Help choosing breed

[Gwyllm]

Hi everyone, I'm starting a backyard flock at the moment and am still new to the entire thing. all that remains now is to complete my coop and run, and then I need to choose a breed. Ideally I'd like a good dual purpose breed, but I would also like it to be a more broody breed. I'd also like a breed that doesn't fly much or at all, if that's at all possible. As for the climate, we have a very mild climate, but it doesn't get cold at all, even in winter it very rarely drops below freezing, so anything that isn't bred to be cold hardy. I'd really appreciate the help, thank you

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don’t know what breeds are available to you in South Africa but you might look through Henderson’s Breed Chart to help narrow down some of the choices, then look at Feathersite to see what the chickens look like.

Henderson’s Breed Chart
http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

Feathersite
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html#Chickens

One of your problems is that there are a lot of different breeds that can meet your goals, with the possible exception of “doesn’t fly much”. When they want to about any chicken can fly pretty well. The larger the chicken the harder it is for them to fly but many full-sized chickens don’t have that much of a problem perching or roosting way up high. Some chickens like Brahmas and Jersey Giants get pretty big, you may find a South African breed similar, but the problem with using them for meat is that they are very slow maturing. For a long time they are pretty much skin and bones. They will eventually fill out but you spend a lot of time waiting and money feeding them. In Henderson’s Breed Chart “flighty“ is more about them being skittish but that can factor into whether they want to fly or not.

I don’t know of any law in SA that says you have to stick with one breed. We don’t have any laws like that here. I don’t know how many chickens you plan to have but I see nothing wrong with getting several different breeds and determining for yourself which you like better. Or even just have a mixed breed flock. It sounds like you plan to breed them yourself. If so, just pick the ones you like the best and breed those, even if they are different breeds. You can get a really interesting looking flock that way and one that pretty much meets your goals.

 

[Gwyllm]

Thanks for the help, I'll be sure to look into it. Fortunately the laws around keeping animals here are quite lax and aren't implemented very strictly so a mixed flock won't be a problem. I was hoping to only get one or two breeds because I would like to breed, and ideally would like to keep them "pure", although I'm sure I'll get over this eventually

the biggest problem is that we don't have a large variety here, and most aren't of any particular breeds, and any chicken of a recognized breed is overly expensive so I would like to breed my own stock as far as possible. I was think of getting a couple of Potch Koekoeks, similar to a Barred Plymouth Rock with some cross breeding to better suite it to SA, and then a couple of Cochins to have some good brooders:/

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m totally not familiar with the Potch Koekoeks but reading up in them, they sound really good.

Your plan sounds good. The only part I’ll mention is that by keeping two breeds you have to be careful to not mix breeds. With those you should be able to tell by looking which are pure Potch Koekoeks and which are mixed Potch Koekoeks/Cochin the first generation even if they are all black barred, but in the second generation you lose that certainty. You can manage that with breeding pens and careful record-keeping but it takes extra work.

 

[Gwyllm]

I have a18m x 2m area that I am busy fencing off for them, I'm planning to split it in half. It's not too big but I'm only planning to have 3 of each breed so it should be enough space. They will then be kept separate so they won't interbreed.