The 2015 Meat Birds - Four Weeks Old

So here we are at four weeks.  The birds are out of the brooders and out in the chicken tractor on the pasture.  Sort of.  It has been raining every day and the mud is ankle deep.  I have hay piled up in the chicken tractor to keep the chicks out of the rising water.  We only lost one bird this week, so I think we're down to 98 birds. If you recall we started with 117, but 3 arrived dead.

Last night we posted about weighing our cows.  Tonight we'll weigh our chickens. When the birds were in the garage, it was easy to weigh them.  Now I have to walk out to the pasture, climb over the fence, go over the electric fence, grab the Cornish Cross and Red Ranger we've been tracking, put them in the bucket and carry them to the scale.  Just looking in the bucket, you can tell that the Cornish Cross is really growing a lot quicker than the Red Ranger.  Remember the Cornish Cross matures around 8 weeks - the Red Ranger at around 12 weeks.

A bucket of chicken

Experience has taught me to put a rag on top of the scale prior to putting the birds on it.  After zeroing out the scale, the Red Ranger goes on top.

Last week he weighed 9 ounces.  This week we see that he gained three ounces and tips the scale at 12 ounces.

Red Ranger @ 4 weeks - 12 ounces

Here is the Cornish Cross.  Look at those feet!  He is a growing dude.

Cornish Cross

Last week he weighed 14 ounces and this week, he tips the scale at 1 pound, 4 ounces.  He's gained 6 ounces from last week.

Red Ranger @ 4 weeks - 1 pound four ounces

In order to ensure that I'm getting the same birds every week, I got some water based finger paint from our craft cabinet and put a dollop of pink paint on their heads.  Hopefully it will stay and I'll be able to pick them out of all the other birds in the tractor.

Starting tomorrow the weatherman says that things will start drying up.  I'll pitchfork the hay out of the tractor and the birds will finally be able to forage around on the ground for grass and bugs.  I normally like to have them on pasture a week earlier, but our weather just hasn't cooperated.  We'll check in on the pink-headed birds next week and see if they are putting on weight.  The goal we're trying to hit is a 6 pound bird.  We've found that a six pound bird yields a 3 1/2 pound carcass and we really like that size bird.