2016 Meat Birds at 7 Weeks Old

Here we are at seven weeks since birth of our meat birds.  It seems like a long time ago since we got the telephone call from the post office telling us to go pick up a box full of chirping day-old chicks, but really it wasn't that long ago.  There's a lot of work that goes into growing these birds.  Each day we walk out to the chicken tractor and push it one length to fresh grass.  We feed them three times a day and keep them supplied with fresh, clean drinking water.

Remember our goal is a 6 pound bird as experience has taught us that this gross weight yields a 4 1/2 pound carcass - the perfect size in our opinion.  In a perfect situation, the Cornish Cross is ready for butchering at 8 - 10 weeks and the slower growing Red Ranger is ready for processing at 12 - 14 weeks.  Enough with the rambling, let's look at results!

I walked out and opened the doors of the chicken tractor and peered down.  The birds are just beautiful, white, healthy, and large - the best we've ever had.  I attribute this to the stellar weather we've had this year.  You can see that the white (Cornish Cross) birds are larger and more aggressive and get to the feed trough faster than their Red Ranger counterparts.

2016 Meat Birds

I climbed into the tractor and searched for the two chickens with the zip ties around their legs.  I put them in a five gallon bucket to bring them to the scale.  They don't much like being put in a bucket.

A bucket of chicken

I always place them on top of the workbench so that we can see a comparison in their size. Remember they are the same age.  The Red Ranger must have been a little traumatized by being in the same bucket as that big white monster.

Big Fella

So the Cornish Cross goes on top of the scale first.  He is a nice looking bird and stands up tall with great posture.

Big Daddy

This week the Cornish Cross weighs 5 pounds 14 ounces.  He is right at the the six pound goal a week early!  

5 pounds 14 ounces

Let's check in on the Red Ranger.  He's not real big on standing up tonight and just lazily sits on the scale.

I'm gonna sit this one out

The Red Ranger weighs 2 pounds and 10 ounces this week.

Red Ranger - 2 lbs 10 oz.

Let's break this down into details:

The Cornish Cross gained 13 ounces since last week.  At 5 pounds 14 ounces, he's a full two pounds and 5 ounces heavier than the birds at this stage last year.  The Red Ranger gained 7 ounces since last week.  At 2 pounds 10 ounces, he's almost a pound heavier than the birds at this stage last year.

Here's the plan:  Next Saturday we'll butcher all of the Cornish Cross birds.  Then the Red Rangers will have all the food to themselves.  I would assume that we'll butcher them three weeks from next Saturday.  

We'll check in again next week for the Cornish Cross' last weigh in.  Oh, one more thing, as I put the two birds back into the tractor, I noticed that we have selected some good sample birds to weigh as they are average-sized among their peers, with some larger and some smaller.  We won't know the actual average weight until butchering, but we'll compile all the data at that time and report.