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New Hampshire

The New Hampshire were developed from the Rhode Island Red around 1915 in New Hampshire....
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General Information

Breed Purpose
Dual Purpose
Comb
Single
Broodiness
Frequent
Climate Tolerance
All Climates
Egg Productivity
High
Egg Size
Large
Egg Color
Brown
Breed Temperament
Friendly, Easily handled, Bears confinement well, Noisy, Docile
Breed Colors/Varieties
Red
Breed Size
Large Fowl
APA/ABA Class
American
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The New Hampshire is an American breed, developed beginning around 1910 in the New England states from the Rhode Island Red breed. The New Hampshire breeders selected for a vigorous dual purpose bird, one that would be early maturing, very fast growing, fast feathering, and producing a good table bird with hens having good egg laying ability. By the 1930’s they had successfully developed the New Hampshire to the extent where it was a popular breed choice for commercial egg production, used as crosses in the commercial broiler industry on the east coast, and were popular entries in the Chicken of Tomorrow contests which led to the development of the modern broiler industry.

It was admitted to the APA in 1935 and are very popular as show birds today. The APA recognizes one color, that being a rich chestnut red with black tail feathers. Birds kept outdoors will often find their red color is prone to fading. They are found in several other colors, including blue and white in other countries.

They are friendly birds with people, usually making good pets, and can be tamed fairly easily. They are good foragers and do well free ranging. They are vigorous and competitive and should be watched that they aren’t overly bossy with gentle breeds. They are quite cold hardy and good winter layers. The hens will go broody and are good mothers.

Though often called New Hampshire Reds, the name of the breed is New Hampshire, with the name New Hampshire Red often being used to identify a hatchery New Hampshire / Rhode Island Red cross.
There is a bantam New Hampshire, though it was developed primarily in the Netherlands.

It was recognized by the APA in 1935.
It is on The Livestock Conservancy's Watch list.

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New Hampshire eggs

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New Hampshire chicks

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New Hampshire juvenile

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New Hampshire hen (pullet)

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New Hampshire rooster

For more information on this breed and their owners' and breeders' experiences with them, see our breed discussion here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-breed-focus-new-hampshire.1024180/
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Latest reviews

sunshine ducky
New Hampshire Red
Pros: - docile, easy to handle
- extremely winter hardy
- bears confinement well
- top tier egg production
- relatively quiet
Cons: - at times loud and noisy, but only for a few moments
- simple dull looking chicken (if aesthetics is something you care for and you like red colors in your flock, I suggest a Rhode island red. They have a deep mahogany maroon pigment in their feathers that stand out).
I have a New Hampshire Red hen and she is an absolute joy to have. She is super friendly and doesn't mind at all being held. She follows me around the yard and even jumps on my shoulder sometimes! She lays her eggs every other day and is quiet most of the times. After she does lay her egg though she does have her brief "egg song" and she is LOUD then but it only lasts for a few moments (something to consider if you live in the suburbs). Lastly, she survived through our harsh Illinois winters with such resilience, she was even still laying eggs here and there during the cold months! In all, this is a great breed of chicken to have, whether you are a beginner, novice, or expert in backyard chickens!

My New Hampshire Red hen named April:
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Purchase Price
$4.32
Purchase Date
4/02/2021
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BudgieKing15
Pros: Great egg layers
Pretty
Good for all weather
Quiet
Cons: Skittish
New Hampshire chickens are pretty cool. They lay a lot of eggs, have nice colored feathers, handle all weather well, and aren't very noisy. HOWEVER, they are definitely not lap-chickens, and will usually not let you handle them.
M
Pros: Curious and full of personality
Smart
Mine was a hen but she still protected the flock well
Not taken by predators easily
Cons: Can be aggressive to new chickens
Escape artists
I absolutely LOVED copper! So fun to watch. Head hen. She was very curious and often found the best worms and such, and loved free-ranging. She also could escape and fight off any predators. Helped our EE roo Fluffy defend the flock from chickenhawks. Fluffy was very laid back so Copper led the flock a lot of the time. She loved me too!

She didn't like new chickens though. Would tolerate them but would sometimes be aggressive. Never escaped the coop but would always be searching and finding ways to escape the yard.
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Comments

Lilorp14
ive had him for months he had his chance i wont kill him i am re homing him i would never kill any of my birds
 
snowflake
I wondered how broody yours are? I have 1 and she is BEAUTIFUL and lays nice eggs but goes broody early spring and stays with her chicks till they are almost as lg as she is. she hatched some last summer and still sat with them this winter on the roost
 
mymilliefleur
I don't recall any of my new hampshires going broody, but I guess it's possible. After all, I have a Red Sexlink hen that is broody right now. :)
 
abbey21
I have a NH named Piper too! So funny! She is definitely my favorite little gal and has loved to sit in my lap since she was a chick!
 
The Angry Hen
I love New Hampshire's!

My only, only-cons are: I had 2 not long ago, they both passed away from heart problems. And their vision isn't very good. Pros: I raised one in my room, smart, pretty and sweet. Also great egg layers!

-The Angry Hen
 
lifein1840
I got a New Hampshire last year as a chick to see if I would like the breed.....she is a great hen! She's quiet, lays large/extra large eggs (about 5 per week) and is very hardy. The only con I have is that she is on the bottom of the pecking order, even though she is the largest hen. I will get this breed again, she is one of my favorites.
 
Chickenangel433
Mine is almost 1 yr. started laying gorgeous brown eggs almost daily. Now none for almost a month. She's not molting. She's also bottom of pecking order keeping head down around rest of flock. Yesterday I noticed her walking very strangely like she's tip toeing drunk. What's happened to my fav sweet girl?
 
featherhead007
I bought my 2 Hampshire reds from a corner feed store, fully grown they had a slightly deformed beaks, but they need love too! So now they are mine to love...
And wow do they produce big beautiful brown eggs! And are extremely friendly to me.
 
nizar
It is one of best breed recommended by farmer, it is one by best egg layer,and they do not do much noise.
 
feathermania
We have 2 NHRs. One is Lucy and the other is Wilma. Wilma is quiet while Lucy is a bit louder. They both like their backs stroked and a gentle tail tug. They love to free range and they are so funny to watch! They get along with the other hens very well. It's funny to see all of them free ranging together. If they see one digging at something, all of the others come running! They are great layers too. Love our NHRs!!
 
flwrldy
Love my NH Reds, but one I call pecky Becky will peck at absolutely everything in her path. Even my eye! Boy did that hurt. It’s still sore today. She pecked it yesterday as I was bent down talking to all my chickens like I usually do, and peck, she got me.
 
chicken-pics
Mine is super bossy, but the rest of the description matches my chicken named Red-Velvet. She is noisy, lays large brown eggs, is red and has black tail feathers, she likes to be handled.
 
Maugwa
lifein1840 said:
I got a New Hampshire last year as a chick to see if I would like the breed.....she is a great hen! She's quiet, lays large/extra large eggs (about 5 per week) and is very hardy. The only con I have is that she is on the bottom of the pecking order, even though she is the largest hen. I will get this breed again, she is one of my favorites.
Click to expand...

I'm not positive, but have to wonder, is your NH bottom of the pecking order because she came as a "1", or the only chick that age?

The reason that I'm asking is early this Spring I got a batch of chicks; 3 NHRs, 3 Saphire Splash, 3 Easter Eggers, 3 Golden Comets, and 3 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, and a mystery chick I think is a Black Star. One of the Blue Laced didn't survive the first night home (after the 2+ days of mail), another Blue Laced was a male (I traded neighbor for a future hen), and one of the Comets went missing in around 6 weeks (a few were still small enough to fit through the electric poultry net fence - it wasn't hot at the time). But of that batch of birds, 13, the three NHRs are definitely the top of the ladder. They are least spooked when I feed or bring treats, and when I opened two paddocks together, and let them co-mingle with older birds, they were the first to hang out near them. I use two (sometimes three) cattle panel hoop coups. One for the main flock and one for chicks to adolescents, sometimes a third if I get a broody, (or need a hospital, a jail, or an isolated breeding pen) and coup #2 is already in use. After I combine the two paddocks for a few weeks with coup #1 and #2 both in there, I'll close up #2 when I think the time is right. This year I knew it was time when all three NHRs decided to sleep with the older chickens even though they were bottom of the pecking order in there. They'll give those old grouchy hens drive byes to steal their treat, and come right back for more if they get picked on. They still are boss of their generation though, their peers cower and run off and stay away from the old girls, but the NHRs seem to prefer the grown ups.

I saw the same thing with some Barred Rocks, and Comets, the same age. The BRs ruled the roost. But the next year I got some more Barred Rocks and they never became bossy or aggressive, kind of timid actually, and I think it was all because the first batch started and was raised as the most dominant personalities, but the second batch were raised with bigger birds that kept 'attitudes' in check - they almost were like comparing two different breeds, even though they were still BRs. I wonder if it's something like that that makes your NHR description so different than mine?
 
Last edited:
lifein1840
Maugwa said:
I'm not positive, but have to wonder, is your NH bottom of the pecking order because she came as a "1", or the only chick that age?

The reason that I'm asking is early this Spring I got a batch of chicks; 3 NHRs, 3 Saphire Splash, 3 Easter Eggers, 3 Golden Comets, and 3 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, and a mystery chick I think is a Black Star. One of the Blue Laced didn't survive the first night home (after the 2+ days of mail), another Blue Laced was a male (I traded neighbor for a future hen), and one of the Comets went missing in around 6 weeks (a few were still small enough to fit through the electric poultry net fence - it wasn't hot at the time). But of that batch of birds, 13, the three NHRs are definitely the top of the ladder. They are least spooked when I feed or bring treats, and when I opened two paddocks together, and let them co-mingle with older birds, they were the first to hang out near them. I use two (sometimes three) cattle panel hoop coups. One for the main flock and one for chicks to adolescents, sometimes a third if I get a broody, (or need a hospital, a jail, or an isolated breeding pen) and coup #2 is already in use. After I combine the two paddocks for a few weeks with coup #1 and #2 both in there, I'll close up #2 when I think the time is right. This year I knew it was time when all three NHRs decided to sleep with the older chickens even though they were bottom of the pecking order in there. They'll give those old grouchy hens drive byes to steal their treat, and come right back for more if they get picked on. They still are boss of their generation though, their peers cower and run off and stay away from the old girls, but the NHRs seem to prefer the grown ups.

I saw the same thing with some Barred Rocks, and Comets, the same age. The BRs ruled the roost. But the next year I got some more Barred Rocks and they never became bossy or aggressive, kind of timid actually, and I think it was all because the first batch started and was raised as the most dominant personalities, but the second batch were raised with bigger birds that kept 'attitudes' in check - they almost were like comparing two different breeds, even though they were still BRs. I wonder if it's something like that that makes your NHR description so different than mine?
Click to expand...
No, I got her in a batch of chicks. I never add chicks to an existing flock. I was replacing my flock and decided to start with all new chicks. Usually, I have a broody hen and the new chicks just blend into the flock so I can cull the older hens but with no broody, my girls were about 3 years old so I just decided to start fresh. I now have the most amazing broody. She is a Dorking. She lays great and is the best broody i have ever had. She stays with the chicks until they are about 7 or 8 weeks old and even when she is done she is never mean to the chicks. I used to love Australorps for broody hens but now I have an Australorp that is the worst broody ever, really mean to the chicks and is done when they are only about 3 weeks old....but my Dorking lets them hang with her, she sort of adopted them. That Australorp hen is going on craigslist! The most broody breed I have ever had was Speckled Sussex. They were broody more often than not! They were great with the chicks! The only reason I didn't get more when they were gone is I just don't want that many chicks to have to sell if I wasn't keeping them - and my Sussex hens could easily cover 15 eggs! One of the Sussex hens went broody 4 times her first year. I've had chickens so long and so many breeds that these are my stand out breeds that made a lasting impression. I guess that brings me back to the New Hampshire. I'm looking for someone local that raises them so I can get eggs for the next broody girl to sit. I really did like the NH I had but good stock is really hard find!! Seems that so many are crossed with Rhode Island red - a breed I really don't like!!!!
 

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