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Once you’ve chosen a breed, you’ll have to decide: chicks or full-grown birds? In most cases, the correct answer is chicks. In addition to getting the most for your fowl-shopping dollar, you’ll know exactly how old they are. Plus, when purchased from reliable sources, chicks are nearly always healthy.

The Little Guys

Order day-old chicks from commercial or specialty hatcheries. The former sell dozens, sometimes hundreds, of breeds and varieties of quality chicks at modest prices. For most of us, this is the logical way to fly. Specialty hatcheries are run by knowledgeable poultry aficionados who specialize in specific sorts of fowl. You’ll pay more at a specialty hatchery, but if you want to show chickens or to one day breed show-quality fowl, paying extra for specialty-hatchery chicks is the way to go.

A newly hatched chick can live for three days without food and water, subsisting solely on nutrients absorbed from its egg. Therefore, you can purchase chicks from hatcheries on the other side of the country, and—shipped overnight air—they should arrive safely at your nearest post office without a hitch. However, sometimes a chick does die in transit; thus, it’s wise to order from the closest responsible source so that your chicks needn’t travel farther than necessary. Some hatcheries will replace chicks that are dead on arrival, but others won’t. Read the seller’s guarantee before ordering chicks. If the service is available, pay to have your chicks vaccinated for Marek’s disease. This can only be done when they’re newly hatched, meaning it’s now or never, and it’s better to be safe than sad.

Be aware that you can’t mail-order five or six chicks. For the birds to stay warm enough in transit, a certain number of bodies must be in the shipping box, generating heat. It generally takes about twenty-five large-fowl chicks or twenty-five to thirty-five bantams to do the trick. Some hatcheries allow you to order Guinea keets or other similar-size hatchlings to fill the quota. You can also find others interested in buying a few chicks and place a combined order that will be shipped to one address.

If you don’t want to deal with roosters, buy sexed pullets. Straight-run chicks (an equal mixture of males and females) are cheaper, but at least half will be cockerels. If you can raise and butcher the excess roosters, fine. Otherwise, buy just two or three sexed “roos” to add to the mix—or buy none at all. Hens don’t need roosters to lay eggs.

Before your chicks arrive, assemble everything you’ll need to feed, water, and brood them (brood means to keep them warm inside a heated enclosure). Have the brooder box ready and waiting.

Plan to be home the day your chicks are scheduled to arrive. In most cases, they won’t be delivered to your door; someone from the post office will call you to pick them up. When you arrive for the delivery, open the box of chicks in the presence of a postal worker who can verify your claim should any of them be dead. Then rush your new birds straight home to a cozy brooder box, water, and feed. Don’t take side trips with your chicks in tow.

When you get them home, remove the chicks from their shipping box one by one and examine them. If a chick has pasty butt (an affliction where crusty, dried droppings block a chick’s vent, making it impossible for the bird to eliminate), gently wash its little behind with a soft cloth dampened in warm water. This problem is common with mail-order chicks, especially in their first five or six days after arrival.

Check the toes. When caught early, crooked or curled toes can be splinted using wooden match sticks and strips of adhesive bandage snipped to size. Some straighten, some don’t, but you won’t know unless you try! If a chick looks normal, dip its beak in water so the chick knows where the water is and starts drinking, and then place the bird gently under the heat source.

Feed stores frequently offer day-old chicks for sale. Breed selection maybe limited, and feed-store chicks aren’t often sexed. However, you can choose the ones you want, buy just a

few, and get them home quickly. Select bright-eyed, active chicks with straight shanks, toes, and beaks as well as clean, unobstructed bottoms.

Making a Chicken a Pet When you brood your next batch of chicks, pick one to hand tame. Carefully pull her out of the brooder for short periods every day. Cup her between your hands and hold her near your face. Speak gently for a minute or two and then put her back. If you work with her, she’ll bond with you. By the time she leaves the brooder, she’ll be your chick. To domesticate an older bird, work quietly and carefully. Hold her securely so she can’t flop. Stroke her wattles—chickens like that—and offer her goodies, such as bits of fruit or veggies. It won’t be long until she’s tame!

The Big Guys

If you don’t want to deal with tiny chicks, you might be able to buy sixteen- to twenty-two-week-old, almost-ready-to-lay females called started pullets. Initially, they cost more per bird, but you won’t have the expense of brooding them and feeding them for months, so they can actually be a great buy.

Breeders will sometimes part with a few hens or a breeding trio (a cock and two hens), and you can often find chickens for sale at country flea markets, poultry swap meets, or via classified and bulletin board ads. However, buying adult chickens can be risky. Not all sellers are honest, and it’s easy to buy someone else’s problem hens.

Ideally, you should buy fowl only from flocks enrolled in the USDA’s National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP). These birds are certified free of pullorum (a severe, diarrheal disease) and typhoid and are healthier than your run-of-the-mill chickens. Choose active, alert, clear-eyed chickens with smooth, glossy feathers and bright, fleshy, waxy combs and wattles. Refuse birds that cough, wheeze, or have discharge or diarrhea. Tip the chicken forward and scope out the area around its vent, and also check under its wings. If you spy insects or eggs and you don’t want to deal with parasites, you’d best not buy the bird.

If you want eggs or plan on eating the chickens, you must buy young ones. Young adults have smooth shanks; older birds’ shanks are dry and scaly, and their skin is thick and tough. Cockerels have wee nubs where their spurs will grow, and some pullets have them, too; long spurs denote an older bird. Press on the chicken’s breastbone; a youngster’s is flexible, while old chickens have rigid breastbones.

Which Breed? Breeds most likely to make great pets: Barnevelder, Belgian d’Uccle, Cochin, Dorking, Jersey Giant, Naked Neck (Turken), Orpington, Polish, Plymouth Rock, Silkie, Sussex Other easygoing, friendly breeds: Ameraucana, Araucana (usually), Aseel (cocks are aggressive toward one another), Brahma, Dominique, Faverolles, Java, Langshan, Sultan, Welsummer, Wyandotte (usually) Cold-hardy breeds: Araucana, Ameraucana, Aseel, Australorp, Brahama, Buckeye, Chantecler, Cochin, Dominique, Faverolles, Hamburg, Java, Jersey Giant, Langshan, Old English Game (dubbed), Orpington, Rosecomb, Silkie, Sussex, Welsummer, Wyandotte Breeds prone to frostbitten combs: Andalusian, Campine, Dorking, Leghorn, New Hampshire Red, New Hampshire White, Rhode Island Red (Roosters are more likely than hens to suffer frostbite; their combs are larger, and they don’t tuck their heads under their wings while sleeping as hens do.) Heat-tolerant breeds: Andalusian, Aseel, Brahma, Buttercup, Cubalaya, Fayoumi, Leghorn, Minorca, Modern Game, New Hampshire Red, Rhode Island Red, Rosecomb, Silkie, Spanish White Faced, Sumatra Flying breeds: Ancona, Andalusian, Campine, Fayoumi, Hamburg, Lakenvelder, Leghorn, Rosecomb, Sebright, nearly all bantams Noisy breeds: Andalusian, Cornish, Cubalaya, Leghorn, Modern Game, Old English Game Flighty breeds: Ancona, Andalusian, Buttercup, Fayoumi, Hamburg, La Fleche, Lakenvelder, Leghorn, Minorca, Sebright, Spanish White Faced Aggressive breeds: Ancona, Aseel (cocks), Old English Game, Cornish (cocks), Rhode Island Red (cocks), Cubalaya, Modern Game, Rhode Island Red (some strains), Sumatra, Wyandotte (some strains) Self-reliant breeds (good foragers, ideal free-range chickens): Andalusian, Australorp, Belgian d’Uccle, Buckeye, Buttercup, Campine, Chantecler, Dominique, Fayoumi, Hamburg, Houdan, Java, La Fleche, Lakenvelder, Marans, Minorca, New Hampshire Red, Old English Game, Orpington, Plymouth Rock, Rosecomb, Sebright, Silkie, Sussex, Naked Neck (Turken), Welsummer, Wyandotte (Note: Avoid all-white individuals; they’re more easily spotted by predators than colored and patterned varieties of the same breeds.) Breeds that tolerate confinement reasonably well: Araucana, Ameraucana, Australorp, Barnevelder, Brahma, Buckeye, Cochin, Cornish, Crevecoeur, Dominique, Dorking, Faverolles, Houdan, Java, Jersey Giant, La Fleche, Lakenvelder, Langshan, Leghorn, Naked Neck (Turken), New Hampshire Red, Orpington, Plymouth Rock, Polish, Rhode Island Red, Silkie, Sultan, Sussex, Welsummer, Wyandotte Breeds that don’t tolerate confinement well: Ancona, Andalusian, Buttercup, Cubalaya, Fayoumi, Hamburg, Malay, Minorca, Modern Game, Old English Game, Spanish White Faced, Sumatra