All breeds of hens will lay eggs, but there can be a big difference between when they start to lay, the size of the eggs and how many you will get.
For instance with the Silkie chicken breed the hen will probably not start laying until around 8 months old (or possibly later) lay around 100 – 150 eggs a year and they will be smaller than the eggs of a breed like Orpingtons or Rhode Island Reds.
One of the reasons that the number of eggs can be so few is because Silkies go broody very easily and so if you would like an interesting looking breed (they are also notable for having black skin and bones) that are a bit smaller than ‘the standards’ and may also hatch you out some chicks then they could be a good breed to go for, but for eggs alone … perhaps not.
There are chicken breeds that have been bred specifically for laying and they are hybrid breeds generally known as sex-links. The parent breeds are usually a combination of Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds, Barred Rocks and Wyandottes amongst others. This results in chicks which can be identified as male or female by the colour of their feathers or perhaps by a white dot on the head. The generic term is red sex-links or black-sex-links but there are many named varieties such as Black Stars, Red Stars, Production Reds, Cinamon Queens and Golden Comets.
Because they are bred to lay they are more prone to egg related health issues in later life and can be ‘burned out’ quicker than the heritage breeds but they do have the potential to bring you around 300 eggs a year (at least for their first year – all hens gradually reduce the number of eggs they lay as they get older).
A breed used in many commercial egg laying facilities is the Leghorn, they produce a white egg and also can bring around 300 eggs a year in their first year. Their temperament is a little bit flighty so are not seen as often in backyard flocks. Another similar breed, the Ancona, used to be used on commercial egg farms around the time of the second world war but have since been overshadowed by the numbers of eggs produced by the hybrid breeds.
