What is the best laying small breed.

[GirlsHuntToo]

I would highly recommend Buff Orpingtons - great layers and will lay for many years unlike other breeds.
I agree with @nuthatched - Mt.Healthy will send you some really beautiful Buff Orpingtons.

 

[Olmanrose]

White Leghorns are usually considered the best layers.

Chickens come in two basic sizes: large fowl (sometimes abbreviated LF) and bantam (very small.) Some breeds come in both sizes (example: Bantam Brahma and Standard Brahma.)

Bantams are usually not good layers.
"Large Fowl" have quite a range of sizes. Leghorns weigh about 4-5 pounds when they are grown up, while some other breeds weigh more than twice as much.

So Leghorns are probably your best choice for a sort-of small chicken that is a very good layer.

Hamburgs come in several colors, are smaller than Leghorns, and are also good layers. Silver Spangled Hamburgs are probably the most common color of them.

If you want actual bantams, that typically weigh less than two pounds, you are going to have trouble finding any that are very good layers. Easter Egger bantams might be better than some of the other kinds of bantams, although that is "might be," not a certainty.



You might want some calmer breeds of chickens. Breeds like Leghorns and Hamburgs tend to be quite active and flightly. Slightly larger chickens are often calmer. Rhode Island Reds and Red Sexlinks and Black Sexlinks are very good layers, a bit larger than Leghorns but not enormous, and tend to have much calmer temperaments.

Thank you very much for the information

 

[Olmanrose]

I would highly recommend Buff Orpingtons - great layers and will lay for many years unlike other breeds.
I agree with @nuthatched - Mt.Healthy will send you some really beautiful Buff Orpingtons.

Thank you for the information

 

[Iluveggers]

Orpingtons (of any color, Mt Healthy has a bunch of colors if you want to be able to tell them apart easily), are friendly, docile, and lay a good amount of eggs. Buff is the most common color. Speckled Sussex are another great gentle breed, and they are generally a bit smaller than Orpingtons. Easter Eggers and Ameraucanas are also usually tiny & gentle, and would give you blue or green eggs. I also really like Australorps, they are great layers and gentle, and Mt Healthy also has a few colors of that breed as well. Black is most common. You could get 2 of a couple breeds so everyone has a buddy, and have a little variety in your flock if that’s your thing!

If you aren’t concerned with friendly & gentle, leghorns are by far the best layers.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Especially if you can have a male, I really highly recommend Pheonixes or Cornish Bantams. I have both and they do like to go broody, but are easy enough to break if you can get to the nests. They lay reliably when not nesting and I have yet to have a bad male from either

 

[Olmanrose]

Thank you for the information

Thank you for the information

 

[Olmanrose]

Orpingtons (of any color, Mt Healthy has a bunch of colors if you want to be able to tell them apart easily), are friendly, docile, and lay a good amount of eggs. Buff is the most common color. Speckled Sussex are another great gentle breed, and they are generally a bit smaller than Orpingtons. Easter Eggers and Ameraucanas are also usually tiny & gentle, and would give you blue or green eggs. I also really like Australorps, they are great layers and gentle, and Mt Healthy also has a few colors of that breed as well. Black is most common. You could get 2 of a couple breeds so everyone has a buddy, and have a little variety in your flock if that’s your thing!

If you aren’t concerned with friendly & gentle, leghorns are by far the best layers.

Thank you for the information

 

[Olmanrose]

Especially if you can have a male, I really highly recommend Pheonixes or Cornish Bantams. I have both and they do like to go broody, but are easy enough to break if you can get to the nests. They lay reliably when not nesting and I have yet to have a bad male from either

Thank you for the information

 

[Olmanrose]

Thanks to all for the very useful information

 

[Rose the Legbar]

x2 on the Cornish bantams! Extremely sweet birds that are a small size. One of my favorite breeds because of their great personalities.