do meat birds start crowing before they are ready to dress out?

[pueawjapygrta]

do meat birds start crowing before they are ready to dress out?

I'm hoping that I don't have to deal with a bunch of crowing meat birds!

 

[4H kids and mom]

I would think they would start trying because my layer flock chick roos are going on 8 weeks old and they are crowing now. I am also raising meat birds (have 5 that are just over a week old and getting 15 more this Wednesday) and I plan to dress them out by the time they are 8 weeks old. I would think there would be some crowing going on by then (mine are straight run so I'll have a little of both), however, young chicks arent' very good at it yet and its still pretty quiet compared to a full blown roos crow.

 

[ccr]

Yup, you will have some crowing going on starting around 7 weeks - it is one of my signs to know they are ready to go in! I take mine in at 8 weeks to and the boys are just starting to crow - sounds weird as it is not a full crow, just the beginnings.

 

[EurekaSouth]

I started out with 27 cornish x's. I began butchering and dressing at about 6 weeks, starting with the roos (mostly). Today, I did 9 more, they're about 7 weeks old and I haven't heard any crowing yet. They do posture with each other and act like little roos, but no crowing.