The A to Z of chicken breeds

There are a lot of chicken breeds! There are 120 breeds recognised by the American Poultry Association and more than 500 chicken breeds throughout the world and not every breed is officially recognised in all countries.

What is a chicken?

The chicken, Scientific name Gallus gallus domesticus, is a type of domesticated bird used for their meat and eggs and less commonly as pets. There are more chickens in the world than any other bird and about 4 times as many chickens than humans.

Below: A standard egg laying hybrid chicken. This is the "Lohmann brown" type, responsible for around half the worlds eggs. Other brands are available.

What are the types of chicken?

The three main types of chickens are:

1. Broilers. Broilers are meat birds, bred to put on as much meat as possible in the shortest amount of time.
2. Layers. Layers are birds bred to have very little meat, but to lay as many eggs as possible in the shortest amount of time.
3. Dual-Purpose. Are bred to do both, lay a reasonable amount of eggs and have a reasonable amount of meat, so that you can keep the hens for laying and raise the cockerels for meat.

There is also a fourth type of chicken. Those that are kept purely for show like the Serama, Belgian bantams and Sebrights, Although they could be eaten, there is probably less meat on them than pigeons and they do lay eggs but only limited numbers of very small eggs.

These types of chickens can be further classified by whether they are rare breeds like the Wyandotte or commercially produced hybrids like the Hubbard broiler.

What is the difference between a chicken and a hen?

A chicken is the breed and a hen is the female of the species. Female chickens are known as pullets when young and hens when they are older.

There is much debate over when a pullet becomes a hen, some say it is when they have started their laying cycle at around 22 to 26 weeks and some define it as when the breast bone hardens (it is soft in young birds).

With chickens the young males are called cockerels and then roosters when they are old enough to roost with the flock.

How are chicken breeds classified?

Chicken breeds are classified by either Size or use. They are either large fowl, bantam or true bantam and used for eggs, for showing by fanciers, for meat or dual purpose.

They are then classified by their characteristics like combs, origin and feather types.

How are chicken breeds different?

Breeds of chickens differ in several ways:

• Size. The smallest chicken I have is a Serama around 7 inches tall and the largest a Brahma, around 30 inches tall.
• Weight. The Serama weights about 550 grams and the my Jersey giant tops the scale at around 17Lb.
• Stance. Chickens can be tall and upright like the Asian types or boat shaped and stocky like the La Bresse Gauloise.
• Feathers. Soft feathers, hard feathered or Frizzle .
• Patterns. The pattern on the feathers sometimes defines chickens although it may be common to more than one type.
• Use. Some chickens are kept by fanciers purely for show, other just for eggs or meat and some fulfil more than one purpose.

How do I know what breed my chicken is?

Breed identification is always a little tricky with chickens as many of them share characteristics, colours and feather patterns.

Chickens can be identified by shape, stance, size, feather type and pattern.

The complete list of chicken breeds from Ancona to Yokohama.

Altsteirer or Styrian Chicken. An ancient breed from the Styria in Austria.
Ancona Chickens
Andalusian Chickens. Stunning blue mediterranean breed.
Appenzeller Barthuhner Chickens
Appenzeller Spitzhauben Chickens
Araucana Chickens
Asian Hard Feather
Asil (Aseel) Chickens
Australian Game
Australian Langshan
Australian Pit Game
Australorp
Australorp Chickens
Ayam Cemani
Barnevelder Chickens. 
Belgian Bantams
Booted Bantams
Brahma Chickens. Big and tall with personality.
Brakel Chickens
Campine Chickens
Carlisle Old English Game
Cochin Chickens
Cream Crested legbar. Productive coloured eggs layers.
Croad Langshan Chickens
Dominique Chickens
Dorking Chickens
Dutch Bantams
Faverolles Chickens
Fayoumi Chickens
Friesian Chickens
Frizzle Chickens
German Langshan Chickens
Hamburgh Chickens
Houdan Chickens
Hybrid Chickens
Icelandic chicken
Indian Game Chickens
Ixworth Chickens
Japanese Bantams
Jersey Giant Chickens
Kraienköppe Chickens
La Flèche Chickens
Lakenvelder Chickens
Legbar Chickens
Leghorn Chickens
Lincolnshire Buff Chickens
Marans Chickens
Marsh Daisy Chickens
Minorca Chickens
Modern Game Chickens
Modern Langshan
Nankin Bantams
New Hampshire Red Chickens
Norfolk Grey Chickens
Old English Game Bantams
Orpington Chickens
Oxford Old English Game
Pekin Bantams
Plymouth Rock Chickens
Poland or Polish Chickens. Personality with a big crest.
Rhode Island Red Chickens
Rhodebar Chickens
Rosecomb Bantams
Rumpless Araucana Chickens
Scots Grey Chickens
Sebright Bantams
Serama Bantams
Silkie Chickens. Our Silkie page and a website dedicated to Silkies.
Spanish Chickens
Sulmtaler
Sussex Chickens
Thüringian Chickens
Transylvanian Naked-neck
Vorwerk Chickens
Welsummer Chickens
Wyandotte Chickens
Yamato Gunkei Chickens
Yokohama Chickens

Hybrids or Cross-breeds:

I am including cross breeds and hybrids in the list as they are commonly searched for types of chickens. Cross breeds and hybrids are uniform types of mass produced chickens bred for egg production.

None breed true or are recognised by poultry breed standards but like produces like with chickens and many backyard flock keepers successfully breed their own hybrids. They are extremely common in flocks because of their high productivity.

Cross-breeds do not technically meet the definition of a breed, most hybrid strains are sex linked, allowing for easy chick sexing and therefore cost saving.

Black Sex Link, Black Stars or Black Rocks in the UK
Burford brown
Cornish-Rock
Cream Legbar
Cinnamon Queen - A modern egg laying hybrid.
Daisy Belle
Easter egger
Golden Comets
ISA Brown
Lohmann Brown
Olive Egger - Any chicken laying an olive green egg.
Red Sex Link or Red Stars

Eggs producing breeds:

In past days there would have been no such thing as an egg only chicken, they would have all been eaten when they were past their most productive. Meat birds produce eggs as well although they tend to be seasonal layers.

Below: The production of eggs has become an art form as these Marans eggs show.

Over the years many breeds were selected and began to be used primarily for producing eggs, these are mostly light-weight birds whose hens do not go broody often.

Ancona
Andalusian
Asturian Painted Hen
Barnevelder
Campine
Catalana
Easter egger
Egyptian Fayoumi
Norwegian Jærhøne
Kraienköppe
Lakenvelder
Leghorn
Marans
Minorca
Orloff
Penedesenca
Sicilian Buttercup
White-Faced Black Spanish
Welsummer

Meat producing chickens or broilers:

Most backyard keepers and homesteads use dual-purpose breeds for meat production. These are some breeds are raised exclusively for meat. The list includes hybrid broilers.

Bresse
Cornish or Indian Game
Hubbard
Ixworth
Jersey Giant
Ross - Ross/cobb

Dual-purpose:

These are the usual breeds found in backyards the world over as adaptable utility birds good at producing both meat and eggs. Some may be slightly better for one purpose but they are still called dual-purpose breeds.

Australorp
Barnevelder
Barred Plymouth Rock
Brahma
Braekel (Brakel)
Buckeye
California Gray
Chantecler
Cubalaya
Derbyshire Redcap
Dominique
Dorking
Faverolles
Holland
Iowa Blue
Java
Jersey Giant
Marans
Marsh Daisy
Naked-neck
New Hampshire
Norfolk Grey
Orpington
Plymouth Rock
Red Shaver
Rhode Island Red
Rhode Island White
Scots Dumpy
Scots Grey
Sussex
Winnebago
Wyandotte

Exhibition:

Since the 19th century, poultry fancy, the breeding and competitive exhibition of poultry as a hobby, has grown to be a huge influence on chicken breeds. Many breeds have always been kept for ornamental purposes, and others have been shifted from their original use to become first and foremost exhibition fowl, even if they may retain some inherent utility.

Since the sport of cockfighting has been outlawed in the developed world, most breeds first developed for this purpose, called game fowl, are now seen principally in the show ring rather than the cock pit as fighting cocks.

Modern Game Fowl
American Game
Asil
Appenzeller
Barbu de Watermael
Belgian Bearded d'Anvers
Bearded d'Uccle
Belgian d'Everberg
Blue Hen of Delaware
Booted Bantam
Cochin
Crèvecœur
Croad Langshan
Dutch Bantam
Frizzle
Hamburg
Houdan
Japanese Bantam
Jangmigye
La Flèche
Malay
Modern Game
Nankin
Old English Game
Pekin
Phoenix
Polish
Rosecomb
Sebright
Serama
Shamo
Silkie
Sultan
Sumatra
Vorwerk
Yokohama

True Bantams:

Below: A Golden Sebright cockerel.

Most large chicken breeds have a bantam counterpart that are usually one-fifth to one-quarter the size of the standard breed, but they are expected to exhibit all of the standard breed's characteristics.

True bantams have no large fowl counterpart, they include:

Bantam (The ancestor of all bantam breeds)
Belgian Bearded d'Anvers
Belgian Bearded d'Uccle
Belgian d'Everberg
Booted Bantam
Dutch Bantam
Japanese Bantam
Nankin
Pekin
Rosecomb
Sebright
Serama