Chicken breed profiles

Egg layer · United States

Bred in the United States in the 1970s to lay reliably blue eggs, the Ameraucana sports a fluffy beard and muffs that give it a permanently cheerful expression. It's a hardy, personable bird that fits right into a backyard flock. The small pea comb shrugs off frostbite better than most.

Egg layer · Italy

Named for the Italian port city of Ancona, this speckled black-and-white layer is a tireless forager that would rather find its own dinner than wait at the feeder. Anconas lay generously and eat modestly, but they're quick, watchful birds that don't love being handled.

Egg layer · Spain

The Blue Andalusian is a striking slate-blue Mediterranean layer with delicate dark lacing on each feather. True to its Spanish roots it thrives in warm weather, stays busy foraging, and rarely slows down long enough to be picked up.

Egg layer · Switzerland

This Swiss mountain breed wears a jaunty forward-pointing crest and climbs, roosts, and forages like the alpine bird it is. Spitzhaubens are excellent free-rangers with sharp instincts, though they treat fences more as suggestions than boundaries.

Egg layer · Chile

The original blue-egg layer, the Araucana descends from chickens kept by the Mapuche people of Chile. In its standardized American form it's rumpless — no tail at all — with quirky ear tufts sprouting from each side of the head. It's a rare, historic breed that rewards patient keepers.

Dual purpose · Australia

Australia took the English Orpington and rebuilt it as a laying machine, and the glossy black Australorp was the result. Its feathers flash beetle-green in the sun, its disposition is famously sweet, and it keeps laying through weather that sidelines flashier breeds.

Dual purpose · Netherlands

The Barnevelder was bred around the Dutch town of Barneveld to supply dark brown eggs to a demanding market, and it still delivers handsome chocolate-toned eggs today. The hens are quiet, steady, and famously beautiful, each feather traced with double lacing like fine penwork.

Dual purpose · United States

With its crisp black-and-white barred plumage, the Barred Rock is the classic American farm chicken — steady, sociable, and productive in nearly any climate. It lays well, dresses out respectably, and will happily follow you around the yard hoping for treats.

Dual purpose · France

From the port town of Marans on France's Atlantic coast comes the breed that lays the darkest eggs in the chicken world — deep chocolate-brown shells that stop people mid-sentence. The birds themselves are calm and understated, black with copper hackles and lightly feathered legs.

Egg layer · United States

A Black Sex Link is a purpose-built hybrid, usually a Rhode Island Red rooster crossed with a Barred Rock hen, and it inherits the best of both: heavy brown-egg production on a friendly, cold-tough frame. Hens are black with warm copper feathering across the chest.

Dual purpose · United States

Developed in America from massive birds imported from Shanghai, the Brahma is a feather-footed giant with the manners of a golden retriever. It handles brutal winters without complaint and, unusually, does much of its laying in the cold months when other hens have clocked out.

Dual purpose · United States

The mahogany-red Buckeye was created in Ohio and named for the state's buckeye nut, whose color it matches almost exactly. It's a rugged, personable forager with a small pea comb that laughs at Midwest winters, and it has a well-earned reputation for hunting mice.

Dual purpose · England

If backyard chickens had a mascot, it would probably be the Buff Orpington — a big golden pillow of a hen that genuinely seems to enjoy being held. Developed by William Cook in Orpington, Kent in the 1880s, it lays steadily, mothers devotedly, and wins over children instantly.

Egg layer · Belgium

An old Belgian breed from the Campine region, this small penciled bird is inquisitive to a fault and a first-rate forager. It lays a respectable number of white eggs on very little feed, but it's far too busy exploring to be anyone's lap chicken.

Dual purpose · Canada

The Chantecler was engineered for Canadian winters, with a tiny cushion comb and minimal wattles that leave frostbite almost nothing to grab. It keeps laying through the deep cold and carries itself with a quiet, unbothered confidence that suits its northern roots.

Ornamental · China

The Cochin is an enormous ball of feathers right down to its toes, moving through the yard like a slow, contented cloud. It's among the most placid of all chickens, a devoted sitter that will happily hatch other hens' eggs, and its feathered legs make it a poor flyer and an easy keeper.

Egg layer · England

The Cream Legbar pairs a sporty little crest with a steady supply of sky-blue eggs, a combination that has made it one of the most sought-after breeds in backyard coops. It's an alert, capable forager developed at Cambridge University in the 1930s.

Dual purpose · United States

White with light black barring at the neck and tail, the Delaware matures fast, lays generously, and stays friendly — the complete package it was designed to be in 1940s America. It nearly vanished when industrial broilers took over, and small flocks are helping bring it back.

Dual purpose · United States

America's oldest chicken breed scratched around colonial homesteads long before the Barred Rock it's so often mistaken for. Look for the rose comb and softer, staggered barring — and expect a thrifty, level-headed hen that takes care of herself on pasture.

Egg layer · United States

The Easter Egger isn't a standardized breed at all — it's any friendly mutt of a chicken carrying the blue-egg gene, and that's exactly its charm. No two look alike, the eggs come in blues, greens, and olive tones, and hatcheries can barely keep them in stock.

Egg layer · United States

The Golden Comet is a modern sex-linked hybrid built to do one thing spectacularly: fill the egg basket. These reddish-gold hens start laying early, keep an almost daily pace at their peak, and tend to be the first bird in the flock to hop into your lap.

Egg layer · Netherlands and Germany

Elegant, spangled, and quick as a sparrow, the Hamburg is one of Europe's oldest documented breeds and a remarkably persistent layer of small white eggs. It wants room to roam and a tall roost, and it will find both whether you provide them or not.

Dual purpose · United States

The Holland was developed at Rutgers University to solve a specific Depression-era problem: farmers wanted a meaty dual-purpose bird that laid the white eggs markets paid more for. It succeeded quietly and then nearly disappeared, making it one of the rarest American breeds today.

Egg layer · France

The ISA Brown is the friendly face of commercial egg genetics: a French-developed hybrid that can top 300 eggs in her first year while still wanting to sit on your knee. For pure output per bird, almost nothing in a backyard coop keeps up.

Dual purpose · United States

The Java is America's second-oldest breed, a big, unhurried homestead bird that grows slowly and forages like it's getting paid. It fell out of favor when faster commercial breeds arrived, but conservation flocks have pulled it back from the edge.

Dual purpose · United States

The largest purebred chicken in America, the Jersey Giant was bred in 1870s New Jersey with the ambitious goal of replacing the turkey on the dinner table. Modern keepers love them as calm, imposing yard companions that lay big brown eggs and intimidate hawks by sheer presence.

Egg layer · Germany and the Netherlands

The Lakenvelder is instantly recognizable: a clean white body bracketed by a jet-black hood and tail, like a bird in formal dress. It's an old lowlands breed that lays steadily, forages relentlessly, and prefers admiring you from a distance.

Dual purpose · China

Imported from the Langshan district of China in the 1870s, this tall, deep-bodied breed carries itself with almost storklike posture on lightly feathered legs. It's an adaptable, gentle bird that lays dark brown eggs and handles weather extremes with old-breed toughness.

Egg layer · Spain

The Minorca is the heavyweight of the Mediterranean class, a glossy black bird with dramatic white earlobes and a comb so large it flops stylishly to one side on the hens. It shrugs off summer heat and lays chalk-white eggs of truly impressive size.

Dual purpose · Transylvania (Romania)

Yes, that bare neck is supposed to look like that. The Naked Neck carries a gene that cuts its feather count dramatically, which makes it outstanding in hot climates — and, surprisingly, still respectable in cold ones. Underneath the odd looks is one of the friendliest, most practical homestead birds around.

Dual purpose · United States

New Hampshire farmers took the Rhode Island Red and selected hard for early maturity and fast feathering, producing a lighter, chestnut-red bird that gets down to business young. Expect a bold, sociable hen who is always first to the treat bucket.

Ornamental · England

One of the oldest chicken breeds in existence, the Old English Game is all muscle, posture, and attitude, descended from the fighting birds of pre-modern Britain. Hens are hardy, long-lived, and fiercely protective mothers; roosters absolutely cannot share a pen.

Ornamental · Germany

The Phoenix was created in 19th-century Germany from Japanese long-tailed stock, and a good rooster trails tail feathers two to five feet behind him like a comet. It's a bird you keep for beauty, giving it high perches and dry ground to protect that spectacular train.

Ornamental · Netherlands

The Polish wears an outrageous pom-pom of a crest that turns heads at every coop tour — and blocks so much of its vision that it startles easily and appreciates a calm flock. It's a gentle, comedic little bird that lays more white eggs than its showgirl looks suggest.

Dual purpose · United States

Probably the most famous chicken in America, the Rhode Island Red earns the reputation: it lays heavily, tolerates rough weather and rookie mistakes, and carries itself like it owns the yard. If you're starting a first flock, odds are good one of these is in it.

Dual purpose · United States

Despite the name, the Rhode Island White is a distinct breed rather than a pale version of the Red, built from Partridge Cochins, White Wyandottes, and White Leghorns starting in 1888. It offers Red-level production with a noticeably mellower personality, and it's now far rarer than its famous cousin.

Dual purpose · Russia

With its walnut comb, heavy beard, and hawklike expression, the Russian Orloff looks like it was designed by a committee of winter itself — and functionally, it was. This rare, tall breed keeps calm and keeps going through cold that stops most flocks.

Dual purpose · France

The Salmon Faverolles is the class clown of the chicken world: bearded, muffed, five-toed, feather-footed, and endlessly enthusiastic about whatever you're doing. Bred near the French village of Faverolles to keep Paris in winter eggs, it still lays gamely through the cold months.

Ornamental · England

The Sebright is a true bantam — there is no large version — and every feather on its tiny frame is edged in crisp black lacing, like jewelry that walks. Sir John Sebright spent decades perfecting it in the early 1800s, and it remains one of the most admired exhibition birds on earth.

Ornamental · Malaysia

The Serama is the smallest chicken breed in the world, a Malaysian micro-bantam that stands like a toy soldier with its chest puffed and tail vertical. Their eggs are quail-sized and their personalities are enormous; some devotees even keep them as indoor house pets.

Egg layer · Italy

The Sicilian Buttercup's claim to fame sits right on its head: a cup-shaped crown of a comb, formed by two ridges that meet front and back, found in no other breed. It's a golden, spangled Mediterranean forager that thrives in heat and prefers to keep humans at arm's length.

Ornamental · China

Silkies feel like kittens, mother like champions, and have been delighting people for at least 700 years. Their feathers lack the barbs that make normal plumage sleek, giving them that famous fur-like fluff — which also means they can't fly and shouldn't get soaked. They are the go-to broody hen for hatching anything.

Ornamental · Turkey

The Sultan is pure ornament: snow white, crested, bearded, muffed, vulture-hocked, feather-footed, and five-toed — it carries virtually every decorative trait a chicken can have at once. It was kept in the palace gardens of Ottoman sultans and still acts like it belongs somewhere manicured.

Ornamental · Indonesia

The Sumatra is the closest thing to a wild bird you'll find in a breed catalog: lustrous black plumage with a beetle-green sheen, a long flowing tail carried low, and flight skills that make fences a formality. It's hardy, striking, and happiest with space to roam.

Dual purpose · England

The Sussex has been feeding England since before there was an England to speak of, with roots often traced to Roman-era Britain. The Speckled variety is a backyard favorite — a mahogany hen splashed with white who follows her keeper around the garden like a small, opinionated dog.

Dual purpose · Germany

Oskar Vorwerk set out in 1900 to build a practical bird wearing the Lakenvelder's dramatic belted pattern in gold instead of white, and the Vorwerk is his handsome answer. It's an efficient, adaptable rarity that converts feed to eggs frugally and stays surprisingly composed for such an active breed.

Dual purpose · Netherlands

From the Dutch village of Welsum comes a smart, personable partridge-patterned hen whose eggs steal the show: deep terracotta, often freckled with darker speckles, no two quite alike. Welsummers forage well, tame easily, and give a flock instant farmhouse charm.

Egg layer · Italy

The White Leghorn is the most consequential chicken on the planet: a lean, tireless Italian layer that converts feed into white eggs with almost industrial efficiency. It's busy, noisy, and not much for cuddling, but nothing out-lays it on so little feed.

Dual purpose · United States

Round, sturdy, and dressed in some of the most beautiful laced plumage in poultry, the Wyandotte was built for the American North — its low rose comb barely notices frost. Silver Laced and Gold Laced hens are dependable winter layers with a self-assured, slightly aloof charm.

Ornamental · Germany

The Yokohama drapes itself in long, flowing saddle and tail feathers inherited from ornamental Japanese long-tail breeds, then carries them with the poise of a show bird that knows it. It's a gentle, delicate keeper's project best suited to dry runs and high, clean perches.