2020 Meat Birds - Week Seven

Well here we are in the last week of our Annual Meat Bird Project.  From what we saw last week in Week 6 in the weigh-in, the bird we put on the scale was 6 pounds 4 ounces.  This means they are ready.  We always shoot for a 6 pound bird.  That yields a 4 pound carcass.  We know last week we were at our goal.  This last week was just lagniappe.  We wanted them to grow, but not too much.  Maybe it is just our opinion, but a bird in the 4-5 pound carcass range just seems to taste better to us.

This week nothing eventful happened.  We still only lost 3 birds out of the 50 we started out with over the 7 1/2 week project.  We continue to feed 3 times a day and keep clean water in front of them and we push them to fresh grass two or three times daily.  Tomorrow we'll pick up the chicken plucker that a friend was borrowing and then Friday night we'll set up the outdoor slaughterhouse.

It's Wednesday weigh day.  Let's get this show on the road.  Today I decided to weigh a hen and a rooster.  Roosters grow faster and gets bigger, so I wanted to see how both are doing toward our goal.  First, the hen:

I zeroed out the scale with the box and then set her in it.

5 lbs 12 ounces today.  By the time Saturday morning butchering rolls around, she'll be a tad over 6 pounds.

Now for the rooster.  He's a big guy.  His foot was poised to hop out of the box.

He weighed in at 7 pounds 2 ounces.  Wow.  That's the biggest I think we've ever had.

At the end of seven weeks, the hen and the rooster averaged about 6 and 1/2 pounds. 

To look at previous years at this same time:
*Week 7 2019: 5 pounds 9 ounces
*Week 7 2018: 5 pounds 15 ounces
*Week 7 2017:  4 pounds 1 ounce
*Week 7 2016:  5 pounds 14 ounces
*Week 7 2015:  3 pounds 9 ounces

We will butcher on Saturday and will have plenty to post about that.