2014 Meat Birds at 8 Weeks Old

Last night our Cornish Cross Meat birds turned 8 weeks old.  In a normal setting we would have spent today butchering them, but this year's birds are a little different. They just aren't growing at the same pace as in prior years and all I can attribute it to is a colder winter and wet, rotten weather.  I don't know what else to blame.  We started with 101 birds.  Over the eight week period, we've lost a few.  This week during the rainy, cold weather, two of our birds died.  That's part of the territory and we've come to expect some mortality.

We've been following a bird we nicknamed Ol Blackeye, because he has a black spot above his eye.  Each week we retrieve him from the chicken tractor in the pasture and bring him into the garage where Benjamin poses with him.

Look at the huge feet on this bird

Then we zero out a bucket on the scale and place Ol Blackeye in the bucket.  In the first two weeks you couldn't see him over the sides of the bucket because he was so small.  Now he's able to jump out.  Each and every week, he leaves his calling card in the bucket and I have to clean it out.

The scales of justice

Our kitchen scale really comes in handy for weighing vegetables, fruit, and even live birds.

He's gaining weight... slowly

Ol Blackeye weighed 4 pounds, 2 ounces today.  Remember, we're shooting for a 6 pound bird that will yield a 4.5 pound cleaned carcass.  Ol Blackeye still has some growing to do.

4 pounds 2 ounces

It is safe to say that our butcher date for these birds will be Saturday, March 15th. They'll be 10 weeks old and it will have taken a couple extra weeks for these to reach the desired weight.  That's 14 additional days of feed and 14 additional days of going out there several times a day feeding and watering them and pushing the chicken tractor. That's just the way it goes sometimes.  Next week we'll see how much he weighs at the 9 week mark.