A yellow chicken is cute and appealing to the eyes. Yellow chickens are also called buff chickens and some are very good at laying eggs; others make good mothers while some are ideal meat birds. However, some are good for both meat and eggs making them some of the most reliable chickens.
These fancy chickens are beautiful in their own way as they add color to your backyard. Some have a good personality that makes them fit in the category of pets as they get along easily with humans enjoying company and allowing you to cuddle them on your lap.
Maybe you want to keep them as ornamental birds for their yellow plumage or you want to have them as an income generating project. Down here is a list of buff chicken breeds that you can add on your backyard.
Best Yellow Chicken Breeds
There are different breeds of yellow chickens. However, down here is a list of some of my favorite buff chickens that I have on my farm.
So, let’s roll!
Leghorn Chickens
Leghorns are a small to medium sized breed of chickens that originated from Italy. They have been cross bred with several breeds like Minorca chicken to improve on some qualities like size but are still small birds.
These yellow chickens have a single rose comb or double with red wattles and earlobes. The skin, beak and legs of Leghorn chickens are yellow in color. The eyes are red and there are 4 toes on each foot and have no feathers on the legs.
Leghorns are very intelligent and love to forage a lot. These birds are not the kind to be confined. They can easily fly and roost on trees like Hamburg’s. These birds are not the kind of birds you would keep in an urban setting as they can sometimes be very noisy.
These birds are excellent egg machines because they will lay a clutch of 300 to 320 white shelled eggs per year translating this to four eggs per week. They grow large as they age and their eggs keep growing big too as the hen’s age.
Since they are egg birds, they make bad mothers, do not hatch well and will seldom get broody. Most leghorn chicks are hatch using egg incubators . Baby Leghorn’s feather very quickly just like those Buff Brahma chickens.
Buff Showgirl Chicken
This yellow chicken breed is calm, gentle and small in size. Buff showgirl chickens are a cross between silkie and turken or the naked neck chicken. They are a modern fancy yellow breed that is very rare.
Since these birds have similar features with Silkies, they have a dark skin and meat with the bones being greyish. They do not lay many eggs and easily go broody. These birds have a large frame than normal silkies do and can be good for meat.
Buff Showgirls have a yellow fluffy plumage and most people often prefer to keep these cuties as pets. They easily get along with kids because they are calm and allow this be held on the lap.
Chabo chickens
The word chabo means dwarf or miniature in Japanese. They call this yellow chicken breed so because it is dwarf with small short legs. Chabo’s are small bodied with a large red comb and graceful arched tails.
The breed was officially accepted in the American Poultry Association and Standard perfection in the year 1874. This Asiatic chicken breed is a true bantam as there are no large or medium sized varieties of this breed.
Most people whom raise this fancy chicken keep it as an ornamental bird. They are among the top ten popular bantam breeds listed on the American Bantam Association….Roys Farm.
Chabo roosters have large single combs and earlobes while in hens they are medium. The combs have five well defined points and are deep red in color.
They are not good for meat as they are small in size and have little of it to offer. Female Chabo chickens are good layers of light brown eggs.
Buff Silkie
The buff silkie chickens are small sized fancy cuties with fluffy feathers covering up to their legs. Their skin, legs and beak are all dark. They are very calm, friendly and are good to keep as pets as they easily get along with people.
They are not good for eggs and will only lay a few of them. Their laying pattern is often interrupted by their tendency to go broody. Female silkie chickens are good setters and make excellent moms.
Silkies are very docile with a calm temperament where even the roosters are loved for their sweet demeanor. They are used to foster young of other game birds like pheasants and domestic birds like ducks.
Buff Brahma
The Buff Brahmas are hardy giants that are calm and can do well in cold weathers. These heavy feeders are good layers of eggs. Buff Brahma chickens will also offer much meat due to their huge and heavy frames. They originate from Asia particularly China.
Buff Brahma chicks feather up very quickly and can grow very fat to the point of developing liver problems. This breed is excellent in showing due to its calm disposition.
Female Buff Brahma chickens are good egg producers and in a year they lay 200 large brown eggs. They continue laying even during winter months when other breeds have taken a laying break.
Plymouth Rock Chickens (Buff Rock)
The Plymouth Rock chicken is a beautiful breed with intense yellow beaks and legs. They have bright red combs and wattles. Their feathers are buff colored with well-set bodies. These birds have small bodies compared to other buff varieties.
Buff rock hens are fine layers of brown eggs and sett on late spring where they hatch chicks that have a soft buff color.
Easter Egger Chickens
Easter Eggers were developed after crossing Ameraucana and Araucana chicken breeds. They are famous for their blu eggs they lay that somehow appear rainbow colored.
They are a dual purpose chicken breed because they are good layers and can offer substantive amounts of meat. Their low maintenance lifestyle and colored eggs has made this yellow chicken breed very popular among keepers.
Some of this breeds have a single comb while in some it is of a pea type. They have small red wattles with red or white earlobes and can have tufts on their ears. These birds have rumple tails maybe it is because of their parent’s genes.
They have a calm disposition and are easy bullies for other chicken breeds. Easter Eggers are not shy to humans and they will come close for treats like popcorn or broccoli.Easter Egger chickens will allow kids to hold them or sit them on their laps.
In a year, female easter egger chickens lay 200 colored eggs translating this to 4 eggs per week. They don’t get broody easily and often lay for longer periods.
Polish Chickens
These magnificent crested cuties entered France from Poland in 1736. They were taken there by the King of Poland who was fleeing after being overthrown from the throne.
They were brought to England in 1700s and taken to America between the years 1830s and 1840s. Those who kept them did so because of their white eggs before being overtaken by Leghorns.
Polish chickens have a crest of feathers on their heads. This gives them a bob hair style with wavy sides. The skulls of these chickens have a bony lump that protrudes like a bump that supports the beautiful head crests.
Sometimes the crest feathers in Polish chicken may grow too big falling on the sides of the head causing visual problems. This easily makes them vulnerable to chicken predators like possums and hawks.
Polish chicken hens will lay a clutch of150 medium white eggs in a year but don’t expect chicks any time soon as they rarely go broody. This also tells you that hens are not good mothers.
Buff Orpington
This yellow chicken breed was developed in 1880 in the city of Orpington. Orpington chickens are a very popular breed for meat and eggs. In a year, female Orpington chickens will lay a clutch of300 eggs. This has made them a good choice among many farmers.
Orpington hens easily get broody and make good mothers to their chicks. These chickens have dense plumage that makes them do well in cold climates.
Buff Cochin Chickens
These are large yellow chickens that trace their origin from Asia, mainly China. Because they are large and lay lots of eggs, these birds were preferred as a dual purpose chicken breed. Their yellow feathers makes them good ornamental birds that will add a buff color in your backyard.
These chickens are calm and continue laying eggs during winter. Their legs are very fluffy covered with dense feathers which helps them keep warm during the cold winter months. Cochin chickens are heavy birds where the hen’s weigh 9 pounds and 11 pounds for the roosters.
Buff Cochin hens lay medium sized brown eggs and get broody easily. They are prudent mothers and they are used by farmers to hatch eggs of other breeds or foster their young.
Additionally, Cochin roosters are unique where they will help the hens sit on the eggs to brood and even take care of the baby chicks just like a mother hen does.
[…] plumage that is sometimes a mixture of several shades. Take a case of black and white chickens or yellow chicken breeds. The crow by roosters is entertaining to […]