If you want a backyard flock for eggs, meat, and the fun of watching chickens, pick any colors that suit your fancy and let them run together. But if you are looking at raising a pure strain of chickens, keep the following in mind: Chickens of different colors have to be treated as separate breeds.
Here's an example situation to show how it goes: You've done a little research and decided you like Rhode Island Reds, Light Sussex, and Wyandottes.
Now, Rhode Island Reds only come in one color, so breeding them won't be a problem; you'll just have to do the normal culling to keep color and type going according to SOP.
The Light Sussex aren't a problem either, because in picking that breed, you've already made the color selection- that's right, Sussex is the breed, Light is the color.
Ah, but the Wyandottes- they come in eight colors that are recognized by the APA, as well as other colors that you can't show. If these were a dog breed, you'd just get any colors you like, breed them together, and the chicks would be different accepted colors. (Example: if I bred a fawn Boxer to a brindle Boxer, I would end up with puppies of both colors, but all puppies would be an acceptable color for the breed standard.) But in chickens, if you cross colors you could end up with some pretty wild ones, and they certainly wouldn't conform to the breed standard! So in your quest, you not only need to pick Wyandottes, but Gold Laced Wyandottes or Partridge Wyandottes, etc.
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