How do I know when to butcher?

[mrsteiner]

My first flock of meat chickens are five weeks old now and weigh between 14 oz. and 2 lbs. I got red broilers and Turkens from Ideal and they threw in a bunch of packing peanuts that I think are Cornish Rocks.

My processor wants me to give him 2-weeks notice to schedule a date for butchering. Anybody have any idea how I can calculate what that date might be? I also have some Cornish Cross that are 2 weeks old and weigh about 1/2 a pound.

I've read so much on this site about not letting Cornish X go too long past their ideal butcher date that I'm concerned about how I'll know when to schedule the deed. Does anyone have a good rule of thumb to help me calculate? Can I estimate the average weight gain per week and extrapolate an estimation?

Any ideas?

 

[journey11]

Here's a live weight chart for Cornish X that will help you some, though mine always run bigger than this, so I'm not sure what they're feeding.

Week Male Wght Female Wght
1 .31#; 141g .23#; 104g
2 .89#; 404g .67#; 304g
3 1.80#; 816g 1.35#; 612g
4 3.08#; 1.4kg 2.31#; 1.0kg
5 4.51#; 2.0kg 3.38#; 1.5kg
6 5.91#; 2.7kg 4.43#; 2.0kg
7 6.70#; 3.0kg 5.03#; 2.3kg
8 7.50#; 3.4kg 5.62#; 2.5kg

I usually do my males at 7 weeks and my females at 9 weeks. You want to get a nice sized dressed out bird in the 4-5 pound range (dressed weight). This translates to about a 8-9 pound live bird. Occasionally I'll have a couple that I'll hold longer until they reach size (but I don't think you're at liberty to do that...I do my own butchering.) You really don't want to hold onto a Cornish X much longer than that, because they'll continue to eat, but not at the same rate of gain and you lose $$ if you hold them too long. But you don't want 'em too small either. The 7 and 9 weeks have come out right for me. I feed a 24% chick starter, then finish with a 20% for their last 2 weeks of growth, 12 hours on/12 hours off. I rarely have leg problems.

Your other breeds, I am not familiar with. Hopefully someone else can help you there... Turkens are a standard breed though, so I think you're looking at something like 5 months of age for a fryer?