The Top 16 Chicken Breeds for Your Backyard Flock

For the past couple decades, chickens have been growing in popularity as people become more interested in knowing where their food comes from, and desire to live a more natural lifestyle. But they are so much more than just egg factories. Watching chickens scratch about the yard is relaxing and de-stressing after a long day at work. Many pet chickens are extremely tame and will eat out of your hand and sit on your lap. Need more convincing that chickens are awesome?

Easter Eggers or Olive Eggers: Easter Eggers are usually very friendly, docile, and in our experience, maybe a tad ditzy. But what chicken isn't a little ditzy? Really. Not to be confused with a true-bred Ameraucanas or Araucanas, Easter Eggers are also commonly labeled as "Americanas". Note the difference in spelling. Certain chicken enthusiasts get very irritated by the misleading nomenclature, because the Ameraucana breed (number 5 below) is quite different. Easter Eggers can lay a rainbow of egg colors! It is most common to get green or blue eggs from Easter Egger hens, though their palette can range from pink to tan to purplish! You can eggspect at least 4 eggs per week from these gals. Easter Eggers have small peacombs, making them a good cold-hardy bird. Peacombs do not have as high of a risk of frostbite as large single-comb types. They're also known to be heat tolerant, and do not commonly become broody.