Top chicken breeds

Plymouth Rock pullet

Our chicken
variety contest
got me wondering — which types of chickens
are the most popular at the moment?  I was going to poll our
readers, but then realized that both Mother Earth News and
Backyard Chickens Forum had done the work already.  Here are
their top 10 breeds (in terms of how many people took the time to
review each one):



Mother
Earth News (This list doesn’t
include hybrids.)
Backyard
Chickens Forum (This list does
include hybrids.)
1 Rhode Island Red Orpington
2 Orpington Plymouth Rock
3 Wyandotte Easter Egger
4 Plymouth
Rock
Australorp
5 Ameraucana
(probably includes Easter Eggers)
Rhode Island Red
6 Australorp Silkie
7 Cochin Wyandotte
8 Leghorn Ameraucana
9 Brahma Leghorn
10 New Hampshire Star



White leghornsAs a side note, the results were a little
different when you considered which breeds had the
best reviews.  Cochins
and the poorly-known Belgian d’Uccle hit the top-10
Backyard-Chickens-Forum list then, with Ameraucanas and Leghorns
dropping off.




What do these lists
mean?  I guess it depends on what you think of popularity
contests.  Are Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orpingtons popular
because they’re all-around good breeds for small farmers, or
because they’re well-known, and popularity begets
popularity?  These lists should at least give you an idea of
where to start if you’re a newbie looking for a useful chicken
breed, but don’t be afraid to decide a breed doesn’t fit your farm
even if it’s popular!



Our chicken waterer
keeps all kinds of chickens healthy with clean water.

Latest Comments

  1. Kelly F May 14, 2015
  2. anna May 18, 2015

Leave a Reply