Chicken Breeds
The Chicken Breed Selector: Standardised Breeds
Chicken Breeds pages can be seen by clicking on the links below. From the large fowl like Australorps or Orpingtons to the smaller bantams like the Dutch, Belgian or Japanese, there’s usually a breed of chicken that will tickle your fancy!
This page lists all 93 chicken breeds that are standardised in the British Poultry Standards. References are given to pages in other standards around the world where applicable.
Whilst Hybrids are technically not pure breeds, we have also included a section for Hybrid chickens such as the Black Rock due to their popularity.
![]() Light: Soft Feather |
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![]() Rumpless Araucana Light: Soft Feather |
![]() Asil (Aseel) Asian Hard Feather |
![]() Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Belgian Bantam |
![]() Barbu d’Uccle Belgian Bantam |
![]() Barbu de Watermael Belgian Bantam |
![]() Barbu d’Everberg Belgian Bantam |
![]() Barbu du Grubbe Belgian Bantam |
![]() Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() True Bantam (Rare) |
![]() Brahma Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Brakel Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Campine Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Cochin Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Croad Langshan Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Dominique Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Dorking Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Dutch Bantam True Bantam |
![]() Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Light: Soft Feather |
![]() Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Not Pure Bred! |
![]() Indian Game Hard Feather |
![]() Ixworth Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() True Bantam |
![]() Jersey Giant Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Ko Shamo Asian Hard Feather |
![]() Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Kulang Asian Hard Feather |
![]() La Flèche Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Lakenvelder Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Legbar Light: Soft Feather (Rare) Autosexing |
![]() Light: Soft Feather |
![]() Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Malay Asian Hard Feather |
![]() Marans Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Light: Soft Feather |
![]() Modern Game Hard Feather |
![]() Modern Langshan Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Nankin Bantam True Bantam (Rare) |
![]() Nankin Shamo Asian Hard Feather Extinct in the UK |
![]() New Hampshire Red Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Norfolk Grey Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() True Bantam (Rare) |
![]() Carlisle Old English Game Hard Feather |
![]() Oxford Old English Game Hard Feather |
![]() Old English Game Bantam Hard Feather |
![]() Old English Pheasant Fowl Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Orloff Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Heavy: Light Feather |
![]() Pekin Bantam True Bantam |
![]() Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Light: Soft Feather |
![]() Redcap Light: Soft Feather |
![]() Rhodebar Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Rhode Island Red Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Rosecomb Bantam True Bantam |
![]() Rumpless Game Hard Feather (Rare) |
![]() Satsumadori Asian Hard Feather |
![]() Scots Dumpy Light: Soft Feather |
![]() Scots Grey Light: Soft Feather |
![]() Sebright Bantam True Bantam |
![]() Serama True Bantam |
![]() Shamo Asian Hard Feather |
![]() Sicilian Buttercup Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Silkie Light: Soft Feather |
![]() Spanish Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Sulmtaler Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Sultan Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Sumatra Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Sussex Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Taiwan Asian Hard Feather |
![]() Thai Game Asian Hard Feather |
![]() Thuringian Light: Soft Feather |
![]() Transylvanian Naked Neck Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Tuzo Asian Hard Feather |
![]() Vorwerk Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Welbar Light: Soft Feather (Rare) Autosexing |
![]() Welsummer Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
![]() Wyandotte Heavy: Soft Feather |
![]() Wybar Heavy: Soft Feather (Rare) Autosexing |
![]() Yakido Asian Hard Feather (Rare) |
![]() Yamato Gunkei Asian Hard Feather |
![]() Yokohama Light: Soft Feather (Rare) |
Chicken Breeds Classifications
There are two sizes of fowl that exist – ‘Large Fowl’ (often abbreviated to L.F) and ‘Bantam’. Not all breeds of large fowl can be found in bantam size and vice-versa. Where there is a bantam size only, these are called ‘True Bantams’. For many large breeds, bantams are created afterwards as a miniature version by selecting the smallest birds repeatedly for many generations, sometimes crossing out to other small bantams in the process to reduce their size.
As well as Large Fowl and Bantam sizes, there is another distinction made with ‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’ Feather breeds. Generally, hard feather breeds are ‘Game’ varieties, who historically were cock fighting birds. These have a tighter feathering than the soft feather chicken breeds, who are more fluffy.
The Poultry Club of Great Britain classifies ‘Rare’ breeds as those without their own breed club or society. The Rare Poultry Society looks after these breeds.
Thanks
This page has been a rather big project. A special thank you to Rupert Stephenson who has spent many years visiting shows to capture many of these chicken breeds photographs and has helped me enormously to create these pages.