Greetings form Kansas, thekings5, and
! Great to have you with us!! I'll take a shot at your question. Chickens come in different breeds for different uses. Meat birds - the kind with which you are familiar from the supermarket or KFC....the undisputed heavyweight champion for this is the Cornish Cross - it was engineered and bred to be super fast growing - like 7-8 weeks to butcher. There are other meat birds...Freedom Rangers for instance. Still a fast grower but will never get as large as Cornish X and grows slower.
There are so called dual purpose varieties. With these the males are raised for butchering while the hens are reserved for egg laying. The males grow slower still than even the Freedom rangers and again will never attain the size of the Cornish X. One thing to keep in mind - some people do not like the taste of birds that are not Cornish X - it is just not something they are used to. Personally, I like the taste.
That leads us to hens...as I said, the dual-purpose breed hens (Delawares, Rocks, Marans, Buff Orpingtons, Australorps, Wyandottes, etc., etc.) are average to above average layers. So are the sex-link types (those that can be sexed at hatching) - these can be great layers and adequate meat birds. A heavy layer (but poor meat bird) is the Leghorn...very economical as it eats little but lays great. The males of this breed never develop enough meat on the carcass to be worthwhile to raise for this purpose.
So, I guess it depends on what you are looking for. For what it's worth here is what I do. I have a mixed flock of layers - 11 or 12 different breeds that lay well and lay different colored eggs - just for fun. In the spring I order 25 Cornish X and process them quickly (8 weeks old and they are ready for processing...I go longer, though, as I like them for roasting instead of frying). That way I don't have them around long but still have all my hens to keep me company
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Take a look at the link below - it links to hatcheries and breeders. Go to a hatchery like Murray McMurray or Meyer and read how they describe meat birds and laying hens. Most of all, have fun in your search - that's part of the fun!!!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/16/chicken-breeders-hatcheries
