2017 Meat Birds - 5 Weeks Old

The Cornish Cross Meat birds have been out on grass for over a week now.  I see them nibbling a bit on the fresh grass as soon as I move them to a fresh spot each day, but overall, they sit down and come running as soon as I bring the bucket full of feed out.  They eat.  They poop.  They sit.  That is their life.

The new chicken tractor is working out perfectly.  We are expecting some rain Friday night, so I will fasten a tarp over the tractor Friday afternoon.  I still keep the heat lamps on them at night, but it has been warming up into the mid-80's each afternoon, so we turn off the heat lamps during daytime hours.

I added a second feed trough (gutter) so the growing birds all had room at the "table" and also added an extra gallon-sized waterer.  They are going through the feed and water.

I walked out with a 5 gallon bucket and picked up a bird of average size, making sure it was a rooster.  I placed him into the bucket and walked back in the garage where I have the kitchen scale set up.  I put a sheet of newspaper over the scale so they don't soil the scale and place the old boy on top.

The bird felt a little heavier than last week, but I could tell that it wasn't a tremendous weight gain. Here are the details:

Here are the results from Week 5 :

*Week 5 2017:  2 pounds 15 ounces
*Week 5 2016:  4 pounds 

*Week 5 2015:    2 pound 4 ounces

So to summarize, last week they weighed on average 2 pounds 4 ounces and this week 2 pound 15 ounces.That means they gained 11 ounces over the last week.  That is the same weight game as the previous week. They are still 1 pound 1 ounce shy of where they were at this age last year, and 11 ounces heavier than what the 2015 birds weighed at this age.