What is the best chicken breed

[quailboy02]

I am getting eggs and I want to know what the best breed is

 

[Ridgerunner]

What are your goals? Why do you want chickens? Meat, eggs, pets, meat and eggs, bug control, to show, to maintain a heritage breed, to look pretty or strange, or something else? Do you want a breed that goes broody often? How are you going to manage them, free range or tightly confined? Do you have favorite colors? Do you want them all one specific color or pattern or do you want a variety? Is egg color or size important? Size of the chicken?

Which chicken is best? Depends on what you want that chicken to do.

 

[quailboy02]

I want it to be docile and be no bigger than 5 pounds and lay frequently I also want it to look pretty and I want them for eggs

 

[Ridgerunner]

Leghorns are small and can be kind of skittish, but they can be trained to accept you. They take confinement well and lay lots of fairly large white eggs. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there are leghorns colors and patterns other than the basic white.

Be a bit careful on this one. Hatcheries offer two different types of sex linked chickens. One is the basic cross between two recognized breeds. These are basically the same as their parent breeds. The ones you might want are based on the commercial egg laying hybrids and look like they probably have a lot of leghorn in them, but they lay brown eggs. These are small and lay a lot of large brown eggs. They take confinement well and would be considered docile. Some are red sex links and some are black sex links so you have some limited choice in colors and patterns.

It’s been a while since I checked, but Cackle and McMurray use to offer the ones based on the commercial egg layers, Ideal’s sex links were from crossing specific breeds, and Meyer offered your choice of both.

I’m sure there are lots of others that would suit you but these come to mind immediately. Good luck!

 

[katievallance]

I love my reds they like to follow us around the yard and they likek to be petted. I also have Americanas they don't come up to us much and they lay pretty eggs. When I got into chickens I just ordered a few to see what I liked. I also got Cornish Rocks and raised them for meat!! One got to be 9 lbs!! And we also have a golden polish rooster he has a personality!