If you love black-and-white chickens, you’re not alone. When choosing chickens for their farm or for personal use, many people specifically seek out the ones that are black-and-white in color.

To be sure, black-and-white chickens have a unique look, but they can also be a little different when it comes to their personality, size, and even their actual color patterns.

Before you decide for sure which black-and-white chickens to buy, below is some information you should learn first.

Black-and-White Chicken Breeds: What Are They?

Black-and-white chickens have a certain attractiveness to them, but they can each have different patterns and combinations on their bodies.

Let’s take a look at a handful of the most-common and popular chickens of this color.

1. The Black-Laced Silver Wyandotte Chicken

This sturdy chicken can weigh more than 8 pounds when fully grown, and they have lots of small feathers that are white or silver in color, but each of the feathers is trimmed in black.

They also have a cute black tail and tend to lay 180 to 260 eggs every single year. They also have a very friendly personality and likely won’t shy away from you when you’re near.

2. The Columbian Wyandotte Chicken

This chicken has a body that is mostly white but with neck plumage that is black-and-white, just like its tail and the end of its wings.

It is a cross between a Barred Rock chicken and the White Wyandotte chicken, and it grows to between 6.5 and 8.5 pounds. Their loose feathers make them look larger than they are, and they can produce 200-250 brown eggs every year.

3. The Dark Brahma Chicken

This is one of the oldest chickens in the world and can get up to a hefty 12 pounds when grown. They lay around 150 eggs every year but also make a great chicken for eating. They are nicknamed the “King of Chickens” and have sweet dispositions.

Finally, the Dark Brahma chicken has a very thick coat of feathers and therefore can withstand cold weather very well.

4. The Light Sussex Chicken

The Light Sussex chicken is mostly white but has black feathers at the head and tail areas. They are not only delicious to eat but can also lay up to around 280 eggs per year.

It is a hardy bird with a great disposition, so there are numerous advantages to keeping this type of bird in your yard.

5. The Silver-Laced Polish Chicken

Complete with a headdress of black-and-white feathers, this chicken is funny-looking but can lay up to 200 eggs every year.

The top of their heads are so filled with feathers that you can hardly see their eyes, and the body has tons of silver-white feathers trimmed in black. They are popular show chickens but are not good for having on your table during the holidays.

6. The Barred Plymouth Rock Chicken

The barred pattern is a striped pattern, and the Plymouth Rock chicken has straight stripes instead of V-shaped stripes like some other types of chickens.

They are large chickens and therefore make good table birds, and they can lay a whopping 280 eggs per year. They also weigh between 7.5 and 9.5 pounds when they’re fully grown.

7. The Black Sex Link Chicken

With a mature weight of 6-9 pounds, this chicken looks different depending on the sex of the bird, with males having a black-and-white barred pattern and females having black bodies with brown necks.

They can lay up to 300 eggs every year, and the eggs tend to be large and light-brown in color. They are not, however, kept to eat because they are not good table birds.

8. The Cuckoo Marans Chicken

Originating in Marans, France, this chicken looks a lot like the Barred Rock chicken and can lay up to 200 eggs every year.

These are usually very large eggs, and they are also very large birds because they weigh 7-9 pounds when fully grown.

Some people also keep the birds as table birds and even as show birds, so they offer numerous advantages to the owner.

Which Bird Is Best?

When considering which type of chickens to get, consider that most of them are used for one or more of three purposes: as a show bird, for meat production, or for the eggs they can lay.

Their feather patterns vary, but so does their ability to lay eggs and to produce the perfect chicken for your table. Once you decide on the purpose for buying your chicken, it gets easier to decide which one to get.

Black-and-white chickens can have patterns that are barred, mottled, laced, Columbian, spangled, and penciled, but it is the intended use of the bird that will help you most when it comes to choosing the right one.

In other words, once you decide what you’re going to do with the bird, it’s much easier to decide which one to purchase.

Conclusion

Black-and-white chickens can be used for meat production, to lay eggs, or as show birds – or all three. This doesn’t mean, however, that all chickens are good at all three of these tasks.

The best thing to do is decide first what you plan to do with the chicken, and the rest becomes much simpler. The patterns on their bodies vary quite a bit, but they are all attractive birds that catch your attention.

Most black-and-white chickens are also prolific egg-layers, so if you love eggs, they are the ones to choose.