Chicken Breed Comparisons
Head-to-head matchups of the breeds keepers actually cross-shop — eggs per year, first-egg age, egg color, temperament, and coop space, side by side.
Figures reviewed against hatchery and breed-registry guidance · Last reviewed July 2026
Every comparison below pulls from the same reviewed dataset behind our First Egg Calculator, so the numbers agree across the site. If a matchup you want isn't here, the individual breed pages cover all 30 breeds.
Backyard classics
- Rhode Island Red vs Barred Rock
- Rhode Island Red vs Buff Orpington
- Rhode Island Red vs Australorp
- Rhode Island Red vs New Hampshire
- Rhode Island Red vs Leghorn
- Rhode Island Red vs Wyandotte
- Australorp vs Buff Orpington
- Australorp vs Barred Rock
- Australorp vs Leghorn
- Barred Rock vs Buff Orpington
- Barred Rock vs Wyandotte
- Barred Rock vs Dominique
- Buff Orpington vs Wyandotte
- Speckled Sussex vs Buff Orpington
- Rhode Island Red vs Speckled Sussex
- Delaware vs New Hampshire
Hybrid layers vs heritage
Colored & dark egg layers
Giants, fluff & ornamentals
White-egg layers
Related
Sources
First-egg age and egg counts are the consensus of multiple hatchery and breed-registry sources (no extension service tabulates per-breed figures), cross-checked and last reviewed July 2026.
- The Livestock Conservancy — Chicken breed profiles