2017 Meat Birds - 8 Weeks Old

If you've followed our blog posting about raising our meat birds, you'll know that we shoot for butchering a 6 pound bird as that yields a 4 and 1/2 pound carcass. We've found that to be the ideal size for our family.  Our goal has always been to butcher them at 8 weeks old.  More often than not, we have missed on that goal and normally butcher the birds somewhere between 9 and 10 weeks. We've missed the 8 week butchering goal for varying reasons.  Sometimes the birds were sick at some point or the effects of rainy, cold weather that kept them from gaining weight. Other times a cold snap stunted their growth as they expended calories generating heat versus growth.

That's why chronicling the weights by week over the years is helpful.  It is a good barometer of where we are in comparison to the previous week and/or previous years.

Well, let's get right to it.  I wanted to do something a little different this week.  The cockerels always grow faster and are bigger than the pullets.  Each week I've weighed a rooster.  Not the same rooster, unfortunately, but one that I though was 'average' in size.  Next year, I'll find a way to mark a bird so I can weigh the same one.  So, this week I wanted to weigh a rooster and a hen.  It was getting dark and I reached into the chicken tractor and pulled out the first two birds I could touch.

Rooster #1
So this old boy was heavy.  He was lazy, too.  He sat atop the scale, fat and happy at 8 weeks old.

Let's see what the scale says...  Whoa!  Six pounds!!  Old boy is ready to be processed.

So let's check on the weight of a hen.  Except the second bird I picked up was another rooster!

Rooster #2

Same song, second verse.  This bird lounged on the scale as well, but I could tell that he wasn't as heavy as the first one.

He weighed 5 pounds 3 ounces.  So he was 13 ounces lighter than the first rooster. That is quite a difference for birds that are the same sex and the same exact age. What accounts for the difference?  Genetics?  One is a bully and gets more feed? One was sick at one point in his 8 week life?  I just don't know.

So I walked back out to the chicken tractor and intentionally looked around for a hen and brought her back to the scale in the garage.

Hen 1:

She was even lighter than the second bird, but that is to be expected.  Hens are lighter than roosters.

She weighed 4 pounds 3 ounces.  So we can gather that the hens are at least a pound lighter than the roosters.  Interesting information.

So what can we glean from this data?

Well, I think the thing to do is to average the weights of the three birds.  I come up with a little over 5 pounds.  I think that gives a better indication of where we are.

Here are the results from Week 8:
*Week 8 2017:  5 pounds 2 ounce
*Week 8 2016:  6 pounds 3 ounces
*Week 8 2015:  4 pounds 2 ounces

To summarize, last week they weighed on average 4 pounds 1 ounce and this week 5 pounds 2 ounces. That means they gained over a pound over the last week.   They are still 1 pound 1 ounce shy of where they were at this age last year, and a pound heavier than what the 2015 birds weighed at this age.

Since this weekend is Good Friday and then Resurrection Sunday, I think we'll be butchering NEXT Saturday.  That will give the birds another week to grow.  That will give the hens a good chance of weighing more than 5 pounds.  The big roosters may break the 7 pound barrier.  We'll see what happens!  Bottomline is, these birds have a week and a half left to go.