25 Best Chicken Breeds and How to Choose the One for You

Chickens are some of the most versatile animals around. They can be great pets, and they can also be a useful source of food. No matter why you plan on keeping chickens, you need to know the best chicken breeds. We have compiled a diverse list of chicken breeds, including their size, temperament, egg production, and other physical features. Whether you’re looking for pets or prolific egg-layers, there’s something for you!

1. Rhode Island Red Chicken

Rhode Island reds are popular birds, both with commercial chicken keepers and hobbyists, due to their prolific egg-laying capabilities, producing around 200 to 250 eggs per year. They are fairly large birds at six to 10 pounds, meaning they’re a good choice for the table as well. Rhode Island Reds tend to have brownish-red feathers, a red wattle and comb, and yellow feet. They are easy to identify from their overall appearance. They have a friendly nature, meaning they are great for beginners and thrive in a farm and home setting.

2. Buff Orpington Chicken

The Buff Orpington is typically a buff color. They start as little yellow chicks and then get slightly darker feathers. These chicken breeds are capable of surviving tough weather, and they lay brown eggs. Buff Orpingtons are large birds, weighing six to ten pounds, and are excellent egg producers, laying around 250 to 300 eggs per year.

3. Leghorn Chicken

Leghorn chickens are medium-sized birds, weighing four to six pounds. They can be quite flighty and noisy, so they don’t make the best pets. However, they are good egg producers, laying 250 to 280 eggs per year.

4. Brahma Chicken

Brahma chickens are versatile beauties. Their calm nature makes them great pets, but they’re also reasonably proficient at laying eggs, producing 120 to 150 per year. You can even raise Brahmas for meat, since they typically weigh seven to 12 pounds.

5. Sussex Chicken

Also known as the Light Sussex, Sussex chickens are best known for their white appearance with black tails and markings around their neck and wings. However, they may sometimes be darker colors, such as red or silver. Sussex chickens are great egg producers, giving 200 to 250 eggs per year. They’re suitable for the table as well, as they typically weigh seven to nine pounds. They are also fairly docile, making them great for beginners.

6. Plymouth Rock Chicken

The Plymouth Rock is a beautiful bird, with its black and white barred appearance. Plymouth Rocks became popular during WWII and were featured in home farms around the U.S. and Europe. They weigh six to eight pounds and produce 180 to 210 eggs per year.

7. Australorp Chicken

Australorps are medium-sized birds that are most famous for the black-colored variety. These chickens can make for decent pets, but they really shine when they are producing eggs, laying 230 to 260 per year. They are a fairly small breed, ranging between three and six pounds, and have a docile nature.

8. Silkie Chicken

Also known as the Chinese silk chicken, Silkies are some of the cutest chickens around. These birds are famous for their fluffy appearance and can be either black, gold, or white. They are small birds, weighing only two to four pounds, and have a calm, friendly nature, which makes them great pets. They produce 140 to 160 small eggs per year, so they aren’t famed for their egg-laying, but they do make excellent mothers. In fact, they’re often given eggs from other chickens and even larger birds, such as ducks, to hatch out, such is their good nature.

9. Red Star Chicken

Red Star chickens are also known as ISA Browns, a commercial chicken that is renowned for its egg-laying capability, producing more than 300 eggs per year. These chickens tend to have red-brown feathers, red wattles and combs, and orange eyes. They’re fairly large birds, weighing six to eight pounds, and are kind towards humans when they get used to them, but they are more commonly kept as farm animals than pets.

10. Maran Chicken

Another bird that is suitable for a smallholder is the Maran, which has a calm, quiet disposition. Marans generally weigh five to ten pounds, meaning they’re large enough to raise for the table. However, they don’t produce as many eggs as some of the other chickens on this list, typically laying 130 to 150 per year. Their appearance can vary, but black and black and white barring is common.

11. Cochin Chicken

One of the largest birds on the list is the Cochin, which weighs nine to 13 pounds. Cochins have a fluffy appearance, with feathers down their legs, and have a quiet, friendly nature, making them suitable for backyards and smallholdings. However, they aren’t the most prolific layers, ranging between 100 and 140 eggs per year.

12. Polish Chicken

Another bird known for its particularly fluffy appearance is the Polish chicken, which has a particularly prominent crest of feathers on its head. Polish chickens can be a variety of colors and are often taken to the show ring. They can be a little skittish, owing in part to the fluffy crest, which hinders their vision. They weigh four to six pounds and produce around 100 eggs per year.

13. New Hampshire Red Chicken

Another good egg-layer is the New Hampshire red, which produces more than 200 eggs per year. New Hampshire reds are similar to the Rhode Island red, with brownish-red feathers, yellow legs, and red wattles and combs. They are also suitable for raising for meat as well as eggs, owing to their large size of seven to eight pounds.

14. Belgian d’Uccle

The Belgian d’Uccle is a bantam chicken that does well as a pet, but not as well at laying eggs or as a meat chicken, weighing only two pounds and producing only 100 to 150 eggs per year. These chickens tend to have a beard and muff around their head, giving them a unique look. They’re small chickens that are prone to flying. They can come in many different colors, like red and brown.

15. Nankin Bantam Chicken

Nankin bantam chickens are small birds, ranging between one and 1.5 pounds. They tend to have copper-colored feathers on their body and black feathers on their tail. They make fairly good pets, but only produce around 100 eggs per year.

16. Redcap Chicken

Redcap chickens are easy to spot with their rose-shaped combs on their head and their bluish legs. The birds might not be the friendliest of the bunch, but they are good egg layers, producing around 200 eggs per year. They’re not the biggest birds, being only five to 7.5 pounds, but they can make good pets, although they have an alert and active nature.

17. Sultan Chicken

Sultan chickens are one of the most unusual-looking birds on the list, owing to their particularly large crest of feathers, which surrounds their head almost entirely. They are white birds and have soft plumage, as well as feathering on their legs. They are fairly small, weighing four to five pounds, and produce only around 50 eggs per year. However, their calm nature means they make great pets.

18. Wyandotte Chicken

Wyandotte chickens have interesting feather colors, with plumage that is light on the inside of the feather and dark on the outside. They’re friendly birds and take well to being handled. Wyandottes are medium to large-sized birds, weighing six to nine pounds. They are also good egg producers, laying 200 to 220 eggs per year.

19. Booted Bantam

Booted bantams are loved by people seeking chickens to keep as pets. These small chickens are well-known for their interesting feathering on their legs that makes it look like they are wearing feather boots. Despite their unique appearance, they’re actually quite small at only 1.5 to 2 pounds. They are reasonable egg-layers, though, providing 150 to 170 eggs per year.

20. Dorking Chicken

Dorking chickens tend to come in a few unique colors, including white, red, and grey. They have a calm nature and are easy to handle. They weigh six to ten pounds, meaning they’re suitable for the table. They also lay 130 to 150 eggs per year.

21. Friesian Chicken

Friesian chickens are good egg-layers as they provide around 230 eggs per year. However, they are fairly small birds, weighing only three to four pounds. They are known for their varied colors, including a gold and silver variant. They’re easy to handle but tend to go broody more than some of the other chickens on the list.

22. Barnevelder

The Barnevelder is a great chicken for inexperienced people to raise because they are docile and easy-going. However, they’re also suitable for raising for meat and eggs as they weigh five to eight pounds and provide 150 to 200 eggs per year.

23. Frizzle Chicken

The Frizzle chicken has the most interesting feathers that you’ll see in a chicken, as they have curled feathers that make it look like they have frizzled hair. They have a friendly nature, so they make good pets, but they’re also excellent layers, giving 150 to 200 per year. They are medium-sized birds, ranging between seven and eight pounds.

24. Campine Chicken

The Campine chicken is not the friendliest bird, so you might not want to keep it as a pet. However, they make for strong, hardy chickens that can live in a variety of temperatures. They’re not particularly broody, but lay 140 to 160 eggs per year. There are two color varieties — gold and silver — and both have barred markings. They are fairly small birds at four to six pounds.

25. Barbu d’Anvers Chicken

The Barbu d’Anvers chicken is a bantam breed, weighing only 1.2 to 1.5 pounds. However, they are fairly good layers, producing 160 to 180 eggs. You can make them into good pets if you find one with a friendly disposition, but some of these birds can be aggressive.

Final Thoughts

Finding the right chicken breed for you is a matter of knowing your needs and the available types. Using this list, you can find chicken breeds that are great pets as well as other breeds that are easy to integrate into an existing flock. Whether you want meat, eggs, or friends, you have plenty of great options in terms of chicken breeds!