Which Type of Chicken Best Suits You and Your Space?
Choosing the right chicken breed is an important part of raising chickens. Do you want lots of eggs, friendly chickens, or just something fancy? There are so many chicken breeds out there; it can be overwhelming! Here are some things to consider when choosing the best breed of chicken for your backyard coop.
Which Types of Chickens Should You Get?
When it comes to choosing your chicken breeds, there are more breeds out there than you can shake an eggbeater at! We’re talking about hundreds of different breeds—lots of choices!
One of the delights of this step is learning some of the types of chickens and their charming names: Silkie, Showgirl, Silver-Laced Wyandotte, Rosecomb, Redcap, and Russian Orloff, to name a few.
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Plus, if you’re raising chickens, you don’t have to choose just one breed! Fortunately, chickens of all different breeds typically get along just fine, and your egg basket will be much more colorful if your flock comprises a variety of chickens.
Maybe you do want colorful eggs. Or, maybe, you want breeds known for their laying prowess. Perhaps, docile, kid-friendly breeds are a consideration. Or maybe you live in a cold climate and want to be sure the breeds you choose will be well-suited to your area.
Choosing Chicken Breeds
The chickens you ultimately choose will depend on what criteria are important to you and your family.
First, let’s consider WHERE you live and your type of climate. Not all chickens like cold climates, and some struggle in heat.
Heat-Tolerant Chicken Breeds
If you live in an area that’s warm and humid for much of the year, then choosing heat-tolerant breeds will be important. Their smallish, sleek bodies and large combs help them stay cool in extreme heat.
- Phoenix
- Minorca
- Andalusians
- Leghorns
- Penedesencas
Cool-Weather Chicken Breeds
Conversely, if you live in a cold climate, then a larger-bodied chicken with a smaller comb will do better. Here are good choices:
- Brahma
- Chantecler
- Australorps
- Barred Rocks,
- Buff Orpingtons
- Cochins
- Wyandottes
Besides weather and climate, it’s important to know if you need a breed that is a super-productive egg layer, especially if this is for a small business.
Medium-production layers are plenty for a family. Bantam chicken eggs are small; to complement their yolks, you’ll need more whites than most angel food cake recipes call for.
Most Productive Egg-Laying Chickens
While no chicken lays an egg daily, a good layer will supply your family with five to six eggs a week during the spring and summer months. If maximum egg production is important to you, then you can’t go wrong with these breeds known for their egg-laying prowess.
- Australorp
- Barred Rock
- Delaware
- Leghorn
- Rhode Island Red
- Sussex
Friendly Chicken Breeds
If you have small children, or just desire a flock of friendly chickens who will love to sit on your lap and eat out of your hand, then consider these chicken breeds:
- Australorps
- Brahmas
- Buff Orpingtons
- Cochins
- Faverolles
- Silkies
You might also consider raising bantams. They’re about half the size of standard breed chickens, so they can be less intimidating for little kids, and they come in a wide variety of different breeds.
Chicken Breeds and Egg Color
There’s nothing more exciting than a multi-colored egg basket! While egg color shouldn’t necessarily be your first consideration, choosing some breeds that lay different-colored eggs is always fun.
Most chicken breeds lay brown eggs, although most of the Mediterranean breeds lay white eggs.
Brown Eggs
Marans lay dark chocolate brown eggs.
Blue Eggs
Ameraucana, Araucana, and Cream Legbar lay beautiful blue eggs.
Green Eggs
Isbar chicken produces a light green egg. Olive Eggers lay olive green eggs.
Easter Eggs
And Easter Eggers are the most fun of all. Each Easter Egger will lay a different color egg, anything from blue to green to pink or cream. You don’t know what color egg you’ll get from a hen until she starts laying.
Fancy Chicken Breeds
If you want pretty chickens, then choose some fancy chickens for a visually pleasing flock! While not known for being the best layers, these fancy breeds will entertain and delight with their unique appearance.
- Cochins (feathered feet)
- Faverolles (feathered feet)
- Marans (feathered feet)
- Ameraucanas (cheek muffs and “beards”)
- Polish (crazy hairdos)
- Frizzles (feathers pointing every which way
A Few Favorite Chicken Breeds
As longtime experts in raising chickens, we’ll also share our favorite breeds
- I kept Rhode Island Reds and Barred Plymouth Rocks, both of which are usually available from a local hatchery. These are docile, not particularly noisy, high-laying, dual-purpose chicken breeds that take confinement well. They gave me 75 percent egg production—that is, a dozen chickens produced nine eggs a day while they were laying.
- Another favorite of mine is the Jersey Giant. It is black or white, and large. (My black Jersey Giant rooster was 16 inches at the saddle!) The hens are medium- rather than high-laying chickens, but the eggs are larger than those of the Plymouth Rock or Rhode Island Red. This breed is calm and docile but needs more room because of its size.
- Araucanas tend to be flighty (not docile), but they thrive in almost any climate, take confinement well, and are quiet. If you want to make them more calm and docile, try hypnotizing them (and no, we’re not kidding!) Plus, the green-shelled eggs are a novelty. (One of my Rhode Island Red hens mated with an Araucana cock and gave me a hen that laid olive eggs!)
- My dream team would include Easter Eggers. They are similar in temperament to Araucanas and lay those blue or green eggs. It may take me a while to track them down, but—hey!—the dream team is worth it.
In the end…
No matter which breeds of chicken you choose to raise, you will be rewarded with baskets full of delicious, fresh eggs and hours of relaxing entertainment, watching your little flock roam the yard softly clucking, chasing bugs, and scratching for weeds.
What kind of chickens do you raise in your backyard? Tell us in the comments below!
More of Raising Chickens 101
See more of our beginner’s guide to raising chickens:
Lisa Steele
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Hello! We got 1 Americana chick, [this breed is a cross between an Ameraucana and an Araucana] and also a Speckled Sussex chick. We will raise them to maturity, then put them together with our 2 older hens [breeds unknown]. So far they are doing fine!
My local Agway here in Central Pennsylvania always has Easter Egger peeps! In fact, they are getting ready to get some in stock throughout the upcoming season. I have 4 and I love them all so much! One ended up being a rooster but he is so awesome I refused to give him away!
I hope you can find some to add to your flock! We have EE’s, a Blue Silkie and 3 Cuckoo Marans. I adore the Marans. They have a great personality. We are adding 3 Plymouth Rocks to the flock and I’m so excited about them!
Happy Chickening!!
Sunnie
We have an assortment of birds after over 20 years of chickens in the yard. I love the Australorp for eggs and being great moms. I have found that the lighter colored hens were always targeted by the hawks so we now only have darker colored breeds. I really like the Speckled Sussex breed and have ordered a few for this spring. Right now my new favorite breed is the Swedish Flower Hen. They are so beautiful and so different looking. They lay well too. I do have Americanas and my own Olive Eggers that I just call barnyard breed as they are chicks raised here. I really enjoy my birds, they have the run of our five acres and the eggs are fabulous. I even sell some at our local dairy.
Rhode Island Red roosters are extremely mean . Hens will be ok but no roosters unless you want to be attacked
I have a Rhode Island red rooster and yes they can be mean, he's attacked me a few times. But he is also very protective of his girls. I have a Lace wing Wyandotte, Plymouth Rock and two New Hampshire reds. The reds lay almost a pinkish egg, I love them all. And what doesn't go in compost bin the chickens eat. They LOVE red cabbage. Most of the time I can hand feed my birds, go out the door and they come running to you. Take a stick with you so you can keep rooster in check. Enjoy it, there is nothing like doing a little farming. Its a blessing on Gods green earth.😁
First of all, you need to decide if you're only interested in egg production or do you want a dual-purpose breed?. Strictly for egg production, you want the Mediterranean breeds, usually Leghorns or a hybrid variety. They ate smaller and eat less, but they are not docile, lay white eggs and are near useless for meat once they stop laying.
For dual-purpose brown egg layers, as already mentioned, it's hard to beat NH and RI Reds or Barred Rocks. My dad always ordered 25 straight run NH reds, (Slightly more docile than RI Reds) or, perfect for first-time owners, the super docile Golden Comet. We'd wind up with 10-14 laying hens and the Roosters would wind up either in the oven or in a pot. My own recommendation would be for suburban beginners to stick with the docility of the Golden Comets or either of the Reds or the Rocks. Temperament is important....I once ordered a trio of an absolutely beautiful semi-exotic Mediterranean breed called Lakenvelders to go with our flock of Reds. They were wild and could fly over the moon...beautiful but not ideal for backyard raising.
Where can I go to buy the hens? How long before the lay?
We had Rhode Island Red crosses and Barred Plymouth Rocks. Both are New England breeds and so lay brown eggs, important to New Englanders, who tend to believe that brown eggs are fresher. My wife, by the way, is related to Isaac Wilber, first producer of the Rhode Island Red--the Ocean State's official bird and the only State bird that is poultry. The Barred Rock roosters are easygoing and friendly, while the RI Red cocks are feisty and will attack you when your back is turned.
I haven't raised the Barred Plymouth Rocks, only the Rhode Island Red hens and they are great backyard addition. Calm, good with kids, and great brown eggs. I've got the Easter egg chicken, and much prefer the Rhode Island Reds.
I was hoping for more about how to properly clean the coops and frequency.
