Broad Breasted Whites

[Jayzandra]

I have two BBWs that are just about 16 weeks old. We had planned to slaughter them for the holidays, but we are going through a 50 lb bag of flock raiser ($20 here) in just under a week. (they are housed with roughly 30 chickens, two ducks and two geese). They are all semi-free range, as they have access to my fenced in back yard during the day. They have also begun to fight with each other and sort of bully the other birds.

So my question is, is it too early to butcher them? If so, how old do they need to be?

 

[neverbdone]

I don't know of a minimum age. I go by size especially with bb's. Otherwise they get too big for the oven.

 

[chicken pickin]

I have two BBWs that are just about 16 weeks old. We had planned to slaughter them for the holidays, but we are going through a 50 lb bag of flock raiser ($20 here) in just under a week. (they are housed with roughly 30 chickens, two ducks and two geese). They are all semi-free range, as they have access to my fenced in back yard during the day. They have also begun to fight with each other and sort of bully the other birds.

So my question is, is it too early to butcher them? If so, how old do they need to be?

16 weeks is not too early to process your BBWs. It is a perfect time. They say the recommended age to process Broad Breasted variety is 16-20weeks of age. At 16 weeks you are looking at maybe roughly around an 20lb turkey hen and maybe 25lb Tom. The weight may be slightly different but close to that.

 

[Jayzandra]

Thank you.

 

[TattooedMama]

Whenever you are ready is a good time!! Mine are only a month and I am hoping they make it to the holidays; some people seem to have theirs go that long just fine and others I have heard have 50 lb turkeys by 20 weeks. We will see how that works out!

As a sidenote, if you were willing to separate them and monitor their feed you may be able to keep them another few weeks if you wanted. Good Luck!!