Harvesting hens for meat

[RUNuts]

I'm confused. What is the age to harvest meat hens? Hens because I live in a neighborhood and I don't know what I'm doing. If the weight to feed starts dwindling after ~14 weeks, this makes sense. I won't buy additional feed for little benefit.

If the broilers (if ordered will be from Ideal) are harvested young, roosters would not be crowing? Reading this great site, it appears roosters will crow sometime after 10 weeks. So this is possible.

First batch of Barred Rock hens is approaching 12 weeks. If they are close to 5 pounds live weight, I'd be surprised.

Cheers!

 

[Nupe]

About 16 weeks is the limit for grilling/frying. They start to get tough after that but you can stew at any age and the older they are, the better stock they make. Since they're a heritage breed rather than a hybrid, you won't see the massive weight gain or the big breasts. I'd butcher at 16 weeks.

 

[naf_appaz]

Barred rocks are a good dual purpose bird, but if you know you want meat chickens get the Cornish x Rocks they grow extremely fast...by 8 weeks they can barely walk and easily top 5 lbs. I raised a dozen once for meat and they were very tasty but the work required to dress them all was not worth it to me...maybe if you have a plucker. The dual purpose birds just don't grow as fast, think most folks eat them after there egg laying prime time is up. You would need to raise a lot of birds to keep cost reasonable when you can get a broiler at the store for under 5 bucks. I prefer to raise quail for meat myself. A 12 week old barred rock you can sell for up to 20 bucks as a laying hen.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Obviously you cannot have roosters where you are and you are worried about cockerels crowing before they are harvested. It's possible cockerels can start trying to crow before 10 weeks but it is highly unlikely. You'd probably be OK with Ideal's Cornish Rocks, sold only straight run. Their red or black broilers grow a little slower so you probably would not want to risk them.

Cornish Rock broilers are typically harvested around 6 to 8 weeks, partly depending on how you feed them. Much after 8 weeks you start running into medical problems. They grow so fast that their hearts may just give out or their skeleton break down from all that weight. If meat efficiency is what you want they are the way to go.

Dual purpose breeds like the Barred Rock grow a lot slower. A lot. I'd be surprised if a BR cockerel hit 5 pounds live weight at 12 weeks, let alone a pullet. A few of us that grow dual purpose chickens for meat may harvest fairly young but most of us wait longer. My preference for cockerels is around 23 weeks though I can think of one regular on here that shoots for 14 weeks. He doesn't eat his pullets though. You are just not going to get much meat out of those BR pullets no matter how long you keep them.

The older they get the more you have to alter your cooking methods. As they age the meat gains flavor and texture so your cooking methods have to switch to slower and with more moisture. I don't grill or fry mine, the meat would be too tough. How you want to cook them can have a lot to do with what age you butcher them.

Dual purpose pullets are not the way to go for meat at all if you have any concerns about feed to meat conversion rates.

 

[RUNuts]

Goal when I ordered these were to "look and see, then eat". Lessons learned then. My largest worry is getting buried in eggs. Small concern, but when the plug comes out of the damn, something will give.

Guess the easiest thing is to start harvesting until we decide on what the flock will be. Since the hens are not the best meat producer, lesson learned. I'll look at the Cornish. Guess the driving force was seeing the "organic, free ranged birds" at $6/lb Red Ranger vs $1/lb grocery store blob. They provided the flavor, but I'm getting picky in my dotage.

Thank you for the thoughts on the Cornish versus the broiler and age to harvest. Not sure what the answer for me will be. I'm slowly giving up on the fall flock idea.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah a lot of raising chickens is trial and error. My goals and desires have changed from when I first got them after retiring and moving here. Thing are different from when I was growing up with them all those decades ago. And my facilities have been modified and added to many times. Plans are plans but reality is often different. Just be flexible and go with the flow.

 

[ScarletAndColonel]

As someone who has raised Freedom Rangers (a slower-growing bird than a Cornish cross at 9 to 11 weeks to harvesting weight) for meat, I will say that our cockerels definitely started trying to crow (think of a young boy whose voice is cracking) earlier than 10 weeks. They started at about 6 weeks old at the latest. The 2 we held back (out of curiosity, to see how they mature) are 14 weeks old now and one still is working out his crow, while the other one sounds like an old pro at it by now.

 

[RUNuts]

Between the crowing and lack of space, I'm back to grocery store blobs. No texture, but we'll have fresh eggs to go with them.

I talked to the owner of the local feed/farm store. Turns out he can beat the special price for chick delivery and we will work something out next year. He handled 3,000 chicks this year. I'm becoming a regular and getting some good ideas. Even though my girls will only be one year old, need to start the cycling and can get a few broilers as opposed to a lot of broilers. They will be raised to first crow and then harvested. May be small, but I am hopeful for tasty. I'm still feeling for my tolerance to chicken math and the journey has been very pleasant so far. All the ladies are well handled and friendly.

Appreciate all the comments. Y'all are wonderful!

 

[Nupe]

Check your local ordinances and ask some questions. Some municipalities have sort of a grace period for small scale breeding and growing meat birds as far as cockerels (technically not yet roosters) are concerned. I can't remember off the top of my head but I do recall hearing about 6 months for cockerels being the limit some places. That's plenty of time for a breeder to deal with unwanted males or a run of any meat bird.

 

[RUNuts]

I'm in the county. However, in a neighborhood with a gestapo-esque Home Owner's Association. Neighborhood rules stipulate no livestock. These are edible pets. You know, like edible underwear. Some people approve, others are offended & grossed out. I'm offended by the Home Owner's Association and am too lazy to move.

I'll be thinning the flock to a more acceptable egg production level. We reach 12 weeks next week, so will coast out to 16 weeks and make gumbo. A little early, but a good gumbo is always in season. Feed store guy mentioned people looking for POL hens. But heading into winter is not the best time for POL.

I get along with most of the neighbors. So some fresh eggs may get the roosters overlooked for a week or so. I'd be pushing my luck any other way.

Cheers!