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My daughter started 4H this year and I couldn’t be happier. As an animal person myself, I am thrilled that she is passionate about animals and wants to learn more about them. She has been a fan of chickens for several years, coveting the ones that belong to our friends. I never thought that chickens would be in our future, but when my husband saw how much she was learning about them in 4H, he caved (I mean, he agreed that we could get a few hens.) After all, who can resist creatures that eat garden pests & weeds, produce fertilizer for the garden and make us fresh, local and organic eggs?

At our monthly 4H poultry meetings, we learn about chickens, anatomy, handling and the parts of the egg. Our homework has us learning more details about breeds and how to care for the birds. Once we realized that we would be adding chickens to our family this coming spring, we started to learn about the types of chickens in earnest. How does one pick the types of chickens to bring home? Little did I know that chicken breeds have personalities and characteristics, much like dog and cat breeds.

Because the chickens would be our pets, we decided to look for chicken varieties that were:

• Friendly
• Gentle
• Easy to handle
• Good egg layers
  

  Australorp

After talking to other 4H members and friends, and reading information that we found on the internet, we have narrowed down our breed list to the following types of chickens:

• Buff Orphington
• Rhode Island Red
• Australorp
• Cochin (we may get a Bantam, or small bird, for easy handling at the county fair)
• Silkie (these are a bit noisy, but are amazing to look at and watch)

Probably because of my Type A personality, I have already spoken with loads of people about their chicken coops and how they protect their birds against predators. The back of our house is bordered by open space and we frequently hear coyotes at night. We also have at least one raccoon who has decided to use our roof as a toilet. I have heard “Rated R” stories about raccoons that have reached through chicken wire coops to tear chickens apart limb from limb…Stories of persistent pests who have dug under coops to prey on the resting birds inside… As my husband says, our coop will be the Fort Knox of chicken coops. We are fully enclosing the coop (even the floor) with ½ inch galvanized hardware cloth. The small wire in our coop is strong and is close enough together that pesky little raccoon hands can not reach through. The sealed bottom will ensure that even the digging-est dog (or coyote, possum, skunk or raccoon!) can’t penetrate. Of course, not much can protect the birds from hawks if we let them roam the yard to eat bugs and grass. And nothing will protect them if we forget to close the door to the coop at night. I’ll certainly keep you posted and will post photos of the coop as it is being built…

Do you have any tips on keeping your chickens safe? What breeds of chickens are you in love with, and why? Help me to spread the word about why backyard chickens are the 6^th most popular pet in the USA!

Some of our favorite resources: http://mypetchicken.com and http://www.backyardchickens.com