Baizer84, few chicken breeds tolerate confinement very well. Partridge Rocks are a heavier breed and New Hampshire Reds have always been a favorite of mine. They do well in a pen. They lay well and are big enough to eat.

Hi Reed,

Some breeds tolerate confinement better than others, and some don't like it at all. We've had many kinds of chickens (and turkeys, geese, guineas and ducks) over the years, and here's a few that tolerate confinement the best (based on our experience): Black Australorps, Buff Orpingtons, Silkies, Ameraucanas, Wyandottes, Sebrights, Welsummers and Mille Fleur d'Uccles. By confinement I mean that they are closed up either in a nice, big chicken coop with lots of space, roosts, nesting boxes, plentiful windows, etc. and also that they have a big fully fenced (including a roof) chicken run. For safety, they are securely locked inside the coop at night, but allowed out into the chicken run all day. I'm assuming that is what you mean by confinement and not that you're keeping them in cages. I don't know of any breeds that are happy if confined in cages.

I like to let our poultry free-range for a portion of any day that has decent weather but sometimes, generally either when grass fires and wildfires are occurring frequently nearby or when predator problems have developed or in inclement weather, I won't let them free-range for weeks or months on end. Because of that, we only select breeds that have shown they tolerate being confined well but also which adapt easily to free-ranging again when we start opening the gate and letting them out of the fenced-in chicken run again. Our chickens are well-trained and return to the coop and fenced chicken run about 20-30 minutes before sunset every day.

If you are keeping chickens for eggs, Mille Fleur d'uccles (which are my personal favorite because of their sweet, gentle nature and their broodiness) aren't the best egg layers but they probably tolerate confinement better than just about any other breed we've ever had. They'll lay 2, 3 or 4 times a week but not every day like some other breeds do. We have plenty of hens that do lay very well, though, so it is okay that the Mille Fleurs do not. (As a gardener, I couldn't resist getting chickens with that name!)

Dawn

Thank you guys for the response.

Dawn, I've got a small, enclosed coop that is 5x8. The run is 5x15. I cannot allow them out because there are too many loose dogs and cats in the area in addition to natural predators.

I had planned on getting a mixture of Marans, Welsummers, Black Australorps, and Wyandottes. The problem is that I want at least one white egg layer and it's hard to find a white egg layer that isn't of the flighty Mediterranean class.

You make it challenging by eliminating all the flighty Mediterranean ones. Hmm. Maybe Silver-Spangled Hambergs? Or maybe California Whites, which are a hybrid Leghorn type that some people have found to be pretty tolerant of being confined.

The Silver-Spangled Hamburgs are so gorgeous and are really good layers, but they can be kind of flighty. They do fine in a fenced run that is fully enclosed, but will fly out of a run that doesn't have a top or roof of some sort.

Most of the poultry we have lay colored eggs, so the white eggs we get usually are from our Polish hens. I like the White Crested Black Polish the best, but we've also had the Buff colored ones. I worried they wouldn't do well free-ranging as their crests can limit their vision, but it turned out they do better free-ranging than I expected. Our oldest Polish is practically an antique at this point, being 4 or 5 years old.

When we first raised Polish from 2 or 3-day-old chicks, we kept them locked up in the coop and run forever and forever, fearing their crests would keep them from seeing predators approaching from behind or the side. Because they were raised inside the run, they had no problem with being penned up. However, after we started letting them free range at times, they quickly decided they preferred freedom. From that point forward, they have been the first ones to yell and holler when they want us to come open up the gate and let them out "NOW!". However, they are just as good as the rest of the hens about going back into the run and coop at night.

Where we live, any individual chicken, guinea, turkey or duck that will not go back into the coop at night doesn't last long due to all the predators roaming at night. Dogs are a problem every now and then, but probably not more than a dozen times a year. When we have that problem it isn't with neighbors' dogs, it is with dogs dumped/abandoned in the country by brainless idiots who think the dogs somehow will magically be able to fend for themselves and survive on their own. That rarely works out well for the dogs. Coons are probably our worst, most persistent and deadliest predator. I used to think racoons were cute until I saw what vicious predators they are.

Dawn