09/06/2025
To Answer that age old question
One of the first questions, I get from some -one who decides poultry is something they would like to keep: What breed would be suitable for me? This then can turn into many hours of discussion.
There are many breeds of chickens and ducks, not to even mention, geese, turkeys, quail, and pheasant. All of which have a place in our sustainable backyard, hobby farm or commercial farm. Or just make great pets.
First consideration is where you are going to keep your poultry.
In the suburbs: would become discussion as to the fact that it would be very difficult to keep geese, peacocks and guinea fowl because of the noise factor. Also if you wished to keep a rooster you would need to have a way of quietening their crow as to not upset the neighbours.
Also there would be shire regulations as to how far from fences and houses your coop can be built and type of ground, some shires demand a concrete block under cages. All shires are different so you would need to check with your individual shire as to what they require.
Most people in the suburbs opt for chickens and ducks. Then comes the problem of suitable breed for what you wish to achieve with your birds.
Most pure bred birds are bred on a standard for showing. But if we only require eggs for our kitchen, then cross bred birds can be a lot harder and less susceptible to diseases and problems.
Then there is egg colour. Some breeds lay white eggs, blue eggs, brown eggs, cream eggs or even chocolate coloured eggs and people gain great pleasure to having a pretty selection in a bowl sitting on their kitchen bench.
Then there is temperament, and suitability of particular breed for what you require them for.
General rule of thumb, bantams make great pets, but are regularly clucky and love to be mums, so great for hatching chicks. Also their eggs can be small. Some breeds of bantams have smaller eggs than others. Some are better layers than others.
Light breeds are your best layers and have biggest eggs. This is because they need less energy to sustain their body weight, so can put more into producing eggs. If not hand raised some light breeds can be flighty and not as good a pet as others. This is also a very individual thing, they all have their own personalities and there is no exact science as to who is going to become your best friend and who thinks it’s going to run in the opposite direction when you enter the pen.
Heavy breeds tend to be docile, take a little longer to start laying, because they need all their energy to grow before they can lay. Some heavy breeds once to size lay quite well, others very ordinary. A lot of people like breeds such as Light Sussex, Rhode Island Reds and Australorps because they are dual purpose lay well, but unwanted roosters are also good for the table.
Chickens come in all shapes, sizes and colours, some people breed for showing in this case, careful consideration to type, colour and size needs to be considered, so birds adhere to the Australian standards as close as possible to get best possible placings at shows. Poultry are bred on a standard not a pedigree. With very little genetic stock imported over the years into Australia, breeders use other breeds to improve the standard of their flock then cross back to ensure they meet Australian standards for the breed they are trying to perfect.
Most people enjoy their chickens as pets for their backyards and eggs for the kitchen. But also liking the look of certain breeds, also liking different coloured eggs for their kitchen, thus chasing breeds that should produce a certain colour egg they require. Araucana’s are known for blue shelled eggs, breeds such as Marans, Barnvelders and Welsummers produce brown thru to chocolate-coloured eggs. Cross the Blue egg layer with a brown egg layer and you may get an olive egger. Not a bird that reaches standard for showing, but sort after for egg colour alone.
Gorgeous birds such as Chinese Silkies, which are balls of fluff, some with quite big crests and desired as pets because of their docile personality but are not great egg producers. Silkies tend to lay a clutch of eggs then go clucky wanting to sit on them and produce babies.
Wyandottes, that come in many colours are very pretty and a heavy breed, so a lovely big chicken and good layers if only you could stop them from going clucky. The list goes on there are hundreds of breeds in the world. Not all available in Australia.
Heritage breeds or heritage type chickens are better suited to the backyard, with a lifespan of between 8 to 10 years and I’ve seen older. Hens normally, producing good numbers of eggs for many years. Reducing, quantities as they age.
While commercial type breeds, such as Isa Browns, Hyline browns and a few brand names which is given to these birds depending on what company hatches them for their commercial sheds are a genetic cross developed to produce a commercial number of eggs till around 18 months old then culled. These are less suitable for the backyard because once they are sold on they have reached the end of their laying life and need a lot of care to replace nutrients they have depleted themselves of laying large numbers of eggs in such a short time, to bring them back to good condition for the backyard, then they also tend to have a short lifespan of about 3 years. Have seen them get to 5 and 6 years, but normally have stopped laying well before. These birds make great pets and friendly to people not each other, lots of people love these birds, not worried about egg production, just like to see them live out a happy life as pets.
