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?

Orpington: The Buff orpington is the quintessential backyard chicken. Imagine a big ginger-blonde fluff ball lazily meandering around your yard. With a reputation of being very sweet, docile, and patient, these birds are especially good with kids. The buff color Orpington is the most common, though they come in a variety of other color plumage. Blue, Black, White… A Lavender or Jubilee Orpington is on our wish list, most definitely! Orpingtons lay medium to large light brown eggs, averaging one every other day. Due to their fluffy plumage, this breed is especially cold-hardy. Also because of their heavy stature, they're known to be less flighty once they've reached maturity. Orpingtons may go broody fairly often, and are very good mother hens.