2017 Meat Birds - 7 Weeks Old

The meat birds survived another rain storm this past week that gave us another 1 2/10s inches of rain.  This time we didn't get all the wind that resulted in 13 of our birds coming to a fateful end a few weeks ahead of schedule.  The chickens are clean and as white as a marshmallow.  I am still amazed at how easy it is to pull the chicken tractor.  Each day I'm faithful in pulling the tractor to a fresh spot, leaving behind a big rectangular "poop stain" where the chickens were the previous day.

They look healthy and happy, but something doesn't quite pass the 'eye test' with these birds.  As I picked what I thought appeared to be an average sized rooster up, he didn't feel like he weighed 5 pounds.  I placed him in the bucket and carried him through the backyard and into the garage where I have my scale set up on the table. I guessed that he would weigh 4 pounds.  Up you go on the scale, ol' bird.

I was right on target.  4 pounds and 1 ounce.  This is not good news.  I have been trying to do my best to pick an average sized bird each week.  Something is definitely wrong.  The bird from last week weighed 4 pounds 8 ounces.  Our goal is to raise them until they weigh roughly 6 pounds since that yields a 4 1/2 pound carcass.  The bird I selected last week must have been real heavy if this one, a week later, weighs 4 pounds 1 ounce.  If this rooster weighs 4 lbs, the hens must be a hair over 3 pounds.  I now calculate that we'll be butchering them at week 10.

Here are the results from Week 7:
*Week 7 2017:  4 pounds 1 ounce
*Week 7 2016:  5 pounds 14 ounces
*Week 7 2015:  3 pounds 9 ounces

To summarize, last week they weighed on average 4 pounds 8 ounces and this week 4 pounds 1 ounces. That means they lost 7 ounces over the last week.  They are not sick.  This indicates to me that I either picked an unusually large bird to weigh last week or a puny one to weigh this week. They are still 1 pound 13 ounces shy of where they were at this age last year, and 8 ounces heavier than what the 2015 birds weighed at this age.

We'll see how much they gained next week, but the butcher date will be very likely pushed out to either week 10 or 12.