2016 Meat Birds at Thirteen Weeks Old

It is time to see if Saturday is going to be butchering day for the remaining 23 Red Ranger Meat birds in the chicken tractor out on the pasture.  As you know, we aim for a 6 pound bird as that yields a 4 1/2 pound carcass.  I walked out and picked up the rooster with the zip tie around his leg we've been weighing for the last 13 weeks and then also picked up one of the hens.  Hens grow at a slower rate than the males, so I want to see how much they weigh.

Last week I put them in a bucket, but they escaped and a had to run around to catch them.  We'll have none of that this week.

They didn't like this carrying technique much

The male goes up on the scale first, squawking and mad...

Red Ranger Rooster

Let's take a closer look.  Well now, Six pounds, 1 ounce.  He hit the target!  Saturday we'll butcher.

6 pounds 1 ounce

Now, it is time for the female to be weighed.  She doesn't feel like she's going to hit 6 pounds.

Female Red Ranger

And the scale says...

Four pounds and 9 ounces

The female weighs 4 pounds and 9 ounces.  That is short of 6 pounds, but you know what?  It is time. Saturday, we'll butcher all of them.

Let's look at our comparison table.  From last week to this week, the Red Ranger Rooster gained 11 ounces.  That is a solid weight gain.

So here is the plan.  We will feed them tomorrow morning and again tomorrow at noon.  Tomorrow night, however, we won't feed them and will move them to the cattle trailer near our butcher stations.  They will have water, but no food.  That is to allow all the food to work its way through their digestive tract and then the slaughter will be cleaner and "poop-free."

This will be the last weigh-in of the year.  Once they are all slaughtered, we'll report final statistics such as total weight, average weight per bird, cost per bird, cost per pound, etc.