When I was little I went to a summer camp on a farm, my favorite part of the day was when we would get to visit the chickens and collect their eggs. I loved trying to pet the chickens and seeing the mamas in the nesting box and I always giggled when they would cluck at you for disturbing their egg laying.
It’s funny how a few small interactions with animals can leave such a lasting impression, but those chickens have stuck with me for ages.
As I got older my dreams of having chickens grew stronger.
When my husband and I started dating 10 years ago we dreamed of having a tiny house, while building an cottage style earthship ( AKA a Cobb house [mud and straw] with modern amenities which operate off grid)
with a huge garden and loads of chickens… many of those years I spent doubting it would ever happen.
Now, we aren’t moving our family to a tiny house to build an earthship… but this year we decided to make one of our dreams come true!
After loads of calculations on feed, coops, runs and chicken math… as our friend put it “How ever many you plan on, triple that, triple the coop and triple the run”… haha!
We ended up with 12 little chicks! I can’t begin to describe the excitement of placing the order for the chickens and their coop, I was filled with butterflies and I also shed a couple of tears. Maybe that sounds a bit dramatic, but if you have ever waited on a dream to come true, you will know the feeling of a blessing you’ve been hoping for.
The best part was a few days later when they showed up at our local post office and I went in and heard them cheeping right away! It was such a wonderful experience getting to peek in the box and see all the happy little babies!
How we picked our Chickens
We had some criteria to meet so this is what we looked for:
- Friendly, calm(ish) temperament
- Some colorful eggs
- Heat and cold tolerance
Friendly and Calm(ish) Chickens
This factor was really important to us, as we have small children and want them to be able to participate with raising chickens without feeling frightened. As a new chicken owner I felt it was important for us to have chickens we can easily handle in the case of giving medical attention (one of my big worries) and honestly I just love petting friendly chickens hah!
Some Colorful Eggs ( Rainbow eggs)
I’ve wanted rainbow eggs since I first laid eyes on them, about 15 years ago now. I can’t even tell you how many pins I have saved of all the rainbow layers info. I love the shells so much, to me they are like works of art.
Heat and Cold Tolerance
If you’ve read my posts before you may know that we are located in North Carolina, which means the summers can be brutally hot, for a long time, and the winters can be very cold, this year we even had a snow storm. While it doesn’t often get far below freezing, it can get that way and we wanted to make sure that our flock would be prepared.
What would you look for in a chicken?
The Chick Varieties
French Black Copper Maran
- Appearance: Glossy black feathers with a deep coppery-red hackle (neck). Hens are mostly solid black with subtle copper tones and feathered legs.
- Eggs: Lays around 150–200 eggs per year. Famous dark chocolate-brown eggs (one of the darkest egg layers).
- Temperament:calm and friendly temperament.
- Climate: Excellent in cold (dense feathers); okay in moderate heat but needs shade in hot summers.
Cream Leg Bar
- Appearance: Creamy white to pale gold feathers with subtle black or gray barring. Small crest of feathers on the head (especially noticeable on hens).
- Eggs: Lays 150–200 medium-sized sky-blue to light turquoise or greenish-blue eggs per year.
- Temperament: Friendly, curious, and excellent foragers. Can be a bit flighty or alert but generally docile and good in mixed flocks.
- Climate: hardy free-rangers that do well in various climates.
- Other traits: Auto-sexing (day-old chicks can be sexed by down color)
Buff Orpington
Buff Orpington (brief):
- Appearance: Large, fluffy golden-buff birds; rounded “teddy bear” body
- Eggs: 200–250 large light-brown eggs/year (4–5/week peak).
- Temperament: Very calm, docile, friendly — great with kids.
- Climate: Excellent in cold (dense feathers); okay in moderate heat but needs shade in hot summers.
If you keep chickens what varieties do you have? If not would you want to in the future?
The chick personalities so far
We’re already seeing their sweet little personalities
The French copper marans are funny little things. Very curious and a bit assertive and they seem to be the most active ones in the group right now. They really enjoy scratching around in the pen.
The cream leg bars are very sweet and a bit shy. They seem to really enjoy cuddles but tend to be a bit more cautious. They are so fast!
The buff orphingtons are just precious. I picked them after caring for my neighbors chickens, the one that I met I absolutely adored. She was so funny the way she strutted around with her big fluffy body. She even decided to set some eggs and was such a sweet mama. I loved the classic hen energy and I’m already seeing this in our little chicks. The orphingtons really enjoy being held and pet.
Resources
Chicken Books
In order not to overwhelm myself I have two books to guide this journey of raising chickens for the first time.
- The Back Yard Chicken Book by H. Lee Schwanz. This Book was really helpful for helping me to see how much space I might need. I learned a lot about keeping the chick’s pen at the right temperature based on the behavior described. I also learned a lot about feeding chickens through this book.
- The Encyclopedia Of Country Living by Carla Emery. This book is the encyclopedia for all things homestead related.The Poultry section was especially informative. I learned a lot about chickens when they are grown, issues they could potentially have and so much more. This is the modern version, I found my 1994 version at the little free library at a park. You can find the edition I have here.
While a lot of this information is available for free online, I tend to be a book person.
What’s your favorite resource for chicken information? Let me know in the comments!
Please note: If you use the links above to purchase books I may make a small commission on the sale, if you choose to do so, my family and I are so grateful for your support!
Names
We’re still picking out names but one of the cream leg bars was named by my daughter, who picked the name Margret.
What names do you think would be cute? Take the poll!
Stay tuned!
Not Ready for your own flock?
I get it we weren’t for a while either! I have a whole post about what you CAN do to kickstart your homestead dreams a lot of the things on this list I started when we lived in an apartment!
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