2014 Meat Birds at Two Weeks Old

To be more precise, our birds are two and a half weeks old.  I've been a little busy and was unable to take the two week old pictures.  Here is Benjamin holding a Cornish Cross Meat Bird at 2 1/2 weeks of age. The one he holds for the pictures has a distinctive black coloration above his left eye so he's easy to pick out for the growth pictures.

Our goal with the weekly pictures is to give you a visual of just how fast these birds grow.  In just 8 short weeks they'll be ready to butcher.  In the last installment of this weekly series, I'll accumulate all the weekly pictures in one posting.  I'm also going to weigh the birds each week.  This will document their growth for future years' chicken comparisons.

A Boy and a Bird

They are noticeably bigger than last week, heavier and with bigger feet.  They used to be real cute and made "peep, peep" noises.  Now they are adding feathers and generate a lot of heat.  They also make all sorts of weird noises.  Their eating has increased, too, and they drink lots of water.

Getting bigger

This little guy used to fit in Benjamin's hand.  Now it takes two hands to hold him.

A real handful

So, this year I decided to weigh the birds and chart their growth over their 8 week lifespan.  It will be interesting to document their protein to meat conversion.  I got a bucket (which the bird promptly pooped in) and zeroed out our kitchen scale to remove the weight of the bucket.

A bucket of chicken!

And the results were about what I anticipated, but still amazing.

Chicken by the Pound

Let me zoom in for you.  Our bird was just a hair shy of weighing a pound!  In just 18 days he weighs almost a pound.  A pound = 16 ounces, so he is gaining almost an ounce a day.  Let's think about that.  If they are ready to butcher at 8 weeks of age, 8 weeks = 56 days.  If his rate of growth continues at 1 ounce a day, he'll weigh 56 ounces, or 3 1/2 pounds when he's ready.

About 15 ounces - Almost a pound!

In actuality, his weight gain should even pick up more.  He'll weigh more than that when he's butchered. From past record keeping, we discovered (on average) that a 6 pound bird will yield a 4 1/3 pound clean carcass.  And really, that's what we're shooting for.  Their weight gain depends a lot on environmental stresses (and human mistakes).  If the birds are too cold, they'll burn calories trying to stay warm instead of growing.  Likewise, if their food runs out, they won't grow.  In any event, we'll delay processing them for a week or so if an extra week of growth will give us what we're looking for in a carcass.

Oh, one more thing.  After our last posting on this topic and once we've processed the birds, we'll post a "By the Numbers" post where we detail total pounds of feed consumed, total cost per bird and cost per pound. All good information to know when trying to raise these birds profitably for your customers OR for your family.  Which reminds me - I've got to run.  Tricia just made Coconut Curry Chicken with one of our meat birds from last year and it smells delicious!!