Meat birds: roughly 6–12 weeks. Egg layers: roughly 4–6 months to the first egg. Dual-purpose: split the difference.
And if you’re just doing it for fun and feathers? A year. Maybe more. Chickens are weird like that.
So, grab a coffee, pick a breed, and start that brooder. Because in just a couple of months, you’ll be eating breakfast from your own backyard. And that is worth every single day of waiting.
