Breeds of Chicken You Never Knew You Wanted

There are SO many breeds of chicken, all beautiful and stunning in their own ways. But how do you know which breed you want to get, let alone which breed will be best suited for you?
Well let’s get that figured out for you here!

My love and passion for chickens, even ducks and geese, has brought me here as I want to share that passion with you, and be able to pass on my knowledge and love for these birds to someone else who shares the same passion.

Buy me a Chicken! 🐔

I want to start off with showing you some of the most beautiful breeds of chickens you didn’t even know existed, but now you do!

Top 5 Most Beautiful Breeds of Chicken:

Mille Fleur d’Uccle Chicken:

• There are excellent beginner breeds of chicken, for you and are kid friendly
• They come small in size but make up for it in their stature and personality
• Very appealing, and beautiful to look at for both the rooster and hens
• Mille Fleur’s are cold hardy with the help of their feathered feet and legs
• Decent egg laying for a bantam chicken but these chickens are more for show than egg production
• They can also make great house chickens!
  (You can find chicken diapers on Etsy suited for any size of chicken for when they’re indoors. I personally have tried a goose diaper on my giant goose, and yes, they may look seriously goofy, but they work! It kept me from having to follow her around the house with a roll of paper towel!)

All in all, Mille Fleur d’Uccles (if you can pronounce that properly, please contact me with how! I kind of just mumble it under my breath if I ever have to say it out loud, lol!) are beautiful little chickens to add to your homestead. They’re small, friendly, beautiful, and make great little pets.

Unfortunately they are not meant for meat and egg production but that doesn’t matter when they have the looks and personality!

Silver/Golden Sebright:

The Silver/Golden Sebright chicken is definitely a head turner! Just like the Mille chicken, the Sebright is really only good for their looks and personality as they are too small for meat or egg production.

• Perfect little house pets! (Don’t forget your Etsy chicken diapers!)
• These beautiful little guys are also considered an “endangered” breed of chicken as they are extremely difficult to successfully breed, and they can come with some health problems as they age
• The Sebright is also considered a bantam chicken (small breeds of chicken)
• While they are young, you will never be able to tell them apart from male or female until they are full grown and the male starts growing his beautiful red comb
• These are the only breeds of chicken that have blueish grey legs! Bet ya didn’t know that!!
• They are not the best breed for cold weather, unless you can build them an extra specially warm coop for them to lay low in during the winter.

If you want a chicken that is purely show, maybe you want to enter chicken shows, then this breed would be absolutely perfect for you!

This was Little Pecker. My golden sebright! RIP my little man.
Unfortunately he succumbed to a horrible chicken disease called Marek’s (Sebright chickens are very susceptible to it)
Before that though, he was an awesome house pet, and a huge hit with the kids!

His small size made him perfect for the house, and his little crow every morning at 6am was my alarm clock, as well as everyone else’s!

Polish Chicken:

Polish chickens have got to be the funniest looking breeds of chicken around that will always make you laugh by their adorableness!

• Very beginner friendly, and great with kids (I have a polish chicken we call Stevie Nicks, she is actually our new house chicken!)
• They have a very calm and gentle temperment
• They can live up to 8 or more years
• Many different color varieties are available in this breed, if you are lucky enough to find them!
• There are also bantam Polish chickens if you are looking for the smaller end of these bad hair day guys!
• Hens will lay white eggs, and usually do not go broody
• Polish chickens are not very cold hardy, so they would do much better in warmer climates

Stevie Nicks is my very first Polish chicken I have ever owned, and I have to say she doesn’t disappoint! Chickens are smart, much smarter than what we give them credit for.

For example, if you call Stevie’s name she will come running to you from where she just was, so they definitely can learn their names and they also have their favorite people!

Silkies:

Just like the Polish, these Silkie Chickens have some serious poof on top of their heads! Some aren’t as poofy as others, but they are still darn cute!

• Silkie Chickens are either a bantam of full size chicken
• They are bred for show, clearly
• They do have feathers, but most of their feathers are hair like, which can get dirty fast
• It may not look like it, but yes they can see!
• They are also another perfect beginner breed and kid friendly with wonderful temperaments
• Unlike the previous listed breeds of chicken, Silkies are EGGcelent broody chickens that will sit on any eggs they find, and are wonderful, protective mama’s! (our silkie hen has hatched and raise 2 chicks she adopted from our other chickens, and she is raising those babies wonderfully!)
• Silkies are more cold hardy than the Polish or Sebright chickens
• Silkies also have feathered covered legs and feet!

Silkie chickens are an odd breed, that’s for sure! They are very well known for their extra toe on each foot, so rather than 4 toes, they have 5! They also have black skin! Weird!

Frizzle Chickens:

• Frizzles lay either cream or tinted colored eggs
• These guys actually are good egg layers! So you get the good looks plus productivity!
• They can serve as a dual-purpose breed, for meat and eggs
• Are prone to predators (not very predator savvy), and bullied quite a bit by other chickens
• Great for show chickens, which is an activity that is perfect for kids!
• Great overall pets

Be sure to either have these guys well integrated in with the rest of your flock, or living in a separate pen if needed so they are not picked on too much by the others.

Otherwise, enjoy these adorable fuzzy little feathered friends and the eggs and enjoyment they will bring you! They will definitely spark up a conversation with any guests you may have over!

Dual-Purpose Hardy Breeds of Chicken for Your Homestead

Plymouth Barred Rock:

These lovely guys are my absolute favorite breed of chicken! I just love the barring pattern all over their feathers!

• Barred Rocks are great for meat and egg production
• They lay constant light brown eggs all year long
• These guys handle winter very well (where I live it can drop down to -30, and they toughed it out like champs!)
• Not very broody, really depends all on the chicken itself
• They can be bullies to other more passive, smaller breeds of chicken
• Females can grow to be 4–5lbs while males anywhere between 5–8lbs
• Friendly breed, good for beginners

I currently have 3 Barred Rocks scavenging our yard for insects, and I love them. They know their names and come running when its time for their daily treats, they pull their weight around the homestead by giving us consistent eggs (sometimes we can’t keep up and we are a family of 7!)

I personally recommend this breed for first time chicken owners, or if you just want to add some variety to your flock.

Rhode Island Red:

• Rhode Islands are one of the most common breeds of chicken found anywhere in North America
• The hens will lay consistently with light brown eggs
• Easy-going, cold-hardy breed, so they are great for the family
• Can be use for meat as well
• They have beautiful reddish colored plumage, with the feathers around their heads much darker than the rest of their bodies
• They can sometimes grow large waddles and combs which can succumb to frostbite if not taken care of properly

The first chick that I ever hatched in my incubator was a Rhode Island Red. We named her Cody, thinking she was going to be a boy, but she turned out a beautiful, big, fluffy hen who was my best friend and would ride around on my shoulder until she was too big to fit anymore.

Cochin Chickens:

• Cochins are a very beautiful, very large breed of chicken that every homestead needs!
• Extremely cold-hardy birds
• The gentle giants of the chicken world
• Available in a variety of different colors
• Hens can get up to 8lbs, while roosters could surpass 11lbs! That’s a big chicken!
• Cochins are the broody mama’s of the chicken world if you are looking to hatch some eggs
• Their egg production is mediocre because they spend more time going broody, and raising chicks than they do on laying the actual eggs

This breed is sure to turn heads, and make some awesome cuddly friends for the kids if handled at an early age. If you are looking to breed and raise chickens and would prefer the chicken do all the hard work for you, definitely take a look into the full-size cochins! There are bantam (smaller) versions out there but supposedly their temperament is not as good as their bigger counter-parts.

Brahma Chicken:

• Brahma’s are HUGE
• They are very docile, and very excellent for beginners and children
• You can very easily handle these giants
• They have feathered legs, and are very cold-hardy breeds
• Due to their amount of feathers, it makes them more prone to lice and mites
• Great egg layers, will lay eggs throughout winter as well
• Not overly broody, but can make great mothers

Brahma’s are considered the gentle giants of the chicken world. They are not bullies, they make wonderful mothers, they are great egg layers, good for meat due to their size, cold-hardy, and kid friendly. If this isn’t the most perfect chicken breed then I don’t know what is!

Black Copper Maran:

Beautiful looking birds over all, Black Copper Marans are one of the most common breeds of chickens, and as a plus, they lay very dark brown colored eggs!

• Beautiful dark plumage, that may be iridescent in the sunlight
• Consistent egg layers, laying dark brown eggs
• Kid friendly, easy going temperament
• The roosters can become confrontational towards other roosters but that means they are also amazing protectors of their flock
• They can be cold hardy, but with such large combs and waddles, you must take precaution that they don’t get frostbite

If you want to add some beauty, and protection to your flock, these are your go-to breed. The best part of the Black Copper Maran roosters is that they will full-out attack any other animal they consider a danger to their hens including but not limited too, hawks, racoons, foxes, dogs, cats, etc.

Wyandotte:

• These birds come in some serious head-turning beautiful patterns and colors
• Unlike other breeds of chicken, Wyandottes have a good lifespan of anywhere from 9–12 years
• Light brown or cream colored eggs with decent egg production throughout the year
• Wyandottes are quite friendly, and talkative, but not the “cuddliest” of chicken breeds
• Roosters can grow to be a good 9lbs, while hens around 5–6lbs
• They are moderately cold-hardy

This breed is not for the suburban lifestyle if your township allows chickens as the hens can become very noisy throughout the day when they are laying eggs, or fighting over nestboxes. Overall though, they are fancy looking chickens,, they come in a variety of different colors, and make a great addition for egg laying and/or meat.

Ameraucana Chicken:

• Ameraucana’s are the chickens with beards! The floof of feathers under their chins is what makes them stand out from the rest
• They are a very, very docile breed, making wonderful pets
• Extremely kid friendly, and cold-hardy!
• With such a little comb and almost little to no waddles, this breed does well in the winter
• They are moderate egg layers, and their egg color can range from light brown colored to green, turquoise, and blue! There are some people out there who have even had their Ameraucana’s lay pink, or purple eggs!

Ameraucana’s are a wonderful addition to any flock for their temperament, variety of colors, and they are a dual-purpose breed. The variety of egg colors that they can lay are a huge bonus too! Which is why many chicken owners have this breed on their homestead.

In conclusion, there are many, many more breeds of chicken out there to be found. If I could own every single breed out there, I definitely would!

Make sure to check out my other post about Raising Chickens for beginners!