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There are chickens of all sizes, shapes and colours, with all kinds of feathers, and with a variety of characteristics. Thus one finds noisy chickens, chickens that love to fly and are constantly escaping from their run, chickens that by nature are very calm and docile, and those that are known for their jumpiness or even for being quite aggressive. If you yourself are rather lively and excitable, then you will do better to settle on a calm breed. Your animals will actually reflect your disposition, resulting in your temperamental chickens growing agitated, and when you walk into the coop, literally all hell breaks loose, leaving you in a cloud of feathers. There are also differences in laying capacity: there are breeds specially selected for laying relatively large and many eggs (even in winter) and breeds that lay very few indeed. Besides, hens of some breeds are broody at the drop of a hat, while others almost never are. Frequent broodiness is a nuisance if you chiefly keep chickens for their eggs, because a broody hen is not in lay. So if you want hens for the eggs, see to it that you get a breed of prolific layers that are not prone to broodiness. As both the external and inner qualities are usually fixed in a breed, it is clear that one does not only pick a breed for its attractive appearance. The best thing to do is to carefully consider beforehand what qualities you would like in your new pets, choosing the breed that complies with the best. This way, you will prevent the enterprise from turning out a disappointment. However, do remember that character not only depends on breed, but is also connected with stock. Thus a breeder, by consciously or unintentionally selecting certain traits, will embed them in his or her stock, so that chickens from this breeder might be more placid than is normally the case, or just the opposite. (The Complete Encyclopedia Of Chickens by Esther Verhoef & Aad Rijs)