As I’ve mentioned before, I have done a fair amount of research on how to raise chickens. I even attended a poultry rearing workshop at Midsummer Farms. I just haven’t done much research on the different types of chicken breeds. The only thing I really care about, is that any chickens be kid friendly and also hardy enough to survive harsh winters. But since there are so many breeds to choose from, it’s pretty difficult to narrow down

The winters here can get pretty bad, and also we plan to use the Deep Litter Method to keep our chicken coop warm. Even though the deep litter method requires ventilation in the chicken coop, I’m sure it’s pretty effective if done correctly, but since we’re newbies, it’s probably best to err on the side of us not knowing what we’re doing. Which is why it’s important that our chickens be cold hardy.

The chicken raising workshop I took at Midsummer Farm was 2 years ago. While I still have my notes, all it says is “Blue Laced Red and Winnebago” and for the life of me, I can’t remember why those two breeds were particularly good. My Pet Chicken also has a chicken breed selector tool, but my answers came up with 26 different types of breeds! Way too many for me to choose from.

So My takeaway is that it doesn’t really matter what breed I end up getting, especially if I buy them locally. I might pick Bantam Chickens, just because they sound cute. But I’ll most likely end up adopting chickens from our local animal sanctuary.