If you didn’t know it already, when chickens are yellow, they aren’t called yellow.
They’re usually called “buff” instead.
Because of this, ten of the thirteen listed chickens today contain the word “Buff” in their name, which is why.
Let’s talk about these gorgeous yellow-golden chickens.
1. Buff Brahma Chicken
Admired for its stunning beauty, this majestic breed is also a low-maintenance keeper and gets along well with other chicken breeds in your flock.
Not only will these gentle giants bring you beautiful brown eggs, but they can even be raised as pets due to their docile disposition.
They’re perfect for small homesteads and easy to tame. They may be intimidating in size, but they make up for it with their love of free-range areas.
Rooster Brahmas weigh up to twelve pounds, while hens are slightly smaller at ten pounds; standing tall between eight and thirty inches high in some cases.
The thicker feathers that this breed boasts enable them to feast on all sorts of goodies, from insects to seeds, providing substantial nutrition requirements and reducing your total feeding costs.
Although not suited towards hotter climates due to their thick coatings, these pretty ‘blonde’ chickens typically lay an impressive three large brown eggs per week, totaling about 150 a year.
You can also find Buff Brahma Bantams too!
2. Buff Cochin Chicken
Buff Cochins are an iconic breed of grand-scale domestic chickens hailing from China and capturing the hearts (and pens) of poultry farmers across Europe and North America.
This regal bird is characterized by its large size, with both bantam & full sizes available, as well as a dense coat covering legs & feet that truly sets it apart in stature.
Aptly named Cochin-Chinas for their Chinese origin, Buffs have something to offer beyond sheer beauty; they lay medium eggs 2 or 3 times per week up to 180 over the course of one year.
Not only do these golden birds provide rich color palettes for freshly laid tinted eggs during wintertime months, but hens also make excellent mothers who can even protectively hatch turkeys and ducklings alike.
If you want someone who is willing to hatch a clutch or two of eggs every year, this is the breed for you.
Females weigh up to 8.5 pounds, while males will tip the scales at 10 to 11 pounds, meaning you’ll get a considerable amount of meat from each bird, should you choose to harvest them.
3. Buff Easter Egger Chicken
Have you ever wanted to have chickens that lay colorful eggs? Buff Easter Eggers are the perfect choice!
This hybrid breed is highly sought-after, but you never know what color your hen will lay until you finally see that first beautiful egg.
Easter eggs lay blue, green, teal, light brown, cream, or even pinkish-purple-tinted eggs. You can expect to see around 200 eggs per year per chicken.
They have a few unique physical features, too, such as small pea combs and wattles, along with yellow or orange eyes set against slate-colored legs.
Buff Easter Eggers weigh around five pounds for roosters and four pounds for hens on average.
They prefer to be kept as free rangers so they can happily search the yard all day long looking for food.
If you let them loose in your yard, don’t be surprised if they spend a lot of time on your porch looking for you.
If you want a breed that will hop in your lap as you rock in your rocking chair, then these are the ideal birds for you.
4. Buff Leghorn Chicken
Single Comb Buff Leghorn Chickens are thought to have originated in Italy. They were brought to the Americas because of their renowned reputation for their astonishing egg-laying capabilities.
Many of these hens will lay four or six white eggs each week for several years without decline!
Although these chickens may be initially skittish around strangers, they eventually settle into docile and sweet personalities once comfortable.
The stereotype that skittish chickens make good foragers and free rangers rings true here– these birds are pretty self-sufficient and won’t need much feed from you, especially in the summer months.
They are characterized by big wattles as well as combs that arguably make them more susceptible than other breeds to frostbite during cold weather conditions.
If you live in a cold region, skip this breed or beef up your shelter so it can hold an adequate temperature for your leghorns.
Single Combs possess an athletic figure, often reaching between five pounds (for hens) and seven and a half pounds (for roosters), with bantam alternatives available weighing between one and a half pounds per hen and closer to two pounds per rooster.
5. Buff Orpington Chicken
Developed in the 19th century by William Cook, Buff Orpington is a hearty British chicken breed purposely created for meat and egg production.
Soon after its development, however, it became exclusively kept as an ornamental show bird due to its curvy shape with short back and beautiful feather features. Herman Kuhn later developed bantam varieties of this bird which come in various colors. These little birds are known to be friendly towards humans; they are so domesticated now that it is rare for them to attempt to fly anymore.
Hens will provide you with 250 medium to large eggs per year. Roosters weigh around eight pounds, while hens are closer to seven pounds.
Known for their calm nature, they often enjoy being around people and find almost as much companionship with humans as they do with their fellow flockmates.
If you live in an urban or suburban setting, you’ll love how quiet and lowkey these birds are, especially the hens. Your neighbors will likely never know you have chickens unless you tell them.
6. Buff-Laced Polish Chicken
Buff Laced Polish Chickens are not a solid yellow or gold color, but they do have their fair share of gorgeous yellow lacing throughout their bodies, especially on the breast, neck, wings, and back.
Buff Laced Polish chickens are a unique, beautiful breed from Europe.
Believed to have originated in Germany and the Netherlands, their name hints at a piece of history–the crest on these majestic birds bears an unforgettable resemblance to the headgear once worn by Poland’s Army (they did not originate in Poland).
If you’re wondering if this big crest obstructs their vision at all, it does!
They can’t see very well, and because of this, they are both easily startled and easily snatched up by predators.
Their golden buff and creamy white feathers, along with their dainty slate-colored shanks and toes, are a unique sight. Hens weigh four and a half pounds; roosters weigh six pounds.
Hens will lay around 200 small white eggs per year, and there’s a decent chance that one of the hens will have a tendency to act broody.
7. Buff Rock Chicken
Buff Rock chickens are such a classic golden yellow color and a true beauty to add to your barnyard. Their legs, beaks, and feathers are a uniform yellow shade, while their waddles and single combs are a bright, vibrant pop of red.
These heavy fellows weigh between six to ten pounds at full maturity, making them good sources of backyard protein. Most hens will give you about two hundred eggs a year too, so they’re perfect for farms and homesteads that want a low-maintenance, dual-purpose breed.
They can tolerate hot and cold weather relatively well but do tend to fare better in extreme heat rather than extreme cold because their legs are exposed, and their combs are medium to large single combs.
8. Buff Silkie Chicken
Buff Silkie Chickens are so precious and unique.
With its five toes, naked neck crossbreed nature, and beautiful black and white or golden buff coatings, it’s no wonder why this gentle bird has stolen so many hearts! As a member of the bantam family, they only weigh only one to three pounds. Buff Bantam Silkies weigh one pound (this applies to both roosters and hens).
They don’t lay many eggs, but these birds are very loving mothers who take good care of their own chicks and are usually willing to adopt other chicks as well. Silkies have low hatch rates too, which is why these are a bit rarer of chicken breeds to find. On the bright side, they can live to be nine or ten years old, so long as they are kept safe from predators. They are also really docile, friendly with humans, and generally happy to hang out with gentle children who love them.
If you’re looking for a buff addition to your flock that will entertain and delight your children, then the Buff Silkie is perfect for your family.
9. Buff-Laced Wyandotte Chicken
Buff-Laced Wyandottes are one of the least common types of Wyandottes, but wow, are they lookers. I’ve never found a Wyandotte I didn’t like, but these may be my favorite color variation ever.
This Wyandotte has glossy, ornate feathers and deep red wattles. They have classic round body shapes and a dazzling array of distinctly laced feathers.
With bright yellow legs and feet and vibrant deep red wattles atop their heart-shaped combs designed to guard against frostbite, these birds give off a sense of regal nobility.
Males typically reach around eight and a half pounds, while females can weigh up to six lbs.
Smaller bantam varieties exist, though difficult to find, and they max out at three and three-quarters of a pound. That’s small for a Wyandotte but pretty darn heavy for a bantam!
Like other Wyandotte varieties, Buff-Laced Wyandottes have big personalities.
They are gentle to humans, but like to be near the top of the pecking order in their flock.
They prefer to free-range, and will make a moderate amount of noise amongst each other while out enjoying their days foraging, taking dust baths, and sunning themselves in warm grassy areas.
Hens will give you around 200 white to creamy brown eggs a year. They usually don’t go broody, but you may find an exceptional hen here or there who wants to sit on a clutch of eggs.
10. Hungarian Yellow Chicken
The Hungarian Yellows are a chicken breed prized by connoisseurs of the avian set.
With a pure and untainted lineage going back over 300 years, these remarkable golden fowls can rarely be found outside their home country but can boast one known breeding flock in the United States.
These rare birds are incredibly difficult to source, rare, and expensive. You can expect to pay $99 per Hungarian Yellow chick.
Roaming through the foliage in search of treats to forage upon is an activity they’ve long been renowned for; this was certifiably commended recently during State inspection due to their stunning yellow hues!
For decades, the Hungarian Yellow bird was preserved, and its genetics advanced thanks largely to Dr. Roy D. Crawford – a renowned professor of poultry science from The University of Saskatchewan.
Without him, this rare species could have easily gone extinct with time; instead, he helped ensure it continues surviving for generations more yet come.
This is the same professor who discovered a mutated gene that caused epileptic seizures in chickens, thus guiding further research into understanding similar issues suffered by humans today.
Hens weigh just under five pounds, while roosters weigh five and a half to six pounds. Hungarian Yellow Hens lay around 200 eggs a year, and these eggs are medium-sized and cream-colored.
When Dr. Crawford attempted to revive this breed in the 1980s, he sent 720 eggs off for incubation, and only 30 hatched. Because of their low hatch success rates, they are a difficult breed to revive, but they are slowly making a comeback.
11. Lemon Pyle Brahma Chicken
When you first lay eyes on a Lemon Pyle Chicken, you’ll think you’ve seen your first avian giant. Though they are massive and heavy birds, their feathers are also deceiving.
They have such dense, fluffy feathers that they look twice their true size. They even have thickly covered feathered feet, which just adds to their overall perceived size.
Lemon Pyle Brahma hens weigh ten pounds, while the roosters are closer to twelve pounds.
In case you were wondering, yes, the mama hens are much more likely to accidentally break eggs if they step on them in the nesting box.
One nice perk about these hens though, is that they lay in the coldest part of the winter without issue. The heat bothers them much more in the cold, so they are far more likely to lie in the winter and then take a long pause in the heat of summer. You can expect to get around 180 to 200 tinted large to extra-large-sized eggs each year.
Don’t let their size intimidate you, though, these chickens are gentle and kind to other chickens, as well as small children. If you want a docile pet that will be nearly the same size as your toddler, then the Lemon Pyle Brahma chicken is perfect for you.
12. Golden Comet Chicken
Golden Comets are the perfect blend of two chicken breeds, usually the combination of the Rhode Island Red’s pleasant personality with White Leghorn’s early laying prowess.
Still, there are actually several combinations used to make the Golden Comet: A Golden Comet is created one of several ways:
- Rhode Island Red Rooster with a Rhode Island White Hen (most common combination)
- New Hampshire Red Rooster with a White Rock Hen
- New Hampshire Red Rooster with a Rhode Island White Hen
- Rhode Island Red Rooster with a White Rock Hen
- Cherry Egger Rooster with a Rhode Island White Hen
- Cherry Egger Rooster with a White Rock Hen
- Rhode Island Red Rooster with a White Leghorn Hen (least common combination)
You may have heard of this hybrid under the names of Red Stars, Golden Buffs, Gold Sex Link, Cinnamon Queens, or Golden Comets.
The appeal of the Golden Comet is that they lay more eggs than any other breed. You can expect to see 330 large light brown eggs per hen per year. That is an astonishing number if you weren’t aware!
Rhode Island Reds and New Hampshire Reds are considered “superstars” of egg production, but even they top out at 300 eggs a year.
If you’re looking for a beautiful yellow bird that produces the absolute most eggs, then the Golden Comet will be your all-time favorite hybrid chicken.
13. Black-Tailed Buff Japanese Chicken
This incredibly unique breed of chicken has been part of Japanese history for over three centuries.
With their distinctive all-yellow (Buff) body, high black tail, short legs, and downward-pointing wings, these birds have a truly majestic appearance that makes them ideal showpieces.
Their body feathers also have a fun “frizzle” effect, where the feathers point outwards, upwards, and even curl a bit at the tips.
They are too small to be good on the dinner table, they only weigh one and a half to one and three-quarters of a pound at full maturity. Instead, they are ideal pets and show birds who produce a considerable 200 small white eggs every year.
It’s worth noting though, that some breeders say they only see closer to 60 eggs per bird per year.
Their gentle nature adds further appeal, though, making them good companions and beautiful additions to your coop.
You can expect these cute little feathery friends to live to be up to thirteen years old too! They can quite literally grow up with your children if you’d like.
The major downside to the Black-tailed Buff Japanese Chicken is that they suffer from a lethal gene combination that renders 25% of their eggs to be unviable.
Yellow Chicken Breeds: Final Thoughts
These thirteen yellow chicken breeds, most called Buffs, have such a fantastic range of skills and strengths, it could be tempting to have an all-blonde flock of these gorgeous backyard buddies.
Which are your favorites? And did we miss any? We would love to hear from you!
Some of your photos are not correct. The Buff Cochin photo is wrong and a couple of others