Meat chickens
Keeping chickens for meat is popular with smallholders and crofters, and many people in Scotland keep a couple of chickens in their backyards for personal use. Chickens can be kept alongside other livestock, combined with market gardening, and kept in a variety of spaces.
Updated 7 June 2026
Introduction
Keeping chickens is a form of livestock management and comes with legal responsibilities of caring for their welfare throughout the year — you must check on your chickens every day. Your legal duties as a poultry keeper grow with the size of your flock, especially if you have more than 350 birds, but small producers supplying local customers are exempt from some requirements.
Before purchasing chickens, you must learn how to manage chickens and care for their welfare. As a starting point, you can look at online info hubs such as the Poultry Keeper or the Accidental Smallholder. The Scottish Crofting Federation also sometimes offers courses relevant to poultry.