Beginner’s Guide to Choosing the Best Backyard Chicken Breeds

Choosing the best breed for backyard chicken keeping requires some research and consideration for beginners. This guide will help you refine the qualities you need to build your first flock that suits your needs.

Backyard chicken keeping has become an extremely popular activity for urban homeowners. Family members enjoy collecting eggs, connecting with their food source and forming bonds with these feathered friends.

I’m here to help you learn about the best backyard chicken breeds that I have had in my flocks over the years and what made them special.

Read to the end for the group of chickens NOT on this list!

In my post, The Truth about Raising Backyard Chickens: Everything You Need to Know Before You Start, I cover every aspect of raising backyard chickens including brooder set up, coop design, feeding, training chickens and more.

When beginning your first flock, it’s important to consider your family’s needs and goals before choosing your breed(s) of chickens. The best backyard chicken breeds for beginners will vary based upon these needs.

• Are you a family with young children?
• Is your backyard small and confined?
• Do you need lots of eggs?
• Is your climate extremely cold or hot?
• How big is your coop and run space?

The best backyard chicken breeds for beginners are friendly, calm, reliable egg layers that thrive in small spaces and adapt easily to their environment.

In this guide, I am only sharing breeds that I (or my immediate family members) have personally raised. I suggest looking at Murray McMurray Hatchery for additional breeds, photos and information.

*Ginger Tip: Chicken breeds’ personalities and behaviors are characterized in generalities and there are always exceptions.

Buff Orpington

My sister and brother would say that Buff Orpingtons are the golden retrievers of backyard chickens. They are large fluffy feathered hens with maternal instincts. Handle them warmly as chicks (get the kids, too!) and they will turn into gentle pets that enjoy human contact.

Their maternal instinct is strong, and they do tend to go broody. This is fine if you want a hen to raise chicks in the future. However, if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of trying to get this girl out of the nesting box after weeks on end of sitting on unfertilized eggs, consider another breed. Otherwise, the Buff Orpington is an amazing chicken for young families.

My experience with a Buff Orpington was not as positive as my siblings’. Marigold (see above) was a fine chicken, laid plenty of eggs and looked lovely strutting around the yard. However, she always had a small chip on her shoulder and she did not mother new chicks very well (okay she tried to kill them).

Given the glowing recommendations from my siblings and apparently everyone else on the internet, I will assume Marigold was an anomaly and keep this breed as one for the list of best backyard chicken breeds especially for families.

Hybrid Red Chickens: Red Star, ISA Brown, Red Sex Link and Gold Comets

I’m including these chickens as a group because they are all very similar and are readily available at local farm stores like Tractor Supply or Rural King. These hybrid girls are usually a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a white chicken like a Leghorn or Delaware.

When they hatch, chicks are easily identified as male or female (males are white and females are red). This is ideal for backyard chicken owners that are not allowed to have roosters. Playing the waiting game of 4-12 months to determine if you have a hen or a rooster is not.

Bonus: Hybrid reds are busy in the nesting box! Hybrids produce more eggs than most purebred chickens, but with this comes shorter life spans- sometimes only 2-3 years.

However-this can also be a positive feature when young children lose interest and you’re stuck with aging chickens that are not laying eggs every day anymore.

Hybrid reds are ideal for families with children because they are very entertaining. I had three in my last flock, and they were hilarious. Curious and always getting into things, they were amusing silly girls. Here’s Dottie hiding in the feeder, riding in the side by side, and checking out the lawn mower…goofy chicken!

With this curiosity comes a potential drawback, though. In my experience, these girls like to explore and have lots of energy which means they might not be happy in total confinement. They need a large coop and a run space with plenty of ‘playground equipment.’

If left in a small space for days on end, you will see them pacing up and down the run looking for a way to escape. Not good! So plan ahead to either have a large space for them or to let them out to roam and forage in the yard.

Read my post: The Truth about Raising Backyard Chickens: Everything You Need to Know Before You Start to learn how I train chickens to come when you call them!

Rhode Island Red

My very first chicken was a Rhode Island Red named Layer. I was not the most creative chicken namer as a child, but she did live up to her name! RIRs are eggcellent laying hens!

Read more about naming chickens in my post: How to Choose Chicken Names for Your Backyard Flock.

She had a sweet friendly temperament and used to ride on the handlebars of my bicycle! No wonder this breed is the basis for the fun hybrid reds detailed earlier.

In fact, our youngest daughter chose a RIR as her first pet chicken as well and named her Sparky. Her naming skills were better than mine as a child! Although, “Sparky” did always made me think of fried chicken haha.

Regardless, she was a fabulous chicken that laid plenty of eggs, agreed to be held and lived a full healthy life. You can’t go wrong with this breed, and they’re typically available at farm stores like Tractor Supply Company or Rural King in the spring.

Australorp

Australorp: I can say without any guilt that my absolute favorite chicken I’ve ever raised was Tulip, my Australorp. She was calm, friendly, healthy and absolutely beautiful. Her black feathers had a greenish tinge to them in the sunlight.

As a young chick, she was always the one that wanted to be held. As she grew into a mature hen, she liked to hop up onto my shoulder and sit there. I felt like a pirate with a parrot!

Tulip was very docile, never seemed to complain about much and loved to be held. My sweet girl laid plenty of eggs and lived a long full life of 7 years.

Ameraucana

Ameraucana: I had two Lavender Ameraucana (pronounced “americana”) hens that were impossible to tell apart. They were both a little shy, but absolutely adorable with their fluffy necks and beautiful blue eggs.

I’m adding them to my list of best backyard chicken breeds for a few reasons.

First, they are so stinking cute! Part of having chickens is for the fun of it, and these chickens with their pretty colored feathers and fluffy necks are entertaining.

Second, they lay eggs in various colors. My lavender ameracaunas laid bluish green eggs. Again, part of having chickens is for your enjoyment and sharing blue eggs with neighbors is fun!

Third, they are a relatively small in size compared to other chickens on this list which is nice for little backyard coops and yards.

French Copper Maran

See the dark brown egg in the picture above? That’s from one of my best hens, Clawdette. She was a French Copper Maran with feathered legs.

Marans are docile robust hens that do very well as backyard chickens. I hesitate to put them on this list for beginners simply because they are not always readily available at local farm stores. I got Clawdette as a chick from a local breeder and enjoyed her immensely.

Raising Friendly Backyard Chickens

One of the key characteristics of the best backyard chicken breeds is their friendliness. Regardless of their breed, this needs to be taught at an early age.

I can’t stress enough the importance of handling chicks when they are little to build a bond. Even more importantly is to have the kids help with this process.

Every day, usually during brooder clean up time, we would sit with the chicks and feed them little meal worm crumbles.

On warm sunny days, we would have playtime outside and let them run around us while sat calmly in the grass.

Kindness and patience goes a long way with handling chicks. Treat them lovingly from the beginning!

Final Thoughts about Best Backyard Chicken Breeds for Beginners

I have raised all of the chickens detailed above and believe that they are wonderful hens for beginners in urban settings.

I’ve also raised several others that have been fine backyard chickens that did NOT make the list of best backyard chicken breeds for one weird reason: their feathers.

Why I Avoid Raising White Chickens

Don’t get me wrong, I love all chickens. However, over the years raising white feathered chickens has been a struggle for me because they get dirty easily.

White Leghorn, Delaware and Brahma chickens have been part of my flocks and although they were wonderful additions-they often looked filthy.

That’s Dolly before and after a fun day in the mud. This girl had more than one bath in her lifetime!

Don’t judge; I keep a tidy chicken coop and run, but these girls bathe in dirt to stay clean. Here in South Carolina we have orange clay and it gets everything stained including white feathers.

When I let mine roam freely (under supervision) while I’m gardening, they would forage in the dusty or muddy clay areas. The brown and black hens looked fine, but oh boy those white feathers…

Here’s Henrietta with Sparky helping me turn over some raised beds. It’s like having a white sofa with little kids or dogs!

This gives new meaning to the title “Crazy Chicken Lady” haha! I want my chickens to stay clean! Other than that, they were excellent backyard chickens, and I mean no disrespect to white chicken flock owners.

Hopefully my list of best backyard chicken breeds is helpful, and you are ready to start your own flock!

Please leave comments and/or questions. Do you have a favorite breed to add to the list?

Be sure to read my post about Creating the Perfect Chicken Coop to make sure your new flock is well protected and happy.