2021 Meat Birds - Week Two

I got a little behind in my posts.  It was almost two weeks in when I posted our one week status update.  The chicks came on a Thursday, so I'm back caught up with this post.  Our Cornish Cross Meat Birds are two weeks old (yesterday).  Nothing eventful going on.  No more fatalities.  We still have 50 of the little guys.  They are still in the chicken tractor and we push them to fresh grass each day.  We keep them supplied with fresh water (with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar mixed in).  I'm mixing a 20% protein organic feed with an 18% protein non-organic, but non-medicated feed.

Let me correct that and tell you what I mean.  They probably are not all "guys."  We purchased 50 "Straight Run" chicks.  "Straight run" means that they are not sexed prior to shipment.  Now, you can purchase all males, if you wish, they just cost more.  Many people pay extra for all males.  Males grow faster and bigger and that's what you want when you are raising meat birds.  We're okay with straight run.  The law of averages tells you that about 50% will be males and that's fine with us.

So here is this week's bird for weigh in.  The bird is plump.  I can tell its put on weight.  The feet look like they were "photo-shopped" onto its body, but that's its real feet.  They just look like they belong on a bigger bird.  The rest of the body will grow into those feet in short order.  While we're talking about averages, I'm not picking up the same bird every week.  I grab the first one I can reach down and grab.  So there may be some disparities week over week if I select one that is smaller.  On average, though, it will tell us the story of what we need to know.

Our goal is to achieve a SIX Pound bird in order to yield a FOUR Pound carcass.

Now is time for the weigh-in and we have comparative numbers this week:  Drum Roll....

Chester the Chicken weighs right at 16 ounces this week.  Last week, it weighed 7 ounces.  It doubled its weight in one week.  

Here is a comparison I found from 2019:

2020    We did not raise meat birds in 2020.

2019    At two weeks old the bird weighed exactly 16 ounces.

2018    At two weeks old the bird weighed exactly 18 ounces.

2017    At two weeks old the bird weighed exactly 13 ounces.

2016    At two weeks old the bird weighed exactly 18 ounces.

It looks like we are right where we want to be!  Two weeks down.  Six more to go.  Tune in next week for the next update.