20 Breeds for 2021

Select one or some of these great chicken breeds for your small farm.

To celebrate Hobby Farms’ 20th anniversary, we’ve picked 20 of the best chicken breeds in 20 different categories to fulfill your every small-farm need. From the best layers to the best meat breeds, from the most docile to the most ornamental, plenty of different birds exist from which to choose.

Best Layer, WHite eggs (Modern)

CALIFORNIA WHITE

This hybrid was developed in California by breeding White Leghorn hens to California Grey roosters. They are mostly white with a few black specks.

California Whites are fast-maturing, hardy, longlived and prolific, with hens laying roughly 300 large to extra-large white eggs per year, right through the winter months. Hens weigh about 51⁄ pounds, while roosters weigh roughly 7. These quiet and docile birds tolerate confinement extremely well and make excellent foragers.

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Best Layer, BroWn eggs (Modern)

RED STAR

Also known as Golden Comets and ISA Browns, these sex-linked hybrids are produced by breeding Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire roosters with White Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island White, Silver Laced Wyandotte or Delaware hens. Newly hatched pullets are red, and cockerels are white; roosters remain white while hens grow white-flecked, reddish brown plumage.

Roosters weigh about 8 pounds; hens, 6. Pullets begin laying at about 22 weeks of age and lay roughly 300 brown eggs per year. Most Red Stars are active but docile; some strains tend to be flighty.

Best urBan Layer

EASTER EGGER

Easter Eggers aren’t an American Poultry Associationrecognized breed. They descended from Araucanas and Ameraucanas and come in an array of colors, comb types, and with or without muffs, beards and ear tufts.