Here come the baby chickens!

Feed stores are loud with cheeping and local small producers are hovering over incubators of various capacities, ready to fill eager hands with oh so delicate, noisy, animated bits of fluff. Dreams of a higher degree of self reliance --- eggs! Sunday roast chicken! --- lure many people to a foray into poultry keeping, especially this time of year.

And it's perhaps worse this year, as evidenced by an article in one of largest publications in our country... https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/business/economy/inflation-chickens-egg-prices.html

There's such a wide variety of chickens to choose from, it seems that a short run down of a basic decision tree for, especially for first time poultry keepers, would be timely.

Most people likely will be looking for hens for eggs, so the first decision would be between hybrids or purebreds. Ideal 236s (a proprietary commercial layer), Novogens (Rhode Island Red X Rhode Island White), and anything with "Star" or "Comet" in their name are breed crosses meant to lay eggs early and often. That's good for fairly quick backyard food production, but, being crossbred these animals will not produce chicks like themselves and must be replaced from the hatchery about every second year to maintain the production levels you're led to expect. They're kind of the fast food drive up version of laying hens; yes, they are made of chicken, and yes, they lay eggs...but they just don't stick with you like a good, home cooked, sit down meal.

A more sustainable approach would be purebred birds, with a male in the flock. Layer breeds, such as Ameracauna, Ancona, Leghorns and others, tend to be light weight and flighty, and require their eggs to be set in an incubator; the extra males are no great shakes as fryers or roasters...but everyone makes soup!

A broader, more long term approach would be a dual purpose breed; any coloration of Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons, Wyandottes, and other breeds. Such birds are heavier and calmer than the layer breeds, and although they do lay a little fewer eggs, they are more likely to set their own eggs and hatch out replacement chicks, and the extra cockerels make fine fryers.

While Timberwolf Farm and Feed in Morton will start having chicks available in mid March, and Premium Quality Farm and Feed in Onalaska started receiving chicks a couple of weeks ago, buying from dedicated local breeders of purebred birds supports our local small scale agricultural economy! There are American Bresse, Turkens and White Plymouth Rocks being carefully and conscientiously bred in the Winlock area, Barred Plymouth Rocks and Midget White turkeys in Randle, Bourbon Red turkeys in Eatonville, and a burgeoning number of small scale breeders through East Lewis County. There's even a new Facebook group for us! Search on East Lewis County Poulterer's Guild.

Internet Drill Down: There are more breeds of chickens than you ever knew! This page has been a labor of love and a service to the fancy for decades. Get yourself a lovely beverage and settle down for an entertaining wander around the world of poultry! https://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html#Chickens

Book Recommendation: Although random crossbred chickens are rampant, there are very excellent reasons that there have been and are people who dedicate their lives to developing breeds of livestock...carefully bringing certain traits to the fore, like feed conversion, rate of lay, performance under confinement, heat or cold tolerance. If you need particular results, it is most effective to use specific tools...right? Barnyard mix birds are equivalent to using a hammer to drive a screw. Sure, it'll get the job done, but a screwdriver would be MUCH more effective.

This book is what poulterers use to ensure they are breeding up the best examples of their chosen breed. This 372 page hard cover book with color pictures, and black and white illustrations put out by the American Poultry Association, is the official guide of standards for all recognized chicken, bantam, duck, turkey and geese breeds. Requirements for exhibitors, judges, poultry exhibits, and also technical terms. https://www.strombergschickens.com/gifts-and-more/a-p-a-standard-of-perfection/