Many preppers dream of owning a whole ranch but unfortunately have to make do with only a backyard or a small piece of land. No worries!
You can still keep chickens and they can provide food, eat up garden pests and kitchen scraps, bring huge joy to the whole household, and also provide valuable poultry manure for the vegetable plot.
Here are my suggestions for the best hens for the best egg layers overall, hens for mixed-breed coops, and hens that continue to lay eggs in winter.
Before you buy, ask yourself…
Is Your Yard Big Enough?
Local municipal regulations stipulate a certain size requirement for chicken coops and a preferred allowance for outdoor runs.
Overnight, your hens will need to be locked away safely in a coop, so allow at least 3 (but preferably 4) square feet per chicken in your coop depending on the size of the birds.
If you intend to make your own DIY coop, then ensure it is pest-proof too, as family heartbreak occurs when a fox or predator can enter.
Is your yard big enough for the hens to forage for food? This is often an important part of keeping the hens happy and they make great companions for farm workers going about their tasks but it also saves your food bill.
Hens that can scratch for insects and worms, and chew some weeds are far happier creatures than hens kept confined in a coop. Your yard will need safe, protected free-range ground for them to wander about.
Related: DIY Chicken Tunnel (Step-by-Step Guide)
You may need to add fencing not only to keep them safe from predators but also to protect your vegetable patch or flower garden.
Hens are scavengers and unchecked, a flock can decimate your growing efforts in a few hours, as I know from bitter experience! You can use a makeshift daytime wire fence and move it around when they eat everything but keep them off your valuable crops.
Have You Got Tolerant Neighbors?
Not everybody will share your delight at the clucking of the hens or the smell of them. If you live in an urban area, this may deter you from having a noisy rooster, for example.
There are quieter roosters to choose from but first, check with a landlord for any legal restrictions regarding pets in your leasehold or your state’s laws. Buy nothing until you check the paperwork first!
Are Your Hens for Meat or Eggs or Both?
Dual-purpose birds are so-called because you can collect eggs from them or use them for meat production, or both.
Here are my recommendations for best chicken breeds for preppers:
The Australorp (Sometimes Called Black Australorp)
This large velvety-feathered hen has to be top of my personal list.
It’s an excellent fit for preppers because it is a dual-purpose bird, providing both meat and eggs.
They are also one of the best layers in the business, so what’s not to love?
This friendly hen loves nothing better than scrabbling on a piece of earth, rolling about, pecking at wildlife, and gobbling up tasty weeds or scraps thrown over by family members so this is a great addition to the prepper’s flock.
The Easter Egger
My second choice is the best-selling hen in 2022 in the US and for good reason.
Its colorful eggs come in cute pastel shades of green and blue and they lay about 200 per year.
So if you want lots of eggs, this is probably not the hen to choose.
However, if you feed your chickens this plant, it will make them lay more eggs than usual.
Easter Eggers are tolerant of either hot weather or cold as their combs are tiny, so you won’t have to worry about frostbite in chilly winters like you do with some chickens.
The Buff Orpington
These attractive, large, dual-purpose hens have thick feathers that keep them warm in cold weather so if you lie in a cooler, northern state, this may be the breed for you.
These are gentle hens who enjoy company, and they lay at least 200 but often a lot more eggs every year.
Related: How to Dehydrate Chicken for Survival (With Pictures)
If you have children or you just like therapeutically stroking feathers yourself, these are an excellent choice.
The Maran
Marans sell well in the US, particularly the Black Copper variety and their eggs have a unique brown color.
These are birds that rarely fight with other hens.
They like to search for scraps gently wandering around their yard.
Their meat quality is also excellent, making them a versatile choice for both egg and meat production on your farm.
The Rhode Island Red
This bird is named after Rhode Island, where it is the state bird, and is extremely popular with farmers, preppers, and homesteaders.
The Rhode Island Red is not only valued for its ability to produce abundant eggs, but it also offers delicious meat, which explains its enduring popularity.
If you end up having more eggs than you can eat, this preservation method will make them last for up to 10 years without refrigeration.
The Welsummer
These have become best sellers in the US for their delicious brown eggs.
These eggs, with their rich flavor and deep hue, have made the Welsummer a top choice among poultry enthusiasts.
These birds are prolific layers, providing up to 200 large, tasty eggs per year.
They enjoy wandering about outside in the fresh air, and will mix happily with others in your backyard.
Brahma Chickens
These hens are quite large, and they move slowly but surely around the yard, keeping an eye on all the other hens.
These are often the chicken that raises the alarm if a stray dog threatens the flock so think of them as the observant older sibling keeping an eye on the others.
These warm feathers make them very hardy hens and they lay 200 large eggs each year. Brahma are often chosen for winter layers because that is when they produce more eggs.
Wyandotte Chickens
These are often suggested by the chicken selling shops as friendly, inquisitive chickens who get along with other hens and enjoy the run of an outside yard or grass patch.
Wyandottes cluck loudly too, and while this is great for the owner, your close neighbors may not be quite as pleased.
In my experience, they tend to get very “broody” which means wanting to be mums to little chicks, so they build nests outside and sit on top of an egg often refusing to leave even to go back into the coop a night.
Are you feeling ready to go buy some hens now? I hope my list has given you some clarity about the best breed for your homestead or backyard. Whether you only want fresh eggs for the family, or if you need dual-purpose birds, now you know how many eggs to expect each year.
Chickens provide a consistent source of food through their delicious eggs, contribute to pest control, and recycle kitchen scraps.
However, it’s essential to evaluate your yard’s size and construct a secure coop to protect your feathered friends. Additionally, consider your neighbors’ tolerance and legal restrictions before bringing chickens into your setting.
Regardless of space constraints, chicken keeping offers a rewarding and sustainable solution for preppers seeking self-sufficiency and the joys of raising these engaging feathered companions.
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Surplus production is one challenge faced by many with backyard chickens. Sharing the excess with neighbors helps to mitigate complaints associated with keeping chickens. Of course that doesn’t help directly with code-enforcers, but often they only react in accordance with neighbors’ complaints. Know your neighbors. Keep them in the loop. Keep them happy.
And where do roosters fit in?
With the hens
Pork Honky,
Punk from Skunk, Texas. You offer no real advice than woke jibbing-jabber.
Go back to Chuck and ask him what is my purpose in life?
Troll!
LMAO!
🙂
Usually in the pot…funny story….I knew of a woman raising backyard chickens who got tired of being chased by her rooster, and thought he was hurting her hens, so she put him in the pot. However, later she was heard to complain that her hens had quit setting their eggs and raising little ones. Go figure.
Good article on chickens, have some backyard chickens too.
Riddle:”a type of question that describes something in a difficult and confusing way and has a clever or funny answer, often asked as a game.”
Riddles for Wednesday;
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
What is the difference between Non-GMO and Bioengineered?
What is the difference between Demoncrat and Republican?
What is the difference between Vegetarian and Meat Eater?
What is the difference between Christian and Non-Christian?
What came first the 1800 pioneer normal survival era or did the prepper movement start in the 1970’s?
Above puzzle thoughts for Wednesday’s Ask A Prepper day off posting.
To mask or not to mask, that is the question.
We have the Covid 2.0 being re-engineered for the 2024 presidential election. They broke the emergency glass housing Dr. Fauci back into service on the news media to fear mongering once again.
Covid is a riddle in it’s self, did American taxpayer’s blindly fund the Chinese Covid Plandemic? Did Dr. Fauci knowingly fund the Plandemic as part of the globalist agenda in the Biden/Harris Administration? Why do we have open borders for our replacing American citizens? Whose country benefits the open borders?
How do all these riddles follow the connecting dots of possible 6 degrees of separation?
Can we ever solve the first riddle; which came first the egg or the chicken?
I ordered an egg and a chicken on Amazon… Still waiting…
Ha, Ha, Ha! Good reply!
Would a local feed store have a better answer than at Amazon?
MMM!, let me see.
The chicken.
Genesis 1:21 “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”
Genesis 1:22 “And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
Must we always be annoyed by Bible thumper regurgitating Sunday Bible lessons everyday of the weekly postings here.
Self-righteous attitudes will not get you in haven any faster than a sinner that asks for forgiveness from God in their hour of need.
Prepping and Bible thumping are like the Watch Tower people with their annoying papers left on the doorstep. Give it a rest in peace here, God help them blind ambition followers.
I have breast cancer and an auto-immune problem. My oncologist told me to wear a mask or die if I caught covid19. I had a mask on and a man made a nasty crack (he was standing next to my husband outside). Hubby tried to explain why I had a mask. Please don’t make assumptions about people who wear a mask. You have not walked a mile in their moccasins
There are numerous studies that have been done showing that wearing a mask DOES NOTHING to prevent the spread of COVID!!! It’s like trying to prevent mosquitoes with a chain like fence. But if it makes you feel better, go for it. Just remember that are about as useless as tits on a boar hog.
The chicken or the egg comes down to beliefs. If you go by the bible it is the chicken. If you go by evolution it is the egg. Six of one or half a dozen of the other.
If you believe in evolution the egg came first as dinosaurs were egg layers.
Indeed the Chicken Sheeple must awaken to the rotten eggs in charge.
7 Deadly tax hikes that Californian Chickens will likely have to pay if ACA-1 or ACA-13 pass and the California Taxpayer Protection Initiative is blocked in 2024:California Taxpayer Protection Initiative is blocked in 2024:
1 Mileage Tax: Politicians will be able to impose their 6-cents per mile tax costing an average of $900 per car per year!
2 Healthcare Tax: Politicians can proceed forward with a proposal to double California state taxes to fund government-run healthcare – costing average of $16k per household per year
3 Exit Tax: Politicians will be able to impose a new tax for up to 10 years on residents who move out of California
4 Savings Tax: Politicians will be able to impose a new tax on your personal savings and investments
5 Gas Tax: The law passed this year imposing a new tax on oil companies will go into effect without challenge.
6 Utility Taxes: The crazy proposal to charge you higher utility rates if you earn “too much” will go into effect without challenge. In addition, the $4.5 billion in hidden state taxes on utility bills will continue – and be increased!
7 Local Tax Hikes: Any local sales or property tax hike would be easier to implement – and Democrats have a long list of tax hikes ready at the local level!
The roosters are leaving Cali, some cluckers choose to lay or stay, many can’t afford to move out to freedom acres. Many are working for chicken feed and homeless by rotten high taxes. NIMBY!
I get several different breeds so that one set might be immune to something others have. Since you have to buy 5 chickens of each breed you can do what i did and order with other people and split up the chicks.
Also why can’t we try to learn things that are prepping and skip all the politics and religion. I look back at articles from years back and the conversations were about learning to prep. They were more informative then what we have now. It really is a shame.
Agree 100%
You are what we need more of, less religion infusion into every daily posting here. Others have said the same, too much religion bible versing and politics needs to go!
True years ago these articles years ago had great information, not so much today.
Today it should be about chickens than somebody’s or nobody’s personal views of their religions.
We need a campaign to ignore these reprobate’s ruining a worthwhile website of prepper knowledge.
Insanity works well here too. Those who think they are true believers must prophesier their religion on others as a form of redeeming others. Or they want everyone to read the bible 24 hrs a day and not enjoy life.
Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Enough!
We need a break from the religious perversion and politics on this website. Why do these people have to troll here? Go away please!
I too am sick and tired of these inebriated individuals hijacking this prepper website with religious and political tripe.
Enough is enough, to those being obtuse go to another website that wants your kind, period!
We are preppers!
Let’s get back to the prepper article of chickens today only!
Froggy,
To say something is true for one person but not another is a logical fallacy. It violates the law of noncontradiction. If something is true, then it is true.
It is impossible for an egg to autogenerate. We also know it is impossible for the egg to hatch without incubation. It is impossible for a single chicken to produce a fertile egg. So the answer to the question of which came first is, a hen and a rooster.
Touche’ :). I also said that as a joke.
Empathy and understanding a neccessary item in our society
alway s give room , leave room for others to live, make thier own mistakes or success’s
you may not see life as i see , but you have the perspective you live from
right or wrong , not my place to judge , but is my place to tell you the truth in love , let you know there is a way of escape coming judgement of mankind
When Rapture happens , then the truth comes out , who really believed , who just played the game
For those here who always want no voice from the bible , when this happens , then you will surely see , koas, calimity , deception will abound , then you will be forced , no choice to pay hammage or worship the bease ( mans Image , Mans idol , Mans way of religeon )
Be smart , wise , educated as there is only 2 forces at work ,
God, Good
Satan , Evil
just like the chicken and the egg , both were created and for a purpose
by the way this is a great article above and we congradulate the writers on thier work
I’ve been raising chickens since 2008. My favorites breeds that I’ve raised are:
Barred Rocks – If you want a General Purpose Chicken this is it. Large brown eggs 4-5 days a week. They aren’t broody (at least mine haven’t been). Do well in Florida heat. Very docile. I had to pick just one chicken type this would be it.
Australorp – I have raised both Black and Blue varieties. The Blue ones look like a grey feather duster with feet. Both lay tons of large brown eggs. The Blues have a hint of purple in their eggs. Neither are broody. They also do well in Florida heat. Can be aloof.
Speckled Sussex – If you want a Family Pet type of chicken. This is a good pick. Lays Medium size light tan eggs. Can get somewhat broody once a year. Extremely friendly. Very curious, not the smartest chicken. Can get picked on by others.
Most of my neighbors are thieves, and they will steal anything that crawls, flies or walks. I already know what to expect when the SHTF.
OLDBUTT53bUFFALO53:
About masking. I wear n95’s properly and I have not even gotten a cold. I think that I should listen to my oncologist instead of a talking head thank you.