underbrush for cover at any sign of danger.

An endangered species in some parts of the world, including Singapore, the Red Jungle fowl is affected by habitat loss. Poaching is also a problem, too. Yet inbreeding with domestic chickens is perhaps the greatest threat to this ancient species. Many Red Jungle fowl held in captivity have turned out to be genetically mixed. The prevalence of this puts the breed at a great risk for extinction.

It’s an amazing opportunity for mankind to be able to examine the chicken’s early ancestor and its modern offspring side-by-side. There aren’t many chances in life to see evolution so distinctly. However, without some serious conservation efforts, this is an opportunity which will not be afforded to our grandchildren. The Red Jungle fowl’s future lies on the line…. What can we do to ensure that this breed doesn’t join the list of extinct species?

Raising Ameraucana Chickens

April 20, 2013January 31, 2016 by John White

If you want eggs like no others, the Ameraucana Chicken may be the fowl you’re searching for. This unique breed was developed in the United States in the 1970s and officially recognized by the APA in 1984. It lays distinctive eggs with blue shells, not brown or white like the average chicken. The Ameraucana Chicken is quite rare and available only from breeders. Yet, beware. The majority of Ameraucana Chickens sold by commercial hatcheries are not true Ameraucanas but rather mixed-breed mongrels. If you have your heart set on an Ameraucana, you’ll certainly have to do your homework!

Breed Specifications

The Ameraucana Chicken is a medium sized bird that comes in a variety of recognized colors: white, black, blue, wheaten, blue wheaten, silver, brown red, and silver. Both bantam and large varieties are available. They are generally cold-weather hardy birds and are docile, although not broody. The chicken has a full tail and a muff and beard. Its legs are blue or black. An egg-laying chicken, the Ameraucana Chicken produces around 250 eggs annually and starts laying at 5-6 months of age. While it lays colorful eggs, the Ameraucana Chicken is not an Easter Egg Chicken. An Easter Egg Chicken is not a recognized breed but rather a mixed-breed bird with a gene for blue eggs. The Ameraucana Chicken is a recognized breed. Breeders and hatcheries sometimes falsely advertise Easter Egg
mixed breed chickens as Ameraucana Chickens, so be wary.

A Short History of the Ameraucana Chicken

The Ameraucana Chicken was the result of much careful breeding, developed from the Chilean Araucana. This unique bird laid lovely blue eggs but had a lethal allele combination that resulted in the death of chicks before hatching or during the incubation period. In developing the Ameraucana Chicken, the blue egg laying capabilities were retained while the genetic flaws were removed.

Buying Your Ameraucana Chicks

As this breed is rare, the Ameraucana Chicken is fairly hard to find. There are many hatcheries selling chicks they claim to be Ameraucana Chicks which are in fact selling mongrels. This is so common that, according to the website www.afowlshome.com, 99% of chickens sold as Ameraucanas or Araucanas by commercial hatcheries are in fact mixed breed chickens. Rather than producing pure blue-shelled eggs, these mongrels lay blue, green, pink, and other colored
eggs. The Ameraucana Breeder’s Club provides a list of certified breeders from which purebred Ameraucana Chickens can be purchased. Their website is: http://www.ameraucana.org/. While it isn’t vital that your birds be purebred for your backyard flock, if you want to show your birds you’ll certainly want to make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for.

Caring For Your Chickens

Before purchasing your Ameraucana Chicks, prepare a heated box for your new chicks and take care to keep them warm, fed, watered, and clean. Once they are fully feathered and growing large, you can introduce them to your chicken coop. Your chickens will need a safe coop, a chicken run to protect them from predators, laying boxes for their eggs, and feed and water. Clean out your chicken’s coop regularly to help keep them free from diseases. Allow your chickens plenty of sunshine, fresh air, and exercise. The healthier your chickens, the happier they’ll be and the longer lives they’ll live.

Domestication of the Chicken: Out of the Jungles of Asia and Into The Modern World

April 20, 2013March 27, 2016 by John White

Backyard chickens are all over the news these days. In towns and cities across the United States, people are fighting for their right to raise their own food. The United Kingdom has also seen a rise in the popularity of small-scale poultry farming and other European cities have legalized the practice as well. Have you ever stopped to wonder where this trend came from? Or consider that raising chickens was popular for thousands of years before it became unfashionable to have chickens pecking about one’s yard?

Between 5 000- 8,000 years ago near China, the first chickens were domesticated from a wild Red Junglefowl. The success of this breed couldn’t be contained; Chickens slowly became popular throughout other parts of the globe. Chicken bones have been discovered in the tombs of ancient European Pharaohs. The Greeks also portrayed chickens in their pottery around 500 BC. A bit later on, the Romans considered chickens to be oracles. 7^th century BC Corinthian pottery features pictures of domesticated chickens. A 2007 study by The University of Auckland’s Department of Anthropology suggests that prehistoric Polynesians were the first to bring domesticated chickens to the Americas. Other studies claim that chickens arrived in the Americas with European explorers. Easy to care for and inexpensive to purchase, the chicken offered man quick and nutritious food. Chickens were vital to early American colonists striving to survive in a harsh and unforgiving new world. Pioneers brought chickens West, relying on their eggs and meat in a vast land. Chickens were an important part of life. Regardless, these useful birds became popular wherever they were taken, raised for eggs and for meat and sustaining generations of humanity.

Today, there are more than 24 billion chickens worldwide, making it one of the most common domesticated animals in existence. Men have bred and changed chickens in countless ways over the years, creating birds that meet every requirement imaginable. There are breeds that do well in hot climates and those that thrive where it is cool. There are birds that do well living in confinement and those that do best in a wide, open yard. With hundreds of breeds in existence, there’s one to meet every need.

Industrialization brought about a lot of changes. As people moved to cities for work, raising one’s own chickens became less popular. People got away from farming, and likewise away from the source of their food. Commercial farming made the problem worse. It’s far more common today for chickens to be raised in huge, commercial buildings, living in cages or cramped together in tight quarters than to be raised on a traditional farm. Consumers turned to the supermarket for their chicken meat and eggs. Raising chickens was seen as unsophisticated and unfashionable. Many traditional heritage breeds almost disappeared from existence because of this dramatic shift.

In recent years, raising one’s own chickens has made a huge comeback. The ugly side of commercial farming has been exposed time and again and people have started paying attention and taking control of their own food. It’s no longer unfashionable to raise chickens, but instead rather hip. Whether for health, environmental, or economic reasons, caring for chickens is a popular trend in modern society. More cities are allowing chickens within their backyards each year. The chicken seems to be the ultimate comeback bird. With its long and varied history, it’s not hard to believe that this bird is here to stay.

Raising Barred Rock Chickens

April 15, 2013January 31, 2016 by John White

Its speckled black and white feathers are just about as synonymous with the American farmyard as a big, red barn. No other breed has been bred and raised as extensively as the Barred Plymouth Rock Chicken, also known as Rocks and Barred Rocks. Popular for its hardiness, its egg laying abilities as well as its suitability for meat, its broodiness, and its docile temperament, the Barred Rock is a favorite among backyard farmers. Their attractive feathers also make them stand out from the crowd. Raising your own Barred Rock Chickens is simple and rewarding. With minimal care and fuss, this breed can easily provide several hundred eggs per year for the foreseeable future.

Breed Characteristics

This large bird comes in many colors: barred, black, white, blue, buff, silver, Columbian, penciled, and partridge too. The barred coloring is the most well-known, hence the name Barred Rock. Intelligent, docile, and hardy even in cold environments, the Barred Rock chicken is an excellent year-round layer, averaging 4 large, brown eggs per week. It has been recognized since 1874 by the American Standard of Perfection and is considered a heritage breed. The Barred Rock is a member of the Plymouth Rock family of breeds and was first raised in the early 1800s in New England. Up through World War II, the Barred Rock Chicken was the number one most popular chicken breed in the United States. Calm, relatively quiet, and adaptable, this breed is perfect for beginners and children alike.

Preparing Your Home for Barred Rock Chickens

Before you order or pick out your new chicks, make sure that raising chickens is legal where you live and prepare your brooder and chicken coop. You can design your own coop, purchase a coop kit, or buy easy-to-follow instructions and materials lists from us 🙂 Once you’ve built your coop and safely enclosed chicken run, gather all feed and watering supplies. Read up on chicken husbandry and thoroughly educate yourself about raising chickens. The better prepared you are, the more successful your endeavors will be.

Barred Rock Chicks

One can purchase barred rock chicks online from a variety of companies, or from their local farm or farmer’s supply store. After you purchase chicks, you’ll need to keep them warm in a clean brooder, which is a box with a heat source. Your chicks need constant heat, food, and water of the first weeks of life. Keep them safe, clean, watered, and fed and before long they’ll be ready to move into their coop. By about 18-20 days, they won’t need the heat lamp on constantly during the day. When they’re big enough and the weather is warm enough, introduce them to their coop. With proper care, your Barred Rock Chickens will light up your life for years to come.

Caring For Your Flock

Throughout the life of your Barren Rock Chickens, keep their chicken coop clean.
Pick up regularly after your birds; this will make them less likely to get sick. Healthy birds are happy birds. Feed them quality chicken feed and table scraps, avoiding things like rotten or processed food, chocolate, avocados, raw meat, and raw potato skins. Keep a persistent look out for predators. Provide a clean and accessible laying box and plenty of room for your chickens to exercise. The better you care for your birds, the better quality eggs and meat you’ll enjoy later.