Barred rocks - 6 weeks old.

[oldbear]

So this is my first chicken raising journey in 20 years or so. I have 24 Rocks in a 25 square foot brooder and the weather is just not cooperating in wisc. to get them outside into their new tractor coop. They are extremely confinement liking as I had the lid open halfway for fresher air etc. They jump upon top and walk around and then drop back down inside! Have read a few stories of chicks going nuts when they are taken out of the brooder. Hope mine like the tractor and green grass! The tractor is my own design and needs painting yet so that is still in the shop too. The dust they kick up is incredible! My shop will need a super cleaning. So what is a good age for butchering rocks for grill and roaster?

 

[Fred's Hens]

I like to feed them out until they are a bit larger than some folks, I think. I don't like to take WR much before 22-24 weeks, but that is just my preference for larger bodies. My elderly mother loves them at 18 weeks. She always called them fryers.

 

[leah_c]

I have 14, 6 week old chicks and this is their 2nd week outside ( also live in Wisconsin). We had them in an old cow water tank with some chicken wire on top with a heat lamp. Then this past weekend we turned the tank on its side so that the chicks can go in and out on their own and they are doing GREAT! Out right away in the chilly mornings that I would have thought they would've stayed under the light. They are pretty anxious to get to free-range with the older chickens (1 yr olds). We also have a tractor and the water tank is shut in the run so the new babies can see and hear the older ones but he older ones can't get to them.