Plymouth Rock chicken: size, eggs and care guide

The Plymouth Rock is a standard-size breed laying about 200 to 280 brown eggs a year, with hens around 7.5 lb and roosters around 9.5 lb. The barred pattern is sex-linked in a useful way. In many crosses, barred hens produce chicks whose sex can be read at hatch from a head spot, which is why the breed shows up constantly in sex-link breeding programmes.

How big is a Plymouth Rock?

A mature Plymouth Rock hen weighs about 7.5 lb and a rooster about 9.5 lb, with a typical standing height of 16 to 18 inches. That puts it in the standard class, which is what drives its feed requirement of roughly 0.25 lb per bird per day before waste, free-ranging or seasonal adjustments.

Plymouth Rock egg production

Egg output is solid rather than record-breaking: about 200 to 280 large brown eggs a year, which is roughly 3.8 to 5.4 a week. That is enough to keep a household supplied without the bird being bred purely as a laying machine. Expect a pause through the moult and a dip across midwinter. To turn that into a monthly total and a dollar value at your local egg price, run it through the egg production calculator.

Temperament and noise

Placid, unbothered, and hard to rattle. It neither bullies nor gets bullied much, which makes it one of the easiest breeds to slot into an existing mixed flock. Hens tolerate handling well without actively seeking it. Noise level is rated moderate, which matters if you keep chickens close to neighbours.

Origin and history

First shown in Boston in 1849, then re-established and standardised in the 1860s. Through the first half of the twentieth century the barred variety was the most widely kept chicken in America, and it fed a great many households through the Depression and both world wars.

Cold and heat tolerance

Cold tolerance is excellent and heat tolerance good. The upright single comb is the part most at risk in hard freezes, so ventilation that removes moisture without creating a draft matters.

Does the Plymouth Rock go broody?

Occasionally. That means fewer interruptions to laying, though you will need an incubator or a broody hen of another breed if you want to hatch chicks.

Care specifics for this breed

Genuinely low-maintenance. The one thing worth watching is weight, because a Plymouth Rock will happily eat every treat offered and can tip into overweight, which suppresses laying. Keep scratch and kitchen scraps under about a tenth of the diet.

Feed cost for a flock of Plymouth Rock

Feed cost sits in the normal range for a standard laying breed: about 0.25 lb per bird per day, so six Plymouth Rock birds come to roughly $21.19 a month at $22 per 50 lb bag. Free-ranging typically trims around 15% off that and winter adds about 10%. The feed cost calculator gives the exact figure for your flock size and local feed price, including bags needed and how long each lasts.

Is the Plymouth Rock right for you?

It suits first-time keepers, cold climates, and mixed flocks that need a peacekeeper. It is a weaker choice for anyone wanting an unusual-looking bird, since it is about as classic as chickens get. If you are still deciding, compare it against the other options in our guide to the best egg-laying breeds for beginners, or work out how many birds you need with the flock size calculator.