How Much Do Chickens Weigh? Weight Chart by Breed

​Are you wondering how much do chickens weigh while you research keeping your own flock? Let’s break it all down now, from meat birds to laying hens.

How Much Do Chickens Weigh?

There are several variables that determine a chicken’s weight. From the type of chicken, it’s age, breed, and diet to overall health, you can keep large or small backyard chickens.

Why Chicken Weight Matters

Why might someone care about a chicken’s weight? 

For starters, larger chickens tend to produce larger eggs. Smaller birds tend to be flightier, free ranging better than their plump cousins. You’ll need to know these details when shopping for chicks online or in person. You can’t always tell which will be the largest chicken breed when they’re just days old. Arm yourself with the information before you shop so that you’ll be able to make an informed decision.

When discussing meat chickens, you obviously want to grow the most bang for your buck. You need to know when a chicken has grown to its optimal weight for your freezer, especially when considering how long that meat will last your family.

Lastly, if you ever need to medicate your birds with antibiotics or antiparasitics, you will need to know their approximate weight. It’s easy to weigh one bird for treatment, but what if your flock of two dozen birds needs to be medicated? Knowing the average based on the breed and age that you have will help you treat an entire flock at once.

Factors That Affect a Chicken’s Weight

Obviously, older birds will weigh more than those that are just a few weeks of age. Did you know that roosters weigh more than hens of the same breed? Meat birds generally weigh more than egg layers, and sickly birds will usually weigh less than healthy birds. 

Different breeds of chickens will carry weight differently also, which makes guessing their actual size a little difficult. Freedom ranger meat birds grow larger legs, but Cornish cross grow more breast meat.

Standard vs. Bantam Chickens

Bantams are miniatures and weigh significantly less. People may choose to keep a specific breed of bantams because they eat less and manure less.

The hens tend to go broody, so if you’re looking for a bird that easily hatches a clutch of eggs on her own, bantams may fit the bill. However, they don’t lay as many eggs, and putting one on the dinner table won’t go very far.

Chicken Weight by Breed: Chart for Laying Hens and Roosters

​These are the most commonly sought after modern-day chickens.

Breed	Hen Weight (lbs)	Rooster Weight (lbs)	Bantam Hen (lbs)	Bantam Rooster (lbs)
Australorp	6.5	8.5	N/A	N/A
Barred Rock	7	9.5	2.5	3
Buff Orpington	7–8	9–10	2.5	3
Leghorn	4.5–5	6	1.5	2
Rhode Island Red	6.5	8.5	2	2.5
Wyandotte	6.5	8.5	2	2.5
Easter Egger	4.5–5.5	5.5–6.5	Varies	Varies
Sussex	6–7	8–9	2	2.5
Cornish Cross (Meat)	8–10+ (market age)	10–12+	Not common	Not common
Jersey Giant	10–11	13–15	Not available	Not available
Silkie (Bantam only)	—	—	1.5–2	2–2.5
Cochin	8	10	2–2.5	2.5–3
Brahma	8–9.5	10–12	2.5	3

Note: Weights are averages and may vary slightly by strain, nutrition, and age.

Meat Breeds vs. Egg Layers

If you’re after fast meat production, then cornish cross broilers are an excellent choice. They are a hybrid chicken, bred out of Cornish and White Plymouth Rock breeds. They will grow to full size in just eight to 10 weeks, when properly fed. 

Since the cornish cross birds are large as a young chicken, the meat remains tender, as opposed to using an old laying hen for meat.

As you can see, some egg layers, like the Jersey Giant or the Brahma, can grow to be as large as the Cornish Cross, but they will take a little longer. This will cost you more feed and time to fill your freezer.

How to Weigh Your Chicken at Home

If you do need an exact weight on one of your chickens, it’s best to use a hanging scale and a bucket. Zero out your scale after placing the bucket on the hanger, then add the chicken in order to get an accurate weight.

​If you don’t see your breed of chicken in our chart, then you can weigh a couple of your smallest and largest birds and use their average. This would be appropriate if you’re looking to add medications to their community water or feed.

Is My Chicken Underweight or Overweight?

​Before you can answer this question, you need to know your breeds. If you’re concerned about a bony leghorn chicken being underweight because she’s shed all of her feathers during the molt, rest assured, that’s just her breed. 

If you’re looking at a bony meat chicken though, there’s obviously a problem. You should begin to search for mites and or signs of worms. Is her skin pink or bleached white?

Perhaps she’s the last chicken in the pecking order, and she’s not getting enough food. You may want to separate her from the flock for a time to ensure she’s fed well.  

These are all ways to correcting the root reason that your chicken may be underweight.

On the flip side, are you overfeeding your birds? Are their breasts thick with added fat? Are your meat chickens just sitting, not scratching?

You may be causing weight gain to happen too fast by overfeeding. This will cause joint problems in your meat birds, but also interstitial fat in your layers. Pull back a little on the grain, and only feed them as much as they can eat in a day.

Conclusion on How Much Do Chickens Weight

From breed, purpose, and diet, we hope that we’ve covered the basics on the average weight of a whole chicken for you. Now that you’re armed with knowledge, you can successfully keep your own backyard flock.

Happy Chicken-Keeping!

Donna and her family have been homesteading for most of their 20+  years together in some shape or fashion. She currently lives on their 20 acre farm where they grow as much food as possible. What started as a just a few laying hens, has grown into large gardens, pastured poultry, pork, and lamb. They are continuously evolving their small farm to not suit their family’s needs, but also providing to their local community. Donna’s favorite part of the family farm is her self-built micro-dairy, where she gets to love on dairy cows while serving her local community. Milking, cheesemaking, and processing dairy have become the soul of their homestead and the center of their farm.