Live weight to dressed weight

[HillCountryMomma]

I know this has been answered before, and I tried to search but my darned slow dial up connection is making it difficult to do.

Can someone give me a rough idea of the ratio of live weight to dressed weight for meat chickens? Freedom Rangers specifically if you know!

Thanks-
Liz

 

[ChickenToes]

I think it goes like this: a live bird will weight 25% to 30% more than a dressed bird...I think. I could be wrong, but I hope this helps a bit.

 

[greyfields]

2/3 live weight

 

[HillCountryMomma]

Thanks y'all! I logged in just to check and see if someone had answered this question.

My Rangers are 8.5 weeks this weekend. I'm gonna go grab a couple and weigh them. They just don't seem all that chunky to me, so I may be waiting till 10 weeks to butcher them. Provided I can afford to feed them that long! My gosh can those birds EAT!!!

They are my best friends when they see me coming with the feed bucket. Funniest part of my day is going out to feed in the evening when they are all loose and they come waddling as fast as they can going side to side more than forward to get to their dinner! Never mind there's usually feed still left in the pans in the cage... but ya know, fresher is better!!

Bummer part is they are pretty much my most friendly birds. Doesn't seem right that my meat birds are so sweet!

Liz