Butcher Brahma at 14 or 27 weeks?

[philyc]

Evening all.

I currently have a mixed flock. A few leghorns for eggs and a Sussex and Brahma for meat. I also have 3 chicks with my broody Barham one of which is a Brahma and the others unknown.

We have our older Brahma in mind for Christmas dinner this year. So that would make her 27 weeks when processed. The chick would be 14 weeks at Christmas.

The chicks are on chick crumb at the moment. The others are on a mix of corn and layers pellets as they are all together in the same run with the usual scraps from the kitchen.

My question is will the older Brahma be alright to roast at 27 weeks or should I hope that the chick is a hen and gets big enough in 14 weeks to go around 5 people?

The older Brahma is by far our biggest chicken and makes the leghorns look tiny.

Looking for thoughts on which one for Xmas and any tips on feeding etc if I'm doing anything wrong. I don't have the facility to create a separate run for meat birds to tailor feeding.

Thanks in advance for any help, it's my first time with meat birds.

 

[JoshFig]

I would expect a 27 week old hen to be pretty tough. Maybe make soup with her and roast the 14 week old???

 

[philyc]

the older brahma is 17 weeks now, bigger then my sussex which i was thinking of keeping for eggs to suppliment the leghorns who are getting old now.

so if she will be too old and tough for xmas i would butcher her tomorrow and eat her on sunday (i will then be away for 3 weeks) and save the chick for xmas.

just looking for a voice of experience, im also slightly worried that at 14 weeks she'll be too small for xmas,