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If you have to make a choice for a certain chicken breed, then please consider, before simply going out and buying ‘just’ a few chickens, that every standard breed tends to have its particular physical features demanding specific care. If you for instance want to let a few chickens wander about your backyard, then you had better not buy a breed with crests,beards or lots of feathers on their feet. After a few days of scratching around, or even sooner, they will usually look pretty bedraggled. If you don’t want your poultry to upset your garden, you can put a check on this by choosing chickens with feathered feet. These are less fanatic diggers, but then again you should see to it that they are able to roost in dry conditions, so that their leg feathers can dry, A short-legged breed like the Japanese Bantams cannot get about very well in a yard, nor can frizzle-feathered breeds that have a problem with rain. If you got a very little space, then needless to say you should pick some bantams or else a bigger placid breed that does not need a lot of room. If you don’t know much about chickens and you do not intend to look into the matter very deeply, you will do better to get a hardy breed instead of a rather delicate one needing special care. If you are of a slender build yourself or if your kids also like taking care of the chickens together with you, then don’t settle on a large, heavy breed, but pick a more manageable size instead, Also consider the fact that big chickens produce more droppings than small bantams do. As a rule, large chickens take more work in cleaning the garden or henhouse, and of course having many chickens is also a lot more trouble than just keeping a few. Thus all breeds, types and sizes have their own specific features, making the birds either suited or not to your situation and requirements. (The Complete Encyclopedia Of Chickens, by Esther Verhoef & Aad Rijs)