Transcript
Choosing Chicken Breeds (feat. Twain Lockhart)
LORI: I am so excited! We’re here today with Twain Lockhart, who is a poultry consultant for Nutrena, and Twain brings quite a bit of experience to the table here. He has over 40 years of experience raising chickens. You studied animal husbandry, and I understand, you also had a feed store, right?
TWAIN: Yes, for 17 years, and we specialized in poultry.
Good Starter Breeds
LORI: Okay. So Twain, for first-time chicken owners, any advice that you can give for some really good breeds to start them out?
TWAIN: Yeah, it’s really important that you start with the right kind of chicken. They’re very different. There’s a lot of breeds of chickens. Saying that all chickens are the same is like saying all dogs are the same. It’s kind of absurd. Starting with the right chicken is gonna ensure that you’re gonna be more likely to be happy with this hobby, and we want you to stay in this hobby for a while.
This here is Spike. He is what they call a Silkie. He is actually a bad example. He’s not a good beginner’s chicken. A lot of people — the Silkies kinda ruin the hobby for a lot of people. They’re great chickens, before anybody wants to put a hit out on me for being mean to Silkies.
I’m just gonna tell you, for a beginner, they’re not a real good beginner’s chicken. They don’t lay a lot of eggs. They wanna hatch everything they lay, which is, they call that very “broody.”
They’re not super cold-hardy, and I’m just gonna say it, Spike, they’re not too bright, okay? I mean, they’re not predator-safe is what I mean by that. So that would not be — the Silkie is definitely not a good beginner’s chicken. You know, perfect your skills a little bit before you jump into these.
If you have kids that wanna go into 4-H, and they wanna show birds, that’s a different thing, but for somebody in the backyard, for pet chickens, I’m gonna say probably America’s favorite backyard chicken is the Rhode Island Red. That’s a great beginner’s chicken. The Plymouth Barred Rock is another great beginner’s chicken. Both of those birds’ll lay about 250 big, brown eggs a year.
They’re really friendly, they make good pets, they’re reasonably intelligent, and they’re not broody, so they don’t wanna hatch everything they lay. There’s a lot of good breeds. The Sex-Linked breeds are very good as beginner’s chicken, and that is a hybrid.
And they, you’re now, you’re up around 300 eggs a year, very intelligent birds. So there’s a lot of good beginner’s chickens. I call ’em quart of vanilla ice cream chickens. And you’re gonna find that you may start with those and then the hatcheries get your address somehow and they start mailing you catalogs and then you start gettin’ exotic chickens and guess what? A lot of people go right back to the quart of vanilla ice cream chickens. There’s a reason why everybody has those chickens. They’re really good chickens.
LORI: Okay. And so when you mentioned some of the layers, you mean, you’re talking about those that are going to be — just if it’s somebody out there that’s just wanting to have pet chickens that are gonna lay eggs?
TWAIN: Correct, the pet that makes you breakfast. And they tame down really easily. Get ’em as chicks. They bond with you. You’ll start gettin’ eggs at about 24 to 28 weeks. You’ll need to brood ’em in the house for the first, roughly six weeks before they can go outside. And then they lay about 250 eggs a year, somewhere thereabouts. You’ll get about four or five seasons out of ’em. They older they get, they kinda taper off in their egg production.
Meat Chickens
LORI: Sure, okay. So for somebody that’s looking at meat chickens?
TWAIN: Ah, okay. Totally different.
LORI: So what kind of breeds would you recommend for that?
TWAIN: Right out of the gate, let me say I highly recommend you master laying hens before you do meat chickens, but you could probably, “master” may not be the right word, get your feet wet with laying hens, mybe a year before you do meat chickens. They’re a little more delicate.
The most common meat chicken is called the Cornish Cross. And those are white. The white Cornish Cross is probably over 99% of the chicken that we eat in the market or restaurants. And they’re very, very different than your laying hens. They’re quite frankly, they’re dumber than a bag of hammers.
Eight weeks, beginning to end, 56 days hatch to freezer is the recommended. And you really should restrict their diet, 12 hours on 12 off. So they’re a little more complicated. With your laying hens, you just free feed ’em. You give ’em baby food for the first 16 weeks as much as they want and then you go to a layer feed for the rest of their life.
So, yeah, I don’t wanna scare anybody from raising their own meat birds, but I really do recommend you start with laying hens.
Dual Purpose Chickens
LORI: Alright. Now you see the term when you’re looking at different breeds, you’ll see that term dual purpose. Can you explain what that means?
TWAIN: Okay. Back in the day when they developed those breeds, they were dual purpose. Generally what they did, is people would raise the hens, use ’em for or five years for their egg production, and then they would go in the crock-pot. So they were… dual purpose meant eggs and meat.
Now some people will eat the roosters, okay? That’s fine too, but you’re looking at instead of eight weeks for a Cornish Cross, you’re looking more like six months to get, let’s say a Rhode Island Red rooster, big enough to eat.
LORI: Gotcha, okay.
TWAIN: So. By the way, after about six months, they become gumbo, soup, crock-pot chickens. They’re not barbecue chickens. They’ll be like rubber chickens. They get real tough.
Sex-Link Chickens
LORI: Okay. You also mentioned that term Sex-Link. Can you explain that a little bit more?
TWAIN: Oh I’m sorry, I should’ve expanded on that. Sex-Link is a hybrid or a crossbreed. And they call ’em a Sex-Link because they can tell the breeds by the colors of the, I’m over simplifying it, but they can tell at a glance if they’re male or female when they hatch. They don’t have to pay a vent sexer to sex those birds.
So, and the odds of you getting a baby rooster are reduced dramatically because they can tell at a glance if they’re male or female.
Mixing Breeds
LORI: Can you mix breeds together? Because a lot of people, a lot of people startin’ out in backyard chickens want a really beautiful diverse flock.
TWAIN: Yes, you absolutely can. There is some exceptions. I’m not a fan of mixing bantams, which are the miniature chickens, with your standards. It can be done, but think of the kids that get picked last for dodge ball, they’re gonna get picked on by the big chickens. And then I’m not a fan of mixing your Cornish Cross meat chickens with your laying hens. In fact, I highly recommend you don’t do that.
The laying hens will pick on ’em and dominate ’em. They won’t let ’em eat like they’re supposed to.
Bantam Chickens
LORI: Okay. So a bantam, I know lot of people are really interested in bantams., you know, so that’s not a good idea?
TWAIN: The bantams are little and cute but they’re just not real functional. I’m not anti-bantam by any means. I used to show ’em. They just, for a beginner, they don’t lay a lot of eggs, they wanna hatch everything they lay, the eggs are real small, and they’re not cold-hardy, nor are they predator-safe, generally speaking.
So. I’d much rather see ya start with some of the, the standard dual purpose Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks, things like that, Sex-Links.
Temperament
LORI: So most people with backyard chickens, like I said, are looking for pets that are, most of ’em, pets that are laying eggs. And so when you’re looking at the breeds, they’re wanting something that are going to be friendly. So are all breeds really friendly?
TWAIN: No. The ones we talked about are. The Sex-Links, the Rhode Island Reds, the Plymouth Barred Rocks are friendly, Australorps are friendly. There’s plenty of friendly breeds. Some of the breeds are not as friendly. Things like White Leghorns, tend, it’s actually “LEG-erns” is how you’re supposed to pronounce it. They tend to be very flighty. They’re not a bad chicken. They lay like gang busters, but they don’t tend to be as friendly as the other breeds. Kinda skiddish.
There’s several, and those actually make a good ranch chicken. If you wanted a chicken that’s gonna run round on the farm and eat ticks and things like that, and not so much a pet, though.
Confinement
LORI: Okay. I was gonna ask you about that as far as confinement. Because a lot of times when you’re living in the city, you’re needing some birds that may or may not have to be a little bit more confined than having, you know, acres to roam. So, are there some that are better with confinement?
TWAIN: Yeah the ones we talked about do well in confinement. The Rhode island Reds, and I keep going back to those. The Plymouth Barred Rocks, the Australorps, those all do well in confinement. You need a minimum of four square feet per chicken. And I mean ground square footage. Otherwise in the winter time, they can start feather picking and stress can be a big problem if they’re over crowded.
Climate
LORI: Okay. And speaking of winter, how important is climate when you’re choosing a breed?
TWAIN: Well, all of these are cold-hardy and heat tolerant. They’re pretty versatile. They’re definitely cold-hardy so for the Midwest and the Northeast, they do fine in that. If you’re somewhere else where it gets real hot, you may have to provide a fan or ventilation in the summer time.
But they do really well with that. In fact, I don’t recommend heating the coops at all. Once they get to be feathered and they move outside, it’s such a fire hazard to put a heat lamp on ’em outside and they do fine. If you keep your chickens out of the elements, the do fine in the Midwest winter.
Broodiness
LORI: Alright. You touched on broodiness. Can you explain what that is?
TWAIN: Well, they wanna be mom, okay? So you don’t need rooster to get eggs. That’s my number one question. But they may decide to brood whether there’s a rooster in the Zip Code or not. Well, that’s not really a great trait because a lot of times if they’re running loose, they’ll go and hide some place. And you think somethin’ ate her, you know? Mary Ann went missing.
So you have a funeral service and move on and you know, you find her two months later under the house sittin’ on a bunch of rotten eggs. And it may take you several weeks to get her back in condition to lay eggs again. So, it’s not generally a good trait for most people.
So they’ve kinda bred it out of most of your production breeds. Like the Rhode Island Red and the Plymouth Rock. They’re not too broody. It can happen, but it’s not that common. Whereas your bantams, like Silkies and stuff, they’re really broody.
Vaccinations
LORI: Okay, alright. If you’re buying from, and most people are, buying from a hatchery or a breeder, what are some things, or wherever you’re getting your chicks from, what are some things that you may wanna ask or some things you should look for? Anything you can… or questions you should ask of them, I guess.
TWAIN: You mean of the hatchery? Most people probably are gonna buy from a farm store because the hatcheries usually require a minimum purchase of, you know, 15 to 25 chicks. And then so from that aspect, the farm store may or may not vaccinate, it just depends on if you wanna go down that road or not.
LORI: Well thanks for bringing that up. What do you recommend?
TWAIN: I personally like to get my chicks vaccinated for Marek’s. I don’t get vaccinated for Coccidiosis though, okay? I will either feed ’em a medicated chick feed to prevent the Coccidiosis or if they show signs, symptoms I will give ’em the medication for the Coccidiosis.
But I generally do not get ’em vaccinated for that. Now the hatcheries will not just vaccinate, ’cause it cost money, so unless you ask for it and pay for it, they’re not gonna vaccinate those birds. Marek’s is about 15 to 25 cents a bird to get ’em vaccinated for that.
LORI: Why do you feel that’s important?
TWAIN: Because I, when we were showing birds, it was always your best bird that would always seems like, you know, lightning would strike that one and it would get Marek’s and there’s no cure for it, you know? One day the chicken has trouble walking and before you know it, it can’t walk at all, and there’s just nothing you can do for it. And, you know, would’ve been nice had that bird been vaccinated for it.
Naming Chickens
LORI: Gotcha. Here’s one for ya. Should people name their chickens?
TWAIN: Oh absolutely. I mean, why not? I mean, my wife names all her chickens. And my wife, I’m just gonna say it, if my wife catches a chicken eaten eggs, we have that chicken for dinner, okay? So I mean, it doesn’t matter. It kinda makes it kind of fun. Oh, you know, Mary Ann ate an egg. So it was a crock-pot offense, Mary Ann, you know?
Our chickens generally die of old age, unless they get caught eating eggs and a rooster will only attack my wife once, with one exception. She and Spike hate each other and he will attack her all the time but because he is technically a Nutrena employee he gets away with it. He gets a pass.
So, it’s up to you. I mean, don’t beat yourself up, folks if you lose some chickens, it’s gonna happen. Whether they be chicks or juveniles or adults, it’s gonna happen. And you will be surprised at how attached you get at these little guys. They really have a lot of personality.
The meat birds, not so much. They can be kinda mean. So you don’t miss those, but your laying hens. I know people that literally have funerals for their chickens and I mean it’s kind of a big deal when they die because they, you do get attached to ’em.
So, I do recommend you name ’em though. They’re gonna be pets, they’re the pets that make you breakfast, have fun with this. You’re gonna enjoy ’em. They’re very entertaining. People cannot get over how much personality they do have. You can have four sisters and they have vastly different personalities. So I mean, they’re a lot of fun. And they’re very relaxing. And then you get eggs.
LORI: Thank you. Well we’ve been here with Twain Lockhart who is a poultry consultant for Nutrena products who makes various kinds of food for all animals, including poultry. And so, we wanna thank you a lot for taking the time to speak with us today.
TWAIN: You’re very welcome.
