Rhode Island Red vs Buff Orpington: Which Hen Fits Your Flock?

Stuck between a Rhode Island Red and a Buff Orpington? Here’s something the old version of this page never told you. McMurray Hatchery charges the same for a chick of either breed, and Meyer Hatchery’s charts give both hens the same 4 to 6 brown eggs a week. So price won’t settle it for you, and the egg count pretty much won’t either. What will is which kind of Red you buy, how big a hen you want to feed, whether you want a hen that sits on eggs, and how you feel about a rooster that may turn pushy.

I rewrote this page from 19 sources, and you’ll find them all at the bottom. Two are The Livestock Conservancy’s breed pages, one for each bird. Seven come from hatcheries. McMurray and Meyer gave me two each, and Cackle three. Nine are university extension pages, from Arizona to New Hampshire, and the last is the CDC. Where they don’t agree, I give you each one’s number and whose it is.

A word on the photos. Only the first one shows a bird its photographer calls a Buff Orpington. I looked for a free photo of a hen someone had named a Rhode Island Red, and none of them passed my checks for a real camera photo. So the red hens below are just red hens, from a USDA visit to a farm in Oklahoma. The USDA’s captions don’t name a breed, and I won’t either.

The short version.

• Price: the same at McMurray, $7.15 a female chick of either breed when you order one to five (its price list on October 26, 2026).
• Eggs: Meyer gives both 4 to 6 a week. The Red usually starts laying a few weeks sooner.
• Size: an Orpington hen runs about 8 pounds and a production Red hen about 6½. Bigger hens eat more feed.
• Broody hens: a production Red hardly ever sits, and an Orpington often does. That means chicks for some of you and lost eggs for others.
• Temperament: the hens of both breeds are calm. Red roosters can get aggressive, and the gentle Orpington can get bullied.
• Weather: both are rated cold-hardy and both wear a single comb. McMurray rates the Red a step better in heat.

Side by Side: Two Big, Calm Brown-Egg Hens

Both breeds are well over a century old, and both were made to give a farm eggs and meat. The Livestock Conservancy says the Red was developed in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the 1880s and 1890s. The single-comb Red joined the American Poultry Association’s Standard in 1904. Today it’s Rhode Island’s state bird, and McMurray says it’s “the only breed of chicken recognized as a state bird” in the country.

The Orpington is English. A coachman named William Cook bred the first ones in the town of Orpington, in Kent, and showed them to the public in 1886, the Conservancy says. Those first birds were black. The Buff came after, and it was the first Orpington the APA recognized (in 1902). I genuinely love how McMurray tells this part. Years ago at the Hamilton County Fair, a poultry judge was asked to describe the right color for a Buff Orpington. He took out his gold watch and said, “That’s the color for Buff Orpingtons”.

Here’s how McMurray’s own charts line the two up, with the Red first on each line.

• Class: Production for the Red, English for the Orpington.
• Heritage breed: no for the Red, yes for the Orpington.
• Egg production: best, then good.
• Disposition: better, then best.
• Likely to go broody: “not at all likely”, then “extremely likely”.
• Heat tolerance: better, then good. Cold tolerance is excellent for both.
• Legs and skin: yellow on the Red. The Orpington has white skin and pinkish white legs.

See that “no” on the Red’s heritage line? That’s McMurray rating its own Reds. And it’s why you should ask the next question before you order.

First, Ask Which Red You’re Getting

The Rhode Island Red has been two birds for a long time now. Since the 1940s, the Conservancy says, Reds have been bred for more efficient egg production. They came out of it smaller and lighter in color, and less broody too. The ones the Conservancy most wants to keep going are the “old-type” Reds, which are larger and darker and go broody more.

The Reds the hatcheries mostly sell are the first kind. McMurray says its flock is listed as “a production strain”, and Meyer calls its Reds “production” strain, quote marks and all. Cackle has bred what it calls its “heritage production-type strain” since 1936, and that’s the type most of its customers choose. It sells an exhibition type too. But it’s honest about what those show birds give up: “Exhibition lines often show a darker red color, but they may not lay as heavily as production-focused lines”.

So when I compare the two breeds here, it’s the production Red against the hatchery Buff. If you track down an old-type breeder, expect a bird that’s closer to the Orpington in size and broodiness. The Conservancy puts its Red hens at over 6 pounds and its roosters at over 8.

Combs vary on the Red side, too. Illinois Extension says the early Reds wore single and rose combs, “some even having pea combs”. There’s a rose-comb Red as well. The Conservancy says it joined the Standard a year after the single comb, in 1905, and McMurray says 1906.

About the photo above. Those are red hens on Jerri Parker’s farm in Cromwell, Oklahoma, photographed for the USDA. The caption doesn’t say what breed they are, so I’m not guessing.

Eggs: Closer Than the Charts Make Them Look

Here’s every egg number I found, with whose it is. Treat them all as estimates (Cackle prints “estimates only” right next to its own).

Rhode Island Red

• The Livestock Conservancy: 200 to 300 eggs a year, starting as early as six months old.
• McMurray: an average of 238 a year on its chart. Its answer to a reader’s question says 280 to 365.
• Cackle: 200 to 280 a year.
• Meyer: 4 to 6 a week.

Buff Orpington

• Cackle: 150 to 280 a year.
• A 4-H breed sheet from UT Extension in Roane County, Tennessee: about 200 a year.
• Meyer: 4 to 6 a week, the same as its Reds.
• McMurray: no number at all. Asked how many eggs a hen lays in her life, it said there are too many variables.

Two things jump out at me. McMurray gives its Reds two numbers that don’t match, so I’d lean on the 238 from its chart. And the ranges overlap a lot. On paper, the top of the Orpington’s range sits well above the bottom of the Red’s.

Where the Red really pulls ahead is the start. Meyer puts its Reds’ laying age at 16 to 20 weeks and its Orpingtons’ at 20 to 24. McMurray says its Reds begin around 18 to 24 weeks and its Orpingtons at 5 to 7 months. Georgia’s extension sheet says it in fewer words: Reds “mature early”, and Orpingtons mature “moderately early”.

Winter is the Orpington’s turn. McMurray says its heavy feathering makes it an excellent winter layer, “shelling out brown eggs right through cold weather”. That’s a hatchery talking, not a study. Still, no source I read says the same about the Red.

And the egg’s size? Turns out it’s murkier than the charts let on. McMurray and Cackle list both breeds’ eggs as large, and Meyer says large to extra large for both. But Cackle’s Buff page also says “a bigger hen does not always lay a bigger egg”, and that most breed charts call the Buff’s egg medium brown. Georgia’s sheet says “large to medium sized brown eggs” for the Orpington and “large rich medium brown eggs” for the Red.

If eggs are your main reason for keeping hens, our page on Rhode Island Red egg production goes deeper on the Red’s laying year.

Size and Feed: the Orpington Eats More

The weights line up across all three hatcheries. A Red hen is 6.5 pounds and a Red rooster 8.5. An Orpington hen is 8 pounds and her rooster 10, and the Conservancy gives the same 8 and 10. So your Orpington hen carries about a pound and a half more, roughly 23 percent by my arithmetic.

She’ll look even bigger than that. Meyer says people sometimes call them Big Buffs, because their loose feathers make them “appear to be heavier than their true weight”.

Bigger birds eat more. The University of Kentucky’s feed sheet puts it simply: “Typically the larger the chicken the more feed they eat”. Part of every meal just keeps the body running, it explains, and a bigger body costs more to run. None of my sources gives a pound figure for either breed, so I won’t make one up. For amounts by age, from chick starter to layer feed, see our feeding guide for Rhode Island Reds. Its tables come from extension guides written for any laying flock.

Space is the same deal for both, since McMurray calls both birds extra large. Penn State Extension says large breeds should get 2 square feet a bird from 16 weeks on. It lists that under overcrowding, as one cause of pecking, so treat it as the least you’d give them. Our coop size calculator does the math for your flock, and our chicken pen ideas cover the run.

Broody Hens: the Biggest Real Difference

If one trait decides this for you, it’s probably this one. A broody hen wants to hatch eggs. The University of Arizona’s extension says she stops laying and spends nearly all her time in the nest box, getting up only once or twice a day to eat and drink. Left alone, it can last 3 to 6 weeks. She may lose a lot of weight in that time, and in summer she’s at risk of heat stroke.

Rhode Island Red

• McMurray: “not at all likely” to sit.
• Meyer: broody, no. Its Reds “rarely brood, so you’ll have to find someone else to sit”.
• Cackle: variable.
• Georgia: good mothers that brood infrequently.
• The Conservancy: most hens can go broody, except in the strains bred hard for eggs.

Buff Orpington

• McMurray: “extremely likely”, and “excellent setters and mothers”.
• Meyer: “very broody”.
• Cackle: a setter. Its page adds that “broodiness can also pause egg laying”.
• Georgia: “The hens are excellent mothers”.

So it comes down to what you want from your nest boxes. Want chicks someday without buying an incubator? Give a broody Orpington fertile eggs and she can hatch them for you. A production Red likely won’t. But if you want eggs every week, a hen sitting for a month lays none in that time.

If your Orpington goes broody when you don’t want chicks, Arizona suggests “broody jail”. That’s a dog crate or small cage with a wire bottom. She gets food and water in there but no nest to sit in, usually for 3 to 7 days. Cackle’s FAQ gives you the same idea, a separate wire cage in the light for 3 to 5 days.

The hen in this photo isn’t an Orpington, by the way. She’s a buff Saxon, a German breed, and her keeper calls her a Glucke (German for a broody hen). Those are her chicks around her.

Temperament: Calm Hens, Pushy Roosters, a Bullied Buff

The hens are the easy part. The Conservancy rates the Red “Calm”, and Meyer calls it friendly and calm. Cackle’s one-word rating is “Active”. For the Orpington, McMurray writes “quiet disposition” and rates it “best”, a notch above the Red’s “better”. Meyer calls Buffs “friendly and affectionate, making them the perfect breed for children”. And Cackle says many families pick them for backyard flocks and kids’ poultry projects.

The roosters are where they part ways. Four of the five Red pages I read warn you about the males.

• Georgia’s extension sheet: Reds are calm birds, “but the cocks can be aggressive”.
• The Conservancy: “Some roosters may be aggressive at times”.
• Meyer: “Roosters may become aggressive”.
• Cackle: keepers should “manage roosters with care, especially around children or mixed flocks”.

The fifth, McMurray, puts a kinder spin on it and calls its males “great flock protectors”. None of the Orpington pages I read warns about its roosters. If you’re trying to work out which chick will grow into one, our guide to Rhode Island Red hens vs roosters shows you how to tell.

Then there’s the bullying. Georgia says the Orpington is so docile and easy to handle that it’s “easily bullied”. No source I read says Reds are the bullies. But Penn State Extension warns that mixing birds of different ages or sizes or traits can set off pecking, because it shakes up the pecking order. That order decides who eats. When feeder space is short, birds at the bottom “may never be allowed to eat”, it says. Dr. Jacquie Jacob adds (on the extension network’s poultry site) that laying hens can recognize around 30 individual birds, and that chickens usually attack a new bird put into their pen.

So if you keep both breeds in one run, bring them together the way Penn State lays out.

• Quarantine new birds for at least 4 weeks first. UNH Extension says 30 days.
• Split the pen with a wire wall for at least a week, so they can get to know each other.
• Put the new birds on the perch at night.
• Watch every introduction, and step in if birds are getting hurt.
• Give your flock a week or more to sort out its new order.

One more thing if you’re buying for the kids. The CDC says children under 5 shouldn’t handle or touch chicks or other poultry, because young kids are more likely to get sick from germs like Salmonella. Supervise kids around the flock, and everyone washes their hands with soap and water after touching the birds or anything where they live.

That’s Jerri Parker in the photo, with red and buff hens around her, some black ones, and a red rooster at the left.

Cold Winters, Hot Summers

Both breeds handle winter. McMurray rates both excellent in the cold and says the Red is “both cold-hardy and heat-tolerant”. Georgia says Reds “tolerate hot or cold weather” and Orpington hens “can tolerate cold temperatures”. Meyer calls its Buffs cold hardy, too.

Heat is where the big Buff needs a bit more help. McMurray rates the Red “better” in heat and the Orpington “good”. Cackle says the Orpington’s big body and full feathers make shade and moving air especially important in hot weather, along with cool water. It gives the Red much the same advice, so plan shade for either one.

Now the comb. Both breeds wear a single comb like the one on the hen in this photo, and that’s the kind that freezes. Cackle’s Red page says “Single comb birds can still face frostbite risk in severe cold”. Dr. Jacob, writing about frostbite for the University of Kentucky, says it becomes a problem at “single digits and below”. It’s most likely at night in a cold, poorly ventilated coop with damp bedding. Roosters get it most because their combs are bigger, while smaller combs like pea and strawberry get it much less.

Her fix is the coop, not the bird. Keep the bedding dry by topping it up through the winter. If you find condensation on the windows or walls in the morning, add ventilation. For mild freezing, “petroleum jelly helps, but coop management is the real key”. If a comb does freeze, warm it slowly, never with a hair dryer or heat lamp, and don’t rub it or trim the black parts unless they get infected. She also warns that heat lamps are a fire hazard and that coops are lost to fires from them every year.

The black hen above is from the same Oklahoma farm, and nobody named her breed. I picked her for the comb.

So Which One Should You Get?

Here’s how I’d sort it, from everything above.

Pick the Rhode Island Red if

• Eggs are the point. A production Red starts a few weeks sooner and hardly ever stops to sit.
• Your summers run hot. McMurray rates it a step better in heat.
• You’d like a smaller hen that eats a bit less.
• You’re getting hens only, or you’re ready to handle a rooster with care.

Pick the Buff Orpington if

• You want a gentle hen that’s easy to handle, for you or for kids over 5.
• You’d like a hen that’ll hatch chicks for you someday.
• Your hens spend a lot of time in the run. Cackle says Orpingtons often take confinement better than more active breeds, given room and clean bedding and fresh air.
• You want eggs through the winter. McMurray calls them excellent winter layers.

Still torn? Nothing I read says the two can’t share a coop. The Red keeps your egg basket full and the Orpington does the hatching. Just bring them together slowly and keep an eye on the feeder, since the Orpington is the one likely to get pushed around.

And if a Buff Rock is on your list too, our Buff Orpington vs Buff Rock page tells you those two apart by their legs.

The buff hen above is from the same Oklahoma farm as the red ones. Nobody named her breed, so I won’t call her an Orpington.

Sources

• The Livestock Conservancy: Rhode Island Red Chicken.
• The Livestock Conservancy: Orpington Chicken.
• Murray McMurray Hatchery: Rhode Island Reds (quick stats, Q&A, price list).
• Murray McMurray Hatchery: Buff Orpingtons (quick stats, Q&A, price list).
• Meyer Hatchery: Rhode Island Red.
• Meyer Hatchery: Buff Orpington.
• Cackle Hatchery: Rhode Island Reds.
• Cackle Hatchery: Buff Orpington.
• Cackle Hatchery: FAQ (on broody hens).
• University of Georgia Cooperative Extension: Which Breed of Chicken Should I Put in My Backyard Flock? (Backyard Flock Tip, January 2009, PDF).
• UT Extension Roane County: Learn About Your Chick Chain Options (PDF).
• Illinois Extension: History of Breeds.
• Frostbite in Chickens (Dr. Jacquie Jacob, University of Kentucky, on poultry.extension.org).
• Normal Behaviors of Chickens in Small and Backyard Poultry Flocks (Dr. Jacquie Jacob, University of Kentucky, on poultry.extension.org).
• University of Arizona Cooperative Extension: Nine Common Reasons Your Hens Aren’t Laying (Ashley Wright, az2186, January 2026).
• Penn State Extension: Poultry Cannibalism: Prevention and Treatment (Phillip J. Clauer; revised April 2023 by Dr. Megan Lighty and Dr. Kayla Niel).
• UNH Cooperative Extension: Poultry Health and Management for the Small Flock (PDF).
• University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension: How Much Will My Chickens Eat? (Jacquie Jacob and Tony Pescatore, ASC-191, PDF).
• CDC: Backyard Poultry.

Sources checked October 26, 2026. Prices change, so check the hatchery’s page before you order. The 23 percent is my arithmetic. We aren’t vets. If a hen looks sick or a comb turns black, call a vet who sees poultry.

Related read: How to Raise Chickens for Eggs — Instant PDF download. Secure checkout by Stripe