Meat chickens at 4 weeks old

Here is the latest post that shows the evolution of our meat birds from Beauty to Beast in 8 weeks.  The Cornish Cross meat birds were four weeks old on Tuesday.  There is a little surprise at the end of the post today.

One day old baby Cornish Cross Chick

 Growing...

One week old chick sporting new white wing feathers

 And growing...

Two week old chick in that uncomfortable adolescent stage

 And still growing...

Three week old chick putting on weight

And here we are at four weeks.  Not a chick any more.  This is now a chicken.  He's heavy, healthy and he's generating heat when you hold him.  You can just feel the muscle in this guy.  Amazingly, he's halfway developed at four weeks.  At only 8 weeks old, they are mature and ready for slaughter.


Four week old Cornish Cross chicken

Below you'll see a comparison between a four week old Cornish Cross and a two day old Cornish Cross.  Wait... What?  Yeah, our second batch of broilers came in.

Comparing a 4 week old bird with a 2 day old bird

We have 118 more chicks that came in yesterday.  Since we moved the 4 week old birds out to the tractor in the pasture, that freed up the brooder they were previously in.  I put 59 baby chicks in that one.

59 birds in the Popeye's brooder

Then, I pulled the old brooder from last year out of the weeds in the garden and did some quick repair work on it just in time to accommodate 59 more chicks. 

59 birds in the KFC brooder

So we should have 47 birds ready to butcher in four weeks and (hopefully) 118 ready to butcher in 8 weeks.  What do we do with all that chicken?  Well, we eat a lot of them and stock our freezer full to last a year.  Then we'll sell the rest to friends and customers.  Pastured poultry don't have antibiotics in them and they are raised in a humane way.  They are on grass and not sitting in their poop all day, so they are healthier.  As a result they are healthier for you to eat and they taste better, too!