Best Egg Laying Chickens

There are many wonderful chicken breeds for farm-fresh eggs.

We’ve been keeping egg-laying chickens for a few years now and we’ve had experience with many breeds. We’ve kept both the hybrid layers, that lay A LOT of eggs a year, to the dual-purpose breeds. We’ve also kept chickens that lay fun blue eggs that our kids really enjoy.


ISA brown chicken breed

What are the Best Egg Laying Chickens?

There’s one important question you need to ask other than ‘how many eggs per year’ when it comes to choosing chicken breeds.

Things like your climate, where you keep your chickens, what you plan on doing with them after they’re done laying in 2-5 years and what your chicken keeping goals are. It also depends on if you want heritage breed or hybrid and whether or not you want broodiness (when chickens sit on the eggs to ‘hatch’ them, which if you aren’t hatching your own chicks or want to grab eggs without getting pecked at, is something to consider).

If you have kids friendliness will also be a factor.

This post will give you a rundown of 7 chicken breeds to help you figure out the best choice for your flock.

Barred Rock Chick- Great dual purpose chicken breed
Barred Rock Chick- Great dual purpose chicken breed

Best Chickens for Egg Laying

The following chicken breeds that lay anywhere from 200-350 eggs per year. I’ll review the pros and cons from experience of each of the following top egg laying hens:

  • Leghorns
  • Lohman Lite
  • ISA Browns
  • Barred/Plymouth Rock
  • Wyandotte
  • Ameracauna’s
  • Speckled Sussex & Light Sussex

Some other fantastic layers include Rhode Island Red but we’ve never kept them as *apparently* they have a hotter temperament they aren’t as friendly with kids. Other great layers include Australops or Golden Comet.


Review of chicken breeds for lots of eggs

Lotsa Chickens eggs 280+/year

Best chicken breeds for farm fresh eggs

Leghorns, ISA Browns, Lohman Lite

The chicken breeds that are egg-producing machines can sometimes start tapering off egg laying at 2.5 years. We actually noticed a drop in our ISA browns at 2 years and it happened rapidly. This means while these breeds will offer a log of eggs for a couple of years, you might not keep them as long.

ISA brown

Out of all our big egg producing chicken breeds, the ISA browns were preferred over the leghorns & Lohman Lites.

They had a friendlier nature and had a *little* more meat on them. They also seemed less flighty and more friendly towards humans.

Chicken breeds that lay 280+ eggs a year often skinnier offering less ‘meat’ if any at all, mostly meant for the chicken broth if you plan on culling them.

One great thing about hens that are prolific layers is that they cost less to feed because they’re slimmer.

Brown LeghornsApparently leghorns are supposed to be quite flighty, however we didn’t experience that. Our leghorns, which were brown/black, unfortunately met the demise of a black bear (who ripped the plywood right off of the chicken coop) so we didn’t get to experience these hens for longer than a year. We currently have 5 Lohman lite which are huge producers of eggs, but super skinny & flighty. We didn’t get them as chicks, we bought them as pullets and we noticed a huge difference in friendliness towards humans.

  • Lohman Lite (hybrid) -300-350 eggs/year
  • ISA brown (hybrid)- 300+ eggs/year
  • Leghorn 280-320 eggs/year

Barred rock chickens

Chicken breeds that lay 250+ eggs per year

Here are some great breeds that lay great but are also more dual-purpose rather than just for eggs. Some of these breeds are cold hardy too- the Sussex & Barred Rock.

Barred Rock/Plymouth Rock – 250+ eggs/year

Barred Rock/Plymouth Rock is an excellent dual purpose backyard chicken breed

I think so far this is my fav chicken breed!

They lay lots of eggs, have quite a lot of meat on their bones & are super friendly. In fact, even though they are larger chicken I’m so attached to the ones we have I might just have to let these girls retire. This is a great dual purpose & cold hardy breed for those areas with snowy winters.

Barred Rock Chickens

Speckled Sussex – 250 eggs/year

Speckled Sussex Chicken Breed

This breed is super friendly and curious. Another great dual purpose cold hardy breed.

We have a speckled Sussex but they come in other colors. The next year we got 3 light Sussex chickens (which I LOVE)

Light Sussex Chicken

Ameraucana & Easter Eggers – 250 eggs/year

Chicken breeds that lay blue eggs

Ameracauna lays blue eggs and have fluffy cheeks. Easter Eggers can lay blue/green eggs. I talk about chickens that lay blue eggs in this post.

Our Ameracauna crosses have been our most troublesome hens to date.

Ameracauna

Although we got them as chicks, they had less handling, but they also didn’t want to be caught OR held. While our barred rock, wyandotte & speckled sussex chicks were fine being cuddled by the kids, these chicks were not having it at all.

They didn’t even want to sleep inside the chicken coop, preferring the cherry tree outside. Ameracauna Chicks

As we had a drought all summer and it barely rained for months so they got use to sleeping in the tree. It took a lot of convincing for them to stay inside the fenced area and not fly out (8 feet fencing) to sleep in the tree. Once we trained them to sleep inside as the weather began to get cold, we still have one that is escaping EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

She flies on top of the chicken coop (about 12 feet up) and flies over the other side.

I know we could trim their wings so that they don’t fly away, but so far we’re letting them be.

Even though I love having blue eggs, I’m not sure this breed & it’s personality suits our homestead.

Ameracauna - Most Troublesome Hens

Wyandotte- 200 eggs/year

Silver Laced Wyandotte

This is the ‘diva’ of the chicken world. They’re pretty & they know it.

They’re often more vocal and queen of the flock. We’ve only every had one wyandotte as they don’t lay as many eggs but I would have to agree with that description. She has a very cute ‘cluck’ noise she makes

Wyandotte Chicken plummage

That concludes my review of the chicken breeds we’ve had the most experience with.

If I had to choose ONE breed I’d pick the barred rock.

I prefer having a mixed flock though, it’s nice to get a bit of both worlds!

The breeds that lay a lot of eggs to the dual purpose ones that lay for longer period and are meatier towards the culling ages.

What is your fav egg laying chicken breed?

Review of different chicken breeds for eggs

7 thoughts on “Best Egg Laying Chickens”

  1. My husband and I purchased a new house on 10 acres earlier this year. I am planning on turning it into a homestead and am absorbing as much information as possible. Thanks for sharing this.

    Reply
  2. Besides chickens, which I’ve had a lot of luck raising this year, I’ve got about 10 Lavender plants that I’m tending to now. How long does the oil keep its fragrance ?

    Reply
    • Hi Mary,
      Lavender flowers will have them highest fragrance at the start of blooming, then the flowers lose some of their scent even if the flowers are still there. Every year when the flower re-blooms (because lavenders are a perennial) that will be the strongest scent

      Reply
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  4. You should try black Australorp chickens! They are great – lots of eggs, long laying life span, friendly and quiet – no drama with these girls! Good luck with everything!!

    Reply

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