Statistics on common chicken breeds
Are
you the type of reader who likes to skip to the
end of the book to see how the story turns out? If so, here's a
handy chart summarizing the pros and cons of the types of chickens
mentioned in Thrifty Chicken Breeds.
| Breed |
Avg. eggs per year |
Weight of adult rooster / hen (lbs) |
Primary uses |
Primary disadvantages |
| Ameraucana |
250 (prolific) |
6.5 / 5.5 |
Green and blue eggs |
True Ameraucanas are very
rare. Most birds listed as "Ameraucanas" are actually hybrids more
properly known as "Easter Eggers." |
| Australorp |
250 (prolific) |
9 / 6.5 |
Eggs and meat |
Only a moderate winter layer |
| Brahma |
150 (average) |
12 / 9.5 |
Meat, pets |
Feathered feet |
| Cochin |
110–160 (below average) |
11 / 8.5 |
Broody hens, pets |
Feathered feet |
| Cornish |
150–180 (average) |
10 / 5.7 |
Meat |
Less efficient converter of feed to meat than Cornish Cross |
| Cornish Cross |
May not live to laying age |
10 / 6 |
Meat |
Hybrid, so you can't keep your
own flock going. Also, this very productive meat bird may be hard
to keep in homestead conditions. |
| Dominique |
180–260 (average, good winter layer) |
7 / 5 |
Eggs and meat |
Aggressive roosters |
| Easter Egger |
200 (varies) |
varies (about 6–7) |
Green and blue eggs, pets |
Inefficient layers |
| Faverolles |
200 (above average, good winter layer) |
10 / 8.5 |
Pets |
Currently bred for looks, not production |
| Leghorn |
280 (extremely prolific) |
2.4 / 2 |
Eggs |
White variety attracts predators, flighty behavior |
| Marans |
150 (average) |
8.5 / 7 |
Broody hens, "chocolate" eggs |
Inefficient layers, skittish behavior |
| New Hampshire |
200–280 (above average, good winter layer) |
8.5 / 6.5 |
Eggs and meat |
Inefficient layers |
| Orpington |
175–200 (average, good winter layer) |
10 / 8.5 |
Eggs and meat, broody hens |
Most strains are now bred for looks, not production |
| Plymouth Rock |
200–280 (average, good winter layer) |
9.5 / 7.5 |
Eggs and meat |
Most strains are now bred for looks, not production |
| Red Sex Link |
200–280 (varies, but usually prolific) |
8–9 / 6–7 | Eggs, pets | Inefficient meat producer, too friendly for some homesteads, doesn't breed true |
| Rhode Island Red |
200 - 280 (extremely prolific, good winter layer) |
8.5 / 6.5 |
Eggs and meat |
Aggressive roosters, flighty behavior |
| Silkie |
150 (average, small eggs) |
2.3 / 2 |
Broody hens, pets |
Inefficient producers, can't see predators, feathered feet |
| Sussex |
240–260 (above average, good winter layer) |
9 / 7 |
Eggs and meat |
White variety attracts predators, too friendly, inefficient meat production |
| Wyandotte |
200 (average, good winter layer) |
8.2 / 6 |
Eggs and meat |
Fluffy vent feathers can make it hard for roosters to fertilize eggs |
What if the breed you're interested in isn't listed
above? Here are a few of my favorite sources for chicken stats if
you want to research further:
Henderson's Chicken Chart is a great way to compare many different breeds at a glance.
BackYard Chickens has a helpful section where visitors have rated many breeds, listing the pros and cons of each.
Wikipedia is a good source for just-the-facts stats.
Cackle Hatchery includes egg-laying statistics on most of their breeds.
BackYard Chickens has a helpful section where visitors have rated many breeds, listing the pros and cons of each.
Wikipedia is a good source for just-the-facts stats.
Cackle Hatchery includes egg-laying statistics on most of their breeds.
But don't get bogged down in crunching numbers and making pro and con
lists. Your on-the-ground data might not match what others have
reported, so there's no replacement for just diving in and trying a new
breed out!
I hope you enjoyed this excerpt from Thrifty Chicken Breeds.
If so, why not read the whole thing for only 99 cents? Or stay
tuned for another excerpt here on the blog tomorrow.
| This post is part of our Thrifty Chicken Breeds lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries: |
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Chickens!
We have red and black sex links, Easter eggers, barred rocks and orphingtons I love all my chickens, but have noticed my Easter eggers are the most prolific, giving me an egg per day all spring summer and fall, and an egg every other day each all winter, and they are going on 3 years old now! The sex links come in next in terms of production, but man are they fearless! They will sit on my foot in the coop until I pet them... I love my orphington girls as they are so pretty, I have a lavender and a blue, and they raise my baby chicks as they go broody nearly constantly. When they lay, they lay regularly, but the broody ness is rather annoying in the summer. These girls raised my barred rocks which are still too young to lay, so I can't speak to their abilities yet.
Comment by
Brittany Brain
— Sun Jul 6 21:09:03 2014
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