Note: 03/09/2020 – The chick selector has been replaced by our new Chicks Page. The information below has been retained for historical purposes.
With so many breeds and varieties of chickens to choose from, sometimes determining exactly which breed you want can be difficult. The chick selector on our website is a tool we developed to make it a lot easier to decide, based on the breed characteristics that matter the most to you.
How to use the chick selector
First, click the link below, or click “Chick Selector” on our website:
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/chick_selector.html
Next, select the characteristics that you care the most about. By default, we show you a short list containing some of the most common characteristics, or you can click “show more characteristics” to see the complete list.
As you make your selections, to the right, you will be shown a list of the breeds that meet your requirements, and a small popup window will briefly show you how many breeds meet your criteria.
An Example
Let’s try an example. Suppose I want a backyard chicken that will produce eggs reasonably well and that’s a good meat producer. I don’t care about the color of the egg, and I’d like something that’s available to order right now as a straight run.
So I select “good egg production”, “good meat production” and “st. run available”. The chick selector returns a list of 37 breeds (if you try the same selection, your results may vary because of changes in availability).
That’s still a large list to pick from, so I’d like to narrow it down further.
I decide that I really want large eggs, not medium or smaller, so I pick “large eggs”. Now I’m looking at 29 matching breeds.
Next, I click “show more characteristics”. This brings up more criteria so I can further narrow my choice. I decide that since my children will be helping with the chickens, I’d like something that has an “excellent disposition”. I make that selection, and now I have 8 matching breeds.
Since I live in a warm climate, I decide that I want a bird which is somewhat heat tolerant, or at least more so than average, so I select “better heat tolerance”.
Now there are only three matching varieties, making it much easier to choose one:
- Blue Cochins
- Delaware
- Red Stars
The characteristics of each of these breeds is listed so I can easily compare them side by side and make my final selection.
How about a box for broodiness. That’s an important trait for a lot of us.
To find breeds that will go broody, click “show more characteristics” then under “Likely to sit on eggs” select “somewhat,” “very,” or “extremely”. It’ll show you breeds that tend to go broody.