How to Weigh a Cockerel

[3KillerBs]

Well, it would work on the girls too, but I'm worrying more about size and growth rate for the boys.

Unfortunately, I have no photos, but I was working without an assistant and didn't want to distress the boys by leaving them immobilized for too long while I fiddled around taking photos of mummified chickens.

Use a large, thin, flour-sack type towel, a 5-gallon bucket, and whatever scale you have that is appropriate.

Get cockerel off the roost after dark, tucking him under your arm with his head forward.

Put a fold of the towel over his head, draping it down to his chest.

Wrap his wings firmly but not too tightly (remembering that birds have to expand their ribcage to breathe). Just enough that he can't flap.

Put the mummified bird into the bucket (which helps keep him from flapping his way out of the towel).

Weigh bucket, towel, and bird together and record weight.

Release the cockerel from the towel.

Weigh the bucket and the towel, then do your math.

I'll try to get pictures and make a proper article when I have an assistant or two so that I'm not juggling bird, towel, bucket, fish scale, notepad, etc. by myself in the dark coop.

 

[cavemanrich]

If you have a good sized dog,, and want to weigh him/her. hold pet and weigh yourself on your scale,,,,, then release pet and weigh just yourself..
Not recommended to be done after holidays,,,,,,, especially Thanksgiving,,,, for the obvious results may shock you.. your weight,, not pets

 

[3KillerBs]

If you have a good sized dog,, and want to weigh him/her. hold pet and weigh yourself on your scale,,,,, then release pet and weigh just yourself..
Not recommended to be done after holidays,,,,,,, especially Thanksgiving,,,, for the obvious results may shock you.. your weight,, not pets

My bathroom scale is not accurate in ounces.

 

[Mrs. K]

A fish scale will work too, you just hang them from the scale, and see the amount pulled down.

 

[3KillerBs]

A fish scale will work too, you just hang them from the scale, and see the amount pulled down.

My scale is a digital fish scale. I bought it because it can weigh fractions of ounces but has enough capability to handle more than the biggest Cornish X I can imagine raising.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I use a digital kitchen scale, wrapped inside a plastic bag to keep it clean. So far I've been able to just pick up birds, plunk them on the scale, and they'll stay long enough to get a rough weight on them - though obviously this won't work with birds that cannot be handled at all.

 

[3KillerBs]

I use a digital kitchen scale, wrapped inside a plastic bag to keep it clean. So far I've been able to just pick up birds, plunk them on the scale, and they'll stay long enough to get a rough weight on them - though obviously this won't work with birds that cannot be handled at all.

I don't have any birds that I can just walk up to and pick them up. I've particularly avoided making pets of the boys.

I am in awe of the way some people manage to sit birds on fence posts or other such objects and expect them to stay there for photo sessions. Mine aren't particularly afraid of me and when I was getting photos for this evaluation thread this morning the boys weren't panicking, but they have better things to do than be handled by humans.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I am in awe of the way some people manage to sit birds on fence posts or other such objects and expect them to stay there for photo sessions. Mine aren't particularly afraid of me and when I was getting photos for this evaluation thread this morning the boys weren't panicking, but they have better things to do than be handled by humans.

My girls don't like being picked up, with 1 exception. But I'm always amazed that they'll just stay in place if I put them somewhere (my guess is they're too scared to move, so they stay put).

Case in point - I was weighing a bird on my porch to determine worming dosage, and of course I intelligently put the open bottle of Safeguard close by and she knocked it over. So I just put her on the porch floor while I went back and forth to get things to clean up, and after a few minutes when all was said and done, she was still standing on the spot I left her on.

 

[3KillerBs]

So I just put her on the porch floor while I went back and forth to get things to clean up, and after a few minutes when all was said and done, she was still standing on the spot I left her on.

I can't imagine.

I don't have a porch, but if I set a bird on the little platform at the top of the steps I'd end up fishing her off the roof if she was one of the adventurous ones or chasing her around the lawn if she was one who was too heavy to fly.

Stay where a human wants her when there's green weeds to eat? Never.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I can't imagine.

I don't have a porch, but if I set a bird on the little platform at the top of the steps I'd end up fishing her off the roof if she was one of the adventurous ones or chasing her around the lawn if she was one who was too heavy to fly.

Stay where a human wants her when there's green weeds to eat? Never.

I've just put birds down wherever (i.e. in front of the garage door, or on the gravel walkway) if something else needs my attention, and they're always either in the exact spot or in very close vicinity when I come back.