2017 Meat Birds - 9 Weeks Old

Tonight is the final Wednesday night installment of the Magnificent Meat Bird Weigh-in as this Saturday, the birds will be slaughtered.  We'll be setting up the different stations for Butcher Day 2017 on Friday night so that on Saturday morning, we can wake up and get things started.  I'll have to remember to sharpen the knives and purchase ice on Friday.  Friday afternoon they will receive their last meal as we want their digestive tract empty.  It makes butchering a lot cleaner.

Let's see what the scale says tonight.  Like last Wednesday, I picked up two random roosters and the first hen I saw.  Remember we are shooting for a 6 pound bird as that yields a 4 1/2 pound carcass.

Rooster #1

He weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces...  He is well past the weight we were shooting for.

Rooster #2:

He weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces.  I don't think we've ever had birds that broke the seven pound barrier before we butchered them.

The Hen:

While not exactly light, she felt  a good bit smaller when picking her up to place her on the scale.

She weighed 5 pounds 1 ounce.

So the roosters average about 7 pounds and the three birds together average about 6 pounds

Here are the results from Week 9:
*Week 9 2017:  6 pounds
*Week 9 2016:  6 pounds 5 ounces
*Week 9 2015:  5 pounds 1 ounces

To summarize, last week they weighed on average 5 pounds 2 ounces and this week 6 pounds. That means they gained almost a pound over the last week.   They are 5 ounces shy of where they were at this age last year, and about a pound heavier than what the 2015 birds weighed at this age.

They are ready for processing as they have hit our target weight.  Once we've butchered, we'll tally up all the detailed information that we always provide and will compare with previous years.