Delawares time to maturity for butchering

[solas4me]

Everyone,
We are about to receive our first Delawares. We are growing them for butchering and would like to know how long it takes to feed them out to butchering size. We have had Cornish X in the past (won't do that again) we are trying to stay with Heritage Breeds for all our animals (Meat chickens, Layers, Sheep, Rabbits, etc.).


Any information would be helpful.


Thanks,
Justin
Delphi, IN

 

[hydroswiftrob]

Curiosity killed the cat. Why not do Cornish anymore?

 

[solas4me]

They grew too fast, seemed to have problems related to the fast development....

 

[bookerdog]

I rasied my last year to 15 weeks. They were free range mostly and the last two weeks were fed free choice.

 

[Buster52]

18 to 24 weeks, if I want decent size.

 

[solas4me]

Thanks for the information!


Justin

 

[bookerdog]

Woops I checked my records and they were 15 weeks free range and 3 weeks put up and free choic feed. So 18 weeks sorry about that

 

[solas4me]

Thanks!

 

[SIMZ]

I have some Delawares coming next month to try out for meat. How did yours do at 18 weeks? Were you happy with them?

Thanks!

 

[bookerdog]

I have some Delawares coming next month to try out for meat. How did yours do at 18 weeks? Were you happy with them?

Thanks!

They were nice at 18 weeks. I think it was pretty important to give them that free choice feed at the end.