- Mar 11, 2017
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Thank you for that information! You helped me confirm that I will be raising meat birds. Kudos to you!Thanks to all who answered! We processed the birds at 7 weeks, 3 days and had an average dress weight around 6 pounds per bird.
We had one bird that had leg problems that started around week 4, and he/she came in significantly lighter. We only had one other bird that had trouble walking on processing day. None of our other birds had any mobility issues. We did lose one bird around week 4 after a really hot day followed by really loud/intense thunderstorms that night (not sure if it was the heat, storm, or genetics or a combination that caused the death of that bird).
They were raised on Purina Flock Raiser and they were given food 24/7 from day one until the day before we processed them (when we held their food). We had them in chicken tractors that we moved daily to fresh grass.
We used 11" roll food saver bags and vacuum sealed them before freezing...all of the birds fit, but we did break the majority of the birds down (breast, thigh, leg, wings - and back/carcass) so that we could thaw what we wanted to use.
I just wanted to document that information for anyone who might find this thread in the future.