Considering Jersey Giant chickens? The 18 things you must know first
Jersey Giant chickens, the largest of all the chickens, are one of those rare breeds that really shouldn’t be rare. These are very sweet and versatile birds, suiting backyard, homestead, and barnyard needs.
Jersey Giants are friendly, docile birds that get along well with humans and other chickens alike. They do well both on the range and in large backyard runs. And they lay a good deal of eggs and provide a decent amount of meat. They can forage for a lot of their food, but they’re also good for snuggles.
However, Jersey Giants, like all breeds, do have their drawbacks and they aren’t for everybody. In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know to decide if these birds are right for you and your flock, including:
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Have Jersey Giant chickens?
Jersey Giant chicken facts
Category: Pet, eggs, & meat
Origin: United States
Egg-laying ability: Good
Meat production: Good
Broodiness: Moderate-high
Cold tolerance: Poor-exceptional (depends on comb and wattle size)
Heat tolerance: Poor-moderate
Predator evasion: Good-exceptional
Foraging ability: Moderate
Toleration for confinement: Low-moderate
Temperament: Docile
Aggression toward flock members: Low
Noise level: Moderate-high
The Top 10 reasons to get Jersey Giant chickens
Reason #1: You want a big chicken!
Jersey Giants are, on average, the largest chicken breed. Yes, even larger than the mighty Asiatic giants—Brahmas, Cochins, and Langshans.
A standard Jersey Giant rooster weighs ~13 pounds and a hen weighs ~10 pounds. Think about that for a minute. Your Jersey Giant hens will weigh more than most of your roosters from other breeds!
Jersey Giants are also very tall with roosters reaching ~2 feet in height and hens reaching 1.5 feet. They aren’t, however, the tallest chicken breed—that honor goes to the rare and beautiful Malay.
Why the heck are Jersey Giants so large? They were purposely developed this way in the late 1800s by their creators, John and Thomas Black. As Frances Bassom says in her book,
“The idea was to provide a breed of poultry larger and heavier than had previously existed and able to replace the turkey as a table fowl.”
Although the Jersey Giant certainly hasn’t replaced the turkey in most of our Thanksgiving dinners, the Black brothers did reach their goal. Check out the YouTube video below, titled, “HUGE Jersey Giant rooster bigger than turkey!”
The video description reads, “This is Jack the giant rooster next to a fully grown female turkey called gobbles 👍 biggest rooster ever.”
Reason #2: You want a beautiful chicken.
Jersey Giants are gorgeous. They come in a few different varieties, although not all are recognized by the American Poultry Association. And they also come in bantam (i.e., miniature) forms.
The best-known varieties of Jersey Giant are Black, White, and Blue. The birds also come in a Splash variety, and some breeders are allegedly working on Barred and Silver varieties.
Black Jersey Giants are the most common variety. Their black plumage has a stunning iridescent green sheen that is breathtaking when it glimmers in the sun’s rays.
Below, you can see a video of gorgeous Black Jersey Giants.
The video below shows the White Jersey Giant variety.
And here, you can see Blue Jersey Giants—fast forward to about 15 seconds in to get a good view of the adults.
Reason #3: And you want adorable chicks.
Of course, Jersey Giant chicks are cute (aren’t all chicks?). Below, you can see a video of Black Jersey Giant chicks.
And here, you can see a video of White Jersey Giant chicks. Notice how the chicks are a smoky gray color. Hard to believe these babies will turn into giant white birds, but it’s true!
Reason #4: You want a chicken to provide eggs for you.
Jersey Giant hens aren’t prolific layers, but they do tend to provide a decent number of brown eggs.
Egg color: Brown
Egg size: Large-extra large
Age of lay: Varies
Eggs/week: 3
Eggs/year: 150
The age that Jersey Giants start laying varies greatly. Some have reported their Jersey Giants are very late to lay at 8-10 months, or even as long as a year. Others have said their Giants laid at about 5 months.
Also, some hatchery strains of Jersey Giants are much better layers than the norm. They lay early (about 5 months), and may lay 4 eggs a week or more (200+ eggs a year).
Jersey Giants do tend to continue to lay during the winter months as well.
Check out the video below of a young Blue Jersey Giant hen laying an egg. This egg has no shell. The man in the video said this is only her second egg. That likely explains why her egg has no shell, and why she’s laying out in the open grass rather than inside a nesting box—she’s just learning!
Want to see what a jersey giant egg typically looks like? Check out the video below—fast forward to 2.5 minutes to see the egg.
Reason #5: You want a chicken you can use to feed your family.
Jersey Giants take a very long time to reach their marketable weight of 8-11 lbs, but if you have the patience, they do produce excellent meat. Many homesteaders use them as roasting birds.
Reason #6: You want a chicken who will sit on her eggs and hatch her chicks (i.e, go broody).
Jersey Giants do tend to go broody, and they make excellent mothers. Some hatchery strains, however, don’t tend to go broody. So, if broodiness (or lack thereof) is important to you, make sure you check with your breeder or hatchery before purchase.
Below, you can see a video of a broody Jersey Giant hen sitting on her eggs.
Reason #7: You want a chicken who free ranges well.
Jersey Giants are fairly hardy birds who love to free range. They love to forage. However, as a large breed, they will still require plenty of feed.
Jersey Giants also tend to fare well against predators, in comparison to most other breeds—or at least the Black variety does. White chickens, no matter what the breed, tend to stick out.
But Jersey Giants are large birds, and some will fight a potential aggressor. One Jersey Giant keeper said of her roosters, “The two pinned a hawk down and had killed it before I could shoo them away.”
Below, you can see an example of a Jersey Giant standing up for herself. The video shows a Blue Heeler dog trying to herd a Blue Jersey Giant hen, but the hen is not having it.
The video’s caption explains the situation: “Daisy our Blue Heeler dog is determined that it is bedtime for the Blue Jersey Giant hen. It is Daisy's job to get the chickens up every evening.”
Jersey Giant chickens seem to have lower levels of fear than many other breeds (which can be good or bad). You can see an example of this low level of fear in the video below. A Jersey Giant hen is determined to take a dust bath in her chosen spot, despite being approached and stared down by an attentive dog. Notice the other hen (not a Jersey Giant) immediately ran away when the dog approached.
And in this video, you can see a Black Jersey Giant hen playing with a snake she’s killed—no fear.
Many Jersey Giant keepers have said that their chickens fare very well against hawks and birds of prey. But they still may fall prey to other animals. As one keeper said of her flock, “They were large enough that hawks left them alone, but, unfortunately, we had to stay one jump ahead of the foxes…”
Reason #8: You want your chicken to be a sweetheart.
Jersey Giants are very calm and docile chickens. The video below illustrates their demeanor perfectly. The video is titled, “Young Jersey hen with a Jersey attitude.” You can see that this chicken, named Venus, is so calm, she doesn’t even flinch with 2 giant German shepherds playing next to her. She actually even seems interested in what they’re doing.
Jersey giants can also be incredibly sweet and friendly to their keepers, and many of them love to cuddle.
One Jersey Giant keeper said her hen “is very attached, especially to me, and likes to hop up on the arm of any chair I’m in and just chats away. She likes to be petted.”
Another said of hers, “She enjoyed being held and never pecked anybody. She would place herself between two other squawking chickens as the peacemaker.”
Because of their docile nature, Jersey Giants can make really great pets for children. Below, you can see a child petting a Black Jersey Giant adolescent chick.
However, you will need to be careful keeping Jersey Giants around especially young children, simply because of their large size.
Even Jersey Giant roosters tend to be sweethearts. Of course, you can always end up with an aggressive rooster in any breed, but this breed’s tendency is toward docility and friendliness.
Reason #9: You want a chicken who’s very friendly to others in a mixed-breed flock.
Jersey Giants tend to get along very well with both each other and other breeds of chickens.
Some Jersey Giants may even be tolerant of other roosters.
However, check out the video below. You can see a Jersey Giant rooster sparring with a little Silkie rooster. You wouldn’t think this was a fair fight, but that little Silkie’s not backing down!
Reason #10: You want to preserve a rare breed (or show it off!)
The Livestock Conservancy has given Jersey Giants a conservation status of “Watch.” Sadly, this breed is low in numbers today.
The 8 reasons Jersey Giants aren’t for you
Reason #1: You have a small backyard.
Although Jersey Giants may be able to tolerate a small run, they certainly don’t thrive in those conditions. These are large birds who love to explore and forage, and, therefore, are best kept in a large backyard or free-range setup.
Reason #2: Your coop’s too small.
Because Jersey Giants are so much larger than average chickens, you will either need to build your coop a little differently, or modify your existing coop to accommodate the following:
Jersey Giants will need more space on their roosting bars.
They need lower roosting bars because they cannot fly and can injure their legs jumping down from high places.
They need larger pop hole doors.
They need larger nesting boxes.
They need more space in their coop.
Below, you can see a video of a Jersey Giant whose pop door is almost too small for her to use.
Reason #3: You want a prolific egg layer.
Jersey Giants can only be expected to lay about 3 eggs per week—not bad, but not prolific.
Reason #4: You don’t want a hen who goes broody (i.e., likes to hatch her eggs and raise chicks).
Many backyard chicken keepers aren’t prepared for broody hens (don’t be one of them!). If you don’t want your hens to hatch and raise chicks, Jersey Giants may not be for you.
Of course, you can still keep broody hens in a backyard setting, even if you don’t want chicks. However, you will need to put in a lot of extra work to break your hens’ broodiness, so just be aware of that in your decision.
And if you do decide to get broody breeds, you will need to stay vigilant. You don’t want to allow your hens to stay broody without eggs to hatch—this is not healthy for them.
Reason #5: You want a fast-growing meat bird.
Although Jersey Giants can provide a lot of meat for you and your family, they are very slow growing. They can take 8 to 9 months to reach a harvestable weight.
Check out the videos in the slideshow below to see the Jersey Giant breed’s rate of growth. The videos show Jersey Giants at 2 weeks, 1 month, 2.5 months, 4.5 months, and 9 months, respectively.
You will also have to feed your Jersey Giants plenty of food to get them to a harvestable weight. They have a poor feed-to-meat conversion. These guys really like to eat.
In the video below, you can see a video of Jersey Giants happily eating.
Reason #6: You don’t want to provide a heat source in your coop in the winter.
Jersey Giant birds are very hardy and can handle winter temperatures better than many breeds. Below, you can see a flock of Black Jersey Giants out in the snow in Georgia.
However, there is one major downside to keeping Jersey Giants in the cold winter months: their large single combs.
Chickens with large single combs are prone to frostbite, an incredibly painful condition. Jersey Giants, particularly roosters, are very susceptible.
You can combat comb frostbite by installing Sweeter Heaters over your roosting bars. These very safe radiant heaters don’t heat the whole coop, but they do prevent your chickens’ combs from freezing (and they keep them much more comfortable on those freezing winter nights).
You can find small Sweeter Heaters here on Amazon, medium Sweeter Heaters here, and large Sweeter Heaters here. I use them in all my coops and can’t recommend them highly enough. They are life-savers!
However, if you are not willing or able to put a Sweeter Heater in your coop, consider getting a different breed with a comb more suitable to the cold. For example, you may want to look into Brahmas, Chanteclers, or Buckeyes.
And you also want to make sure you aren’t providing bowl-type waterers to your Jersey Giant roosters during the winter. Roosters’ wattles can get wet in these types of waterers and then they freeze. I had this happen to one of my roosters my first year raising chickens—he was in incredible pain and I had to move him into the house for several months until he healed. Don’t make my mistake!
Below, you can see what I mean. At 1 minute and 30 seconds into the video, you’ll see the Jersey Giant rooster drinking from a bowl and his wattles are getting soaked. In the winter, these wattles will freeze and get frostbite, no question.
To prevent this, consider using a poultry nipple waterer.
Reason #6: You want a breed that thrives in the heat.
Because Jersey Giants are a large and fluffy breed, they don’t thrive in the heat. If you have hot summers, you may need to take some extra precautions to keep them cool.
Reason #7: You don’t want a noisy bird.
All chickens are noisy to some extent, but Jersey Giants are known to be a bit more vocal than average.
If you live close to neighbors, this may be a problem for you. One chicken keeper commented about this, “If we lived in a less populated area, perhaps I would give them a five star rating, but due to their tendency to squawk and complain very loudly, I have to rate them lower overall.”
If you don’t have close neighbors, you may really enjoy your Jersey Giant’s noises. One chicken keeper said of her flock, “…the vocalizations they make… are often very un-chicken-like. They chortle, and warble, and coo like doves.”
Another keeper said of her hen, “She makes lots of noise, which some people might view as a negative, but it makes my whole family laugh…”
Below you can see a video of a young Blue Jersey Giant rooster, named Goose, making cute little noises. The caption reads, “Goose, demonstrating why he got his name.”
And below, you can here a Jersey Giant’s high-pitched crow.
Conversely, here’s a Jersey Giant with a lower-pitched crow at about 14 seconds in.
Breeds you may want instead of Jersey Giants
You may want to consider other docile heavy breeds, such as the giant Asiatic breeds—Brahmas, Cochins, and Langshans. For more information on these, check out my articles:
A couple of other breeds that are similar to Jersey Giants in a lot of ways are Buff Orpingtons and Australorps. These chickens are better layers than Jersey Giants (particularly Australorps). You can learn more in these articles:
When you order Jersey Giant chickens…
As a word of caution, many chicken keepers have noted that their Jersey Giants aren’t even close to as big as the standard. These keepers say their Giants look just like regular-sized black chickens. If the Jersey Giant’s size is important to you, make sure you check with your hatchery or breeder before ordering.
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Jersey Giant sources
Bassom, Frances. Mini Encyclopedia: Chicken Breeds and Care. Dorking: Interpet Publishing, 2011.
Damerow, Gail. Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens. North Adams: Storey Publishing, 2017.
Damerow, Gail. The Chicken Health Handbook. North Adams: Storey Publishing, 2015.
Ekarius, Carol. Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds. North Adams: Storey Publishing, 2007.
Verhoef, Esther and Rijs, Aad. The Complete Encyclopedia of Chickens. Lisse: Rebo Publishers, 2005.