Question from a meat chicken noobie

[mocluckin]

Ok, so reading all of the great, informative threads here has me scratching my head about something. So many people write that "my chickens weigh blabbity blah" at 4 weeks, etc"... and my question is how do you accurately weigh a live chicken? Short of putting them in a sack and hanging from a produce scale, I can't see them holding still long enough to weigh.

I'm sure the answer will be a "oh duh" moment for me.

TIA

 

[PotterWatch]

We don't normally weigh ours live, but for a while we were selling to a restaurant that wanted a specific size bird so we would weigh them before processing to make sure they were the right weight. We used our normal scale with a bowl set on top and just made sure we pressed the tare button before setting the bird in the bowl. As long as the bowl was deep enough for them not to just step off, they generally stayed put long enough to get a good weight.

 

[AgroUrica]

With my first batch of meat birds (300 in total) I weighed 5 random birds each week. When very small I found a pillowcase worked best. When they got up to about 4 weeks I tied their legs and weighed them in the produce scale. They don't care for the experience but none had any problems.

 

[mocluckin]

ok, so I'm not missing something super obvious. thanks!!!

 

[bowhunter862]

I weigh 5 random birds every week too. I put them in a dish pan and set them on a digital scale. My CX are so lazy that once they are in the dish pan, they just sit down and wait to be put back on the floor. They don't like the "being caught" part but they sit still in the pan.

 

[foamspoon]

Weigh your self on the scale then weigh yourself holding a chicken.

 

[PotterWatch]

The only issue with weighing yourself and the chicken is that scales meant to weigh humans usually aren't accurate enough to really know what your chicken weighs. Kitchen scales work better.

 

[foamspoon]

weight is weight... If you weight 200 lbs. without the chicken and then hold the chicken and you weigh 204.6 lbs. I would bet that chicken weights pretty close to 4.6 lbs.

 

[bowhunter862]

weight is weight... If you weight 200 lbs. without the chicken and then hold the chicken and you weigh 204.6 lbs. I would bet that chicken weights pretty close to 4.6 lbs.

 

[PotterWatch]

My point was that the bathroom scales I have had didn't get as specific as 4.6 lbs, you were generally guessing within 5lbs or so. I guess newer ones are better, being digital. I haven't had one for years so I was thinking of the older non-digital version.