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Oh, I don't know, these are only 2/3 the size of my mature hens (at best!) But yes, I have become a convert to butchering at younger ages. I realized that I could keep them until 5-6 months, get twice as much meat, and spend twice as much on feed. Not worth the chores! (unless its a roo I am...

Butchered the RIR today. I continue to be very pleased with butchering young. The skin pulls off easily, its easier to cut through joints, the carcass size is easy to fit into containers to rest in my refrigerator. 4 lb 12 oz live weight, 2 lb 11 oz skinned & cleaned at exactly 15 weeks.

@Egghead_Jr here are the results you were waiting for. I ended up with far fewer roosters than anticipated. They kept turning into pullets! In the end, I had 3 roosters, 1 RIR and 2 Buckeyes. They were in the rooster pen different lengths of time, about 8, 2, and 0 weeks. Live weights were...

Butchered the oldest cockerel today. A few days shy of 14 weeks, he was only 13.5 weeks, but with the hot weather heading this way, it seemed best to do it now This was a Buckeye from Meyer Hatchery, and he was only in the rooster pen for 2.5 weeks. The rest of the time he had a large run to...

This will be the third time I have separated the cockerels and pullets. The first time was quite by chance, the birds just needed more space, so I moved the pullets and cockerels I was interested in maybe keeping into the main coop while leaving the cockerels I definitely wasn't going to keep...

Hah, yeah, I am pretty sure it was you who convinced me to try the bit younger age. :) Gonna try it and see how it works. I just moved the roosters to the other pen this morning. If I am going to butcher them young, it seems to make sense to me to keep them a bit more confined (ended up...

My chicks get out in a run, but they don't forage for much of their diet. We get feed from a local mill, so prices change with each batch, but generally $11-$12 for 50 lbs of 20%. I guess I don't know what other people pay for feed, but when I see the prices at Tractor Supply or something I'm...

Haha! Well I am pretty sure that we will take the first one at 14 weeks because he is 4 weeks older than the rest and really enjoys bullying the smaller birds. If that is still happening when he is 14 weeks old, I will be happy to say bye-bye to him. But you are right, it may not happen quite...

Its new for us this year to butcher them quite that early. We usually butcher in the fall, 2 at a time, skip a week or two, until they are all gone (goal is to have them gone by the time waterers freeze). So that puts them in the 4-6 month age. Even those older birds weren't terribly meaty...

I have probably a dozen cockerels from my chicks this spring, currently between 7 and 11 weeks old. I would like to separate them from the pullets because in the past, they have seemed to gain better when they are separated. I have one RIR, seven bantam cochins (I know, two bites per bird!)...