Meat Chicken Breeds: 12 Best Meat Chickens for Your Homestead

Here are twelve of the best meat chicken breeds for raising on your homestead. A great list for beginners who are looking to raise broilers. Both cross-bred & heritage breeds are compared here. 

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We are on our second year of raising our own meat birds and the results so far have been amazing! We really love having our own meat chickens. We chose the Cornish Cross and they have been great.

If you need to build a chicken tractor still, check out my chicken tractor designs here.

Read about the 10 best egg laying chickens here.

12 Meat Chicken Breeds

1. Cornish Cross

When discussing meat chicken breeds the Cornish Cross grows fast and large and tastes like the chicken people are used to getting from the store. Their large size and standard table meat is part of what makes them the preferred meat bird. 

Weight: 8-12 lbs

Time until Harvest: 4-12 weeks

Notes About Breed: 

• Fast growers
• Lots of breast meat
• Tastes like store-bought chicken
• Eat lots of food

2. Freedom Rangers

The freedom rangers tend to be the middle route for those who want the larger meat birds but don’t want the giant modern crosses. This being said, they still grow much slower when compared to the Cornish Cross. Here is an interesting article by Reformation Acres where she kept some of these chickens longer and wrote about her experiences. 

Weight: 5-6 lbs

Time until Harvest: 9-11 weeks

Notes About Breed: 

• Excellent fro free-ranging
• Easy to keep
• Smaller birds at harvest
• More feed needed because they take longer (than the Cornish Cross)

Dual Purpose Breeds

3. Jersey Giants

Weight: 10-13 lbs.

Time until Harvest: 16-21 weeks

Notes About Breed: 

• Large birds
• Slower growth (which means more feed until harvest)
• Docile 
• Cold hardy

4. Bresse

Weight: 5-7 lbs.

Time until Harvest: 16-20 weeks

Eggs Per Year: Up to 250 

Notes About Breed: 

• A Docile
• Famous for being really yummy
• Not real meaty

5. Australorp

Weight: 7-8 lbs.

Time until Harvest: 18-24 weeks

Eggs Per Year: 200-280

Notes About Breed: 

• Smaller and slower growth
• Docile, family friendly birds
• Slower growth (which means more feed until harvest)
• Amazing egg layers

6. Orpington

Weight: 8-10 lbs.

Time until Harvest: 18-24 weeks

Eggs Per Year: 200-280

Notes About Breed: 

• Great egg layers
• Docile, family friendly birds
• Slower growth (which means more feed until harvest)

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7. Plymouth Rock

Weight: 6-8 lbs.

Time until Harvest: — 

Eggs Per Year: about 200

Notes About Breed: 

• Cold and heat hardy
• Larger than Rhode Island Reds
• Great layers of large brown eggs
• Docile and great with kids

8. Delaware

Weight: 5-7 lbs.

Time until Harvest: —

Eggs Per Year: 200-280

Notes About Breed: 

• Gentle and kid friendly 
• Great egg layers
• Fast growers (for heritage breeds) 

9. Buckeye

Weight: 6.5-9 lbs.

Time until Harvest: 16-21 weeks

Eggs Per Year: 200

Notes About Breed: 

• Thrive in cold climates
• Good for both eggs and meat 
• Docile

10. Rhode Island Red

Weight: 5-7 lbs.

Time until Harvest: —

Eggs Per Year: 200-280

Notes About Breed: 

• Good free rangers
• Calm and great with kids
• Good for both their eggs and meat

11. Chantecler

Weight: 7-9 lbs.

Time until Harvest: 11-16 weeks

Eggs Per Year: 200

Notes About Breed: 

• Thrive in the cold
• Great foragers
• Good egg layers

12. Egyptian Fayoumi 

Weight: 4-5 lbs.

Time until Harvest: 14-18 weeks

Eggs per Year: 150

Notes About Breed: 

• Wild and not fond of people
• Love the hot weather 
• Disease resistant

Get Your Free Best Meat Chickens Chart!

Have fun picking out your meat chicken breeds, and don't forget to build them a chicken tractor so you can rotate them on pasture! :-) 

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