6 week old Delaware weight

[SweetieChicken234]

I have some Delawares from a hatchery. I know these birds are not likely to be great meat birds but I'm trying to gauge where the weight should be on a good meaty Delaware at this age.

The average weight between the cockerel and the pullets is about 1lb 6oz.

Is this a decent weight at 6 weeks or way too light to be a useful meat bird? I'm thinking they are usually processed around 12-16 weeks.

 

[Molpet]

People eat quail and pigeon. I'm sure they will be bigger than those.
In my signature is a link to a study a guy did on a few hatchery

 

[YaldiFarm]

I have some Delawares from a hatchery. I know these birds are not likely to be great meat birds but I'm trying to gauge where the weight should be on a good meaty Delaware at this age.

The average weight between the cockerel and the pullets is about 1lb 6oz.

Is this a decent weight at 6 weeks or way too light to be a useful meat bird? I'm thinking they are usually processed around 12-16 weeks.

We have the same goal here. Though we only have carcass weights for our birds I thought I'd share our experience with the Delawares incase it's helpful in some way.

This was our first year trying the Delawares for meat. We purchased our Delawares from SandHill Preservation Center. Unfortunatley, the chicks were sent to the wrong place and several of the chicks died. Of the 5 survivors we only had one hen and she seems on the small side to me.

We kept the largest rooster and butchered the other 3 at 18 weeks. I wish I would have let one go till 20 weeks because the rooster we kept really put on a lot of growth between 18 and 20 weeks. The 3 roosters weighed roughly 3 lbs. carcass weight. Of the breeds we purchased, the Delawares grew the fastest and the Silver Laced Wyandotte/Brahma crosses were really fast too. The rooster we kept is now 23 weeks old and he is pretty big. He started his "rooster" thing about 1 to 2 weeks ago so butcher time for these guys seems to be around 20 weeks from our limited experience from this hatchery.

Next year I'll be hatching eggs from the Delaware rooster crossed with the following hen breeds Delaware, Range Sussex, SLW/Brahma, and Chantecler.

You may want to try crossing breeds for hybrid vigor if your main goal is meat. If you can get a good source for American Bresse they do grow quickly from our experience, faster than Delawares but we didn't like them as much. I would definatley try them again if I could find a good source for birds.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

We have the same goal here. Though we only have carcass weights for our birds I thought I'd share our experience with the Delawares incase it's helpful in some way.

This was our first year trying the Delawares for meat. We purchased our Delawares from SandHill Preservation Center. Unfortunatley, the chicks were sent to the wrong place and several of the chicks died. Of the 5 survivors we only had one hen and she seems on the small side to me.

We kept the largest rooster and butchered the other 3 at 18 weeks. I wish I would have let one go till 20 weeks because the rooster we kept really put on a lot of growth between 18 and 20 weeks. The 3 roosters weighed roughly 3 lbs. carcass weight. Of the breeds we purchased, the Delawares grew the fastest and the Silver Laced Wyandotte/Brahma crosses were really fast too. The rooster we kept is now 23 weeks old and he is pretty big. He started his "rooster" thing about 1 to 2 weeks ago so butcher time for these guys seems to be around 20 weeks from our limited experience from this hatchery.

Next year I'll be hatching eggs from the Delaware rooster crossed with the following hen breeds Delaware, Range Sussex, SLW/Brahma, and Chantecler.

You may want to try crossing breeds for hybrid vigor if your main goal is meat. If you can get a good source for American Bresse they do grow quickly from our experience, faster than Delawares but we didn't like them as much. I would definatley try them again if I could find a good source for birds.

I'm getting 20 chicks from a Delaware breeder that is going out of business. Her birds are table ready at 12-13 weeks. My hatchery Delawares topped out at 3.5 lbs at 18 weeks. Not great. If you are interested in ordering from my source in a hurry let me know. Send me a message and I'll share contact info. She's done by February though.

Edit: Also.. I've bred/hatched/raised chicks from my Delawares and also crossed them with Gold Laced Wyandottes. My Wyandotte x Delaware crosses were similar in size. Not enough to bother but I'm going to stick with straight Delaware from the breeder and continue her work.

I will attach pics of some of my Delaware x Wyandotte crosses.

 

[YaldiFarm]

I'm not sure what "table ready" by 12-13 weeks means. Are they talking fryers? Can she tell you what weight her birds are getting by that age? I would be interested in the source of birds.

I agree with you on the crosses you have pictured. The first hen looks a little bigger. How old are the hens pictured? I might be able to get a pic of my SLW/Brahma cross to post in a few days.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

I'm not sure what "table ready" by 12-13 weeks means. Are they talking fryers? Can she tell you what weight her birds are getting by that age? I would be interested in the source of birds.

I agree with you on the crosses you have pictured. The first hen looks a little bigger. How old are the hens pictured? I might be able to get a pic of my SLW/Brahma cross to post in a few days.

So she sent me her weight chart last year from her live weights starting at 6 weeks. By 12-13 weeks her males were live weight 5-6 lbs.. which means a decent sized bird can be processed at that age. Much younger than 16-18 weeks. That's the goal I'm working towards here. Bigger birds at a younger age. If you waited til 18 weeks to process I can't imagine how much bigger they would be.

The photos of my crosses were age 5-6 months. They are darned beautiful too. Pretty but not what I'm looking for.

 

[YaldiFarm]

Does she ship chicks or is she just getting rid of her adult birds?

 

[SweetieChicken234]

Does she ship chicks or is she just getting rid of her adult birds?

I got her to agree to ship me chicks in January. She's done with her business by February. I think she's shipping chicks to someone else as well. There's not much time left. She wanted to be done last year but I really begged hard to hold off for me until January.