After deciding to raise chickens, the first major decision you will need to make is which breed or breeds you will raise. There are over 100 chicken breeds that have been identified, which means you could spend days researching each breed and making your selection.
Before getting too caught up in the details, we recommend first thinking broadly about how you plan to use your flock. From our perspective, there are five primary reasons people raise chickens, and hence we use five primary groupings of breeds:
- Egg Layers: Hens produce more frequent, better quality and larger sized eggs
- Meat Birds: Develop muscle tissue faster and are efficient with feed consumption
- Dual Purpose: Decent egg layers than can also be butchered for meat
- Ornamental: Raised for their beauty and stature more so than their eggs or meat
- Bantams: Cute miniature chickens that are fun, but don’t produce much to eat
In addition to thinking about egg production versus meat production, there are other breed attributes that you need to think about before making your selections. Here are a few additional things to consider:
- Climate: Some birds are more suited for cold climates, others for hot climates
- Purebred: Purebred chicks grow up like their parents and are easiest to breed
- Aggression: Many chickens make great pets, but some may be too aggressive
- Foraging: All chickens forage for food, but some are much better at it than others
- Brooding: Only some breeds will successfully sit on and hatch eggs into chicks
- Flying: Some chickens actually fly quite well, and that makes them harder to contain
The bottom line is that no single breed “has it all”. In other words, you will have to choose which attributes are important to you, and which are not. The following tables highlight major chicken breeds and the characteristics that differentiate them.
Egg Layers:
See related posts below to read more about Egg Layers
Type of Chicken
|
Egg Production
|
Bird Size
|
Good Brooder
|
Cold Hardy
|
|||||||
Class
|
Breed
|
Below Avg
|
Average
|
Above Avg
|
Egg Color
|
Egg Size
|
Below Avg
|
Average
|
Above Avg
|
||
< 3 per week
|
3 – 4 per week
|
5+ per week
|
< 5 lbs
|
6 – 7 lbs
|
7+ lbs
|
||||||
Continental | Campine |
X
|
White | Medium |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Continental | Hamburg |
X
|
White | Small |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Continental | Lakenvelder |
X
|
Cream | Medium |
X
|
||||||
English | Redcap |
X
|
White | Medium |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Large | Minorca |
X
|
White | X-Large |
X
|
||||||
Mediterranean | Ancona |
X
|
White | Large |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Mediterranean | Andalusian |
X
|
White | Large |
X
|
||||||
Mediterranean | Catalana |
X
|
Cream | Medium |
X
|
||||||
Mediterranean | Leghorn (Non-White) |
X
|
White | Large |
X
|
||||||
Mediterranean | Leghorn (White) |
X
|
White | X-Large |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Mediterranean | Sicilian Buttercup |
X
|
White | Small |
X
|
||||||
Mediterranean | White Faced Black Spanish |
X
|
White | Large |
X
|
||||||
N/A | Easter Eggers |
X
|
Green Blue | X-Large |
X
|
X
|
|||||
N/A | Fayoumi |
X
|
Cream | Small |
X
|
X
|
|||||
N/A | Marans |
X
|
Dark Brown | Large |
X
|
||||||
N/A | Penedesenca |
X
|
Dark Brown | Medium |
X
|
||||||
Other | Ameraucana |
X
|
Blue | Medium |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Other | Appenzeller Spitzhauben |
X
|
White | Medium |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Other | Araucana |
X
|
Blue | Medium |
X
|
X
|
X
|
Meat Birds:
See related posts below to read more about Meat Birds
Type of Chicken
|
Egg Production
|
Bird Size
|
Good Brooder
|
Cold Hardy
|
|||||||
Class
|
Breed
|
Below Avg
|
Average
|
Above Avg
|
Egg Color
|
Egg Size
|
Below Avg
|
Average
|
Above Avg
|
||
< 3 per week
|
3 – 4 per week
|
5+ per week
|
< 5 lbs
|
6 – 7 lbs
|
7+ lbs
|
||||||
English | Cornish |
X
|
Light Brown | Small |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Other | Cubalaya |
X
|
Cream | Medium |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
Other | Malay |
X
|
Light Brown | Medium |
X
|
Dual Purpose:
See related posts below to read more about Dual Purpose
Type of Chicken
|
Egg Production
|
Bird Size
|
Good Brooder
|
Cold Hardy
|
|||||||
Class
|
Breed
|
Below Avg
|
Average
|
Above Avg
|
Egg Color
|
Egg Size
|
Below Avg
|
Average
|
Above Avg
|
||
< 3 per week
|
3 – 4 per week
|
5+ per week
|
< 5 lbs
|
6 – 7 lbs
|
7+ lbs
|
||||||
American | Chantecler |
X
|
Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
|||||
American | Delaware |
X
|
Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
American | Dominique |
X
|
Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
American | Holland |
X
|
White | Large |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
American | Java |
X
|
Brown | Medium |
X
|
X
|
|||||
American | Jersey Giant |
X
|
Brown | X-Large |
X
|
X
|
|||||
American | Plymouth Rock |
X
|
Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
American | Rhode Island |
X
|
Brown | X-Large |
X
|
X
|
|||||
American | Wyandotte |
X
|
Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
Asiatic | Brahma |
X
|
Brown | Medium |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
Asiatic | Langshan |
X
|
Brown | Medium |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
Continental | Barnevelder |
X
|
Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Continental | Crevecoeur |
X
|
White | Medium |
X
|
||||||
Continental | Faverolles |
X
|
Cream | Medium |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
Continental | La Fleche |
X
|
White | Large |
X
|
||||||
Continental | Welsummer |
X
|
Dark Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
English | Australorp |
X
|
Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
English | Dorking |
X
|
Cream | Medium |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
English | Orpington |
X
|
Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
English | Sussex |
X
|
Light Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
Medium | New Hampshire Red |
X
|
Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
N/A | Star |
X
|
Brown | Large |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Other | Naked Neck (Turken) |
X
|
Light Brown | Medium |
X
|
X
|
X
|
Bantams:
See related posts below to read more about Bantams
Type of Chicken
|
Egg Production
|
Bird Size
|
Good Brooder
|
Cold Hardy
|
|||||||
Class
|
Breed
|
Below Avg
|
Average
|
Above Avg
|
Egg Color
|
Egg Size
|
Below Avg
|
Average
|
Above Avg
|
||
< 3 per week
|
3 – 4 per week
|
5+ per week
|
< 5 lbs
|
6 – 7 lbs
|
7+ lbs
|
||||||
All Other Breeds | Rosecomb Bantam |
X
|
Cream | Tiny |
X
|
X
|
|||||
All Other Breeds | Sebright Bantam |
X
|
Cream | Tiny |
X
|
||||||
Feather Legged Bantam | Belgian Bearded d’Uccle Bantam |
X
|
Cream | Tiny |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Feather Legged Bantam | Booted Bantam |
X
|
Cream | Tiny |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Feather-legged Bantam | Silkie Bantam |
X
|
Cream | Tiny |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
Other | Japanese Bantam |
X
|
Cream | Tiny |
X
|
X
|
Ornamental:
See related posts below to read more about Ornamentals
Type of Chicken
|
Egg Production
|
Bird Size
|
Good Brooder
|
Cold Hardy
|
|||||||
Class
|
Breed
|
Below Avg
|
Average
|
Above Avg
|
Egg Color
|
Egg Size
|
Below Avg
|
Average
|
Above Avg
|
||
< 3 per week
|
3 – 4 per week
|
5+ per week
|
< 5 lbs
|
6 – 7 lbs
|
7+ lbs
|
||||||
Asiatic | Cochin |
X
|
Brown | Medium |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
Continental | Houdan |
X
|
White | Small |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Continental | Polish |
X
|
White | Tiny |
X
|
||||||
Other | Aseel |
X
|
Cream | Medium |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
Other | Modern Game |
X
|
White | Medium |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Other | Old English Game |
X
|
Cream | Medium |
X
|
X
|
X
|
||||
Other | Phoenix |
X
|
Cream | Medium |
X
|
||||||
Other | Sultan |
X
|
White | Small |
X
|
||||||
Other | Sumatra |
X
|
White | Medium |
X
|
X
|
|||||
Other | Yokohama |
X
|
Cream | Small |
X
|