Hello! I was wondering if anyone could help me with picking out a breed of chicken for my first bunch of show quality birds? Me and my best friend are going to be buying hatching eggs, but can't seem to find any breeds we like that would be good for beginners.
We are looking for anything big (rooster 8-10 pounds, hens 6-8 or something similar), easy to breed, somewhat easy to handle, pretty (by this we mainly mean not plain black or white birds) and in a colour in the SOP... please help us, we need to find a breed soon!
Thanks,
David.
To start with, if you are getting hatching eggs, then there is a much greater chance of getting chickens that have more flaws, making breeding to the SOP and showing them harder. Chicken genes can come out in all sorts of ways and if you're just going to get a few dozen eggs or less and hope for show quality birds, you may be disappointed. Better bet would be to buy some juveniles or adults from someone so that you can see what you're getting.
What is your definition of "easy to breed"? If you are talking about color, then chickens of one color - black, white, red etc. are going to be easier to breed for color than a chicken with more than one color and things such as barring, mottling, spangling. Of course you have already said you want "pretty" chickens, so if you don't think that chickens that have only one color are pretty, you've just severely limited your options for "easy breeding" if color is what you mean by easy breeding. Chicken breeding to the SOP is hard enough without trying to add in multiple colors or a pattern of color.
If you mean "easy breeding" as how easy it is to get a "show quality" bird with few faults to consistently reproduce "show quality" chickens with little work on your part - you may as well not even bother with this project because breeding birds to the SOP takes thought and care and just letting Mr. Rooster and Ms. Hen have sex in the barn is not going to get you what you say you want. A lot more goes into serious SOP chicken breeding than you might realize.
What exactly are you meaning by "easy to handle"? Any chicken can be easy to handle if you work with it. Are you able/willing to put in the time it takes to work with the birds to get them "easy to handle"?
Chickens have different purposes - egg laying, meat laying, and dual-purpose birds. If for egg laying, what are acceptable numbers of eggs laid per year in your mind? Are you particular about a size of egg laid or a color of egg laid? Are you looking for breeds that have a better feed to meat conversion? Are you wanting a chicken that can be used for meat and eggs? The utility (or lack thereof) of the bird is important in helping make a decision on what breed you'll get.
If all you want is something to take to shows - go to a show, buy some birds someone is selling, and then show those birds. That's the easiest way to get a show quality bird with the least amount of work and in the end, probably the least amount of money.
Do you have a copy of the SOP yet? Reading that book can give you a lot more insight into chicken breeding. You can see the illustrations of birds to see if any catch your eye. Then you can see what the Standard is for that bird and if you think you are up to breeding that type of bird to the SOP. Then you can do some more homework on the breed to see if it is really for you or not.
It sounds like you are getting so excited that you've put the chicken before the egg. You need to look at what your short and long term goals are with chickens and the amount of time/money you are willing to put into them (serious SOP breeding is not cheap like you may think) - doing that will help you narrow down a breed of chicken, the type of breeding you want to do, and even if you want to do this at all.
