Best of Breeds

If you are interested in a British breed of poultry and you are not sure what breed best suits your needs then take a look at this table.

  Dual Purpose Ability Egg Laying Ability Egg Size Table Quality Hardiness
1. Sussex Sussex Sussex Indian Game Scots Grey
2. Ixworth Ixworth Lincolnshire Buff Sussex Marsh Daisy
3. Lincolnshire Buff Minorca Ixworth Ixworth Norfolk Grey
4. Rhodebar Rhodebar Rhodebar Lincolnshire Buff Sussex
5. Norfolk Grey Lincolnshire Buff Minorca Buff Orpington Old English Pheasant Fowl
6. Buff Orpington Marsh Daisy Buff Orpington Red Dorking Minorca
7. Minorca Scots Grey Dorking Rhodebar Derbyshire Redcap
8. Derbyshire Redcap Norfolk Grey Norfolk Grey Norfolk Grey Ixworth
9. Scots Grey Old English Pheasant Fowl Indian Game Minorca Rhodebar
10. Indian Game Derbyshire Redcap Scots Grey Derbyshire Redcap Lincolnshire Buff
11. Red Dorking Hamburgh Scots Dumpy Scots Dumpy Buff Orpington
12 Scots Dumpy Scots Dumpy Derbyshire Redcap Scots Grey Hamburgh
13. Old English Pheasant Fowl Buff Orpington Old English Pheasant Fowl Old English Pheasant Fowl Scots Dumpy
14. Marsh Daisy Dorking Hamburgh Marsh Daisy Indian Game
15. Hamburgh Indian Game Marsh Daisy Hamburgh Red Dorking


  Broodiness Foraging Habit Docile to Flighty Traditional Appeal
1. Buff Orpington Marsh Daisy Buff Orpington Red Dorking
2. Lincolnshire Buff Scots Grey Lincolnshire Buff Lincolnshire Buff
3. Indian Game Old English Pheasant Fowl Dorking Sussex
4. Scots Dumpy Derbyshire Redcap Scots Dumpy Buff Orpington
5. Sussex Hamburgh Sussex Marsh Daisy
6. Ixworth Norfolk Grey Rhodebar Derbyshire Redcap
7. Red Dorking Lincolnshire Buff Ixworth Scots Grey
8. Marsh Daisy Minorca Indian Game Old English Pheasant Fowl
9. Norfolk Grey Sussex Minorca Norfolk Grey
10. Rhodebar Ixworth Norfolk Grey Scots Dumpy
11. Minorca Rhodebar Marsh Daisy Hamburgh
12 Scots Grey Buff Orpington Scots Grey Rhodebar
13. Derbyshire Redcap Scots Dumpy Derbyshire Redcap Ixworth
14. Old English Pheasant Fowl Indian Game Hamburgh Indian Game
15. Hamburgh Red Dorking Old English Pheasant Fowl Minorca


Breed Qualities

Dual purpose ability: Good all round bird, producing plenty of large sized eggs and a good carcass of meat.
Egg laying ability: The highest egg layers, with reference to their ability to sustain egg lay for many years.
Egg size: The largest eggs.
Table quality: Birds that produce plenty of breast meat, working on the basis of what their modern abilities are.
Hardiness: Consideration is made to general vigour of the breed, level of inbreeding/rarity, size of the breed, susceptibility to external parasites, Vigour of chicks, resistance to all weathers and positive and negative features/characteristics of a breed.
Broodiness: Consideration made to how easily a breed goes broody, breed size, brooding ability and reliability.
Foraging habit: Energetic breeds that most like to scratch around.
Docile to flighty: Starting with the most placid breeds and ending with those that are energetic and flighty. The ferocity of cockerels has not been included as all breeds can yield calm and vicious birds.
Traditional appeal: The breeds most likely to be considered by the general public to be a traditional looking farmyard bird.

Realistically, due to the variation that occurs within a breed, exhibition stock verses traditional stock, unknown level of purity and inbreeding. All remarks made on a breed are general interpretation aided by experience.