Find a Chicken Breed: Search the Best Chicken Breeds to Find the One For You!
Find a Chicken Breed!
With our chicken breed finder you can search the best chicken breeds to find the perfect one for you!
There are so many unique breeds of chicken available today, from brand new breeds to ancient ones from all around the world! These informative charts will help you pick the perfect chicken breed for you!
Most chicken breeds appear on multiple pages. You can look for chicken breeds that are good foragers, breeds that have good mothering instincts, or breeds that are more tolerant of cold or hot climates.
We have separate pages for chicken breeds that lay white, brown and blue/green eggs. Pick one of each color for a beautiful natural Easter basket from your flock!
Note: this is a work in progress! We are currently collecting information and photographs of more than 75 chicken breeds and will be adding more over time.
New to backyard chickens?
Check out these informative pages!
Backyard Chickens for Beginners. This page gives you the rundown on everything you need to know to get started with chickens. Learn the terminology, make an informed decision about whether to start with chicks or adult chickens, and get a better idea of the time and monetary commitment of keeping chickens.
What Do You Need to Get Started With Backyard Chickens? This page has both Amazon links and a printable checklist with everything you need to get started once you find the perfect chicken breed!
Best Chicken Breeds
It would be hard for one person to pick out the best chicken breed, or breeds. Each breed is completely different, with different attributes and suitable to different climates.
We’ve had many of the breeds on this list, including Orpingtons, Rocks, Ameraucanas, Easter Eggers, Blue Andalusians, Wyandottes, Laying Hybrids, Cornish Crosses, Phoenix, Hamburgs, Lakenvelders, Egyptian Fayoumis, Australorps, Bantams, Yokohamas, Polish, Rhode Island Reds, Buckeyes, Dominique, Dorking, heritage Cornish and more.
Our personal favorites for a semi-free range environment in Montana are Buff Orpingtons, Ameraucanas, Blue Andalusians and Australorps.
The Buff Orpingtons and Australorps are fun for a homestead because they will hatch their own chicks and extra males are large enough to use for meat. They are also friendly and great for kids! Ameraucanas are beautiful, super cold hardy and lay unique blue eggs. This is the main breed we hatch chicks from to sell. Blue Andalusians have really surprised us. In spite of their large single comb and being developed in a warm climate, they are our best layers and typically live a few years in our climate without any special care.
List of Breeds that are already on these pages or that we will be adding in the next few weeks!
- American Game
- Ameraucana
- Ancona
- Andalusian
- Appenzeller
- Araucana
- Aseel
- Australorp
- Barnevelder
- Brahma
- Belgian Bearded D’Uccle
- Buckeye
- Buttercup
- Campine
- Catalana
- Chantecler
- Cochin
- Cornish
- Cream Legbar
- Crevocoeur
- Cubalaya
- Delaware
- Dominique
- Dorking
- Easter Egger
- Faverolle
- Fayoumi
- Hamburg
- Holland
- Houdan
- Icelandic
- Japanese Bantam
- Java
- Jersey Giant
- Le Fleche
- Lakenvelder
- Lamona
- Langshan
- Leghorn
- Malay
- Marans
- Minorca
- Nankin
- Norwegian Jaerhorn
- New Hampshire
- Old English Game
- Olive Egger
- Orpington
- Penedesenca
- Persian Rumpless
- Phoenix
- Plymouth Rock
- Polish
- Redcap
- Red Ranger
- Rhode Island
- Russian Orlof
- Saipan
- Sebright
- Serama
- Shamo
- Silkie
- Silverudd’s Blue
- Spitzhauben
- Star
- Sultan
- Sumatra
- Sussex
- Swedish Flower
- Turken Naked Neck
- Welsummer
- White-Faced Black Spanish
- Whiting True Blue
- Wyandotte
- Yokohama
Once you find a chicken breed (or several!) that looks right for you, we recommend McMurray hatchery for purchasing healthy mail order chicks. We’ve been using McMurray for ten years and have always been happy with the chicks and the service!
Finally, our number 1 resource for new or experienced chicken keepers is Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens. As long time chicken keepers, we still use this reference book all the time.