Rainbow broilers maturity?new to meatbirds

[esme13]

So I am a newbie when it comes to broilers. When the pandemic happened, I added 3 broilers to my small chick order.

I am finding out that broilers eat a lot. And I mean a lot! 3 birds can finish a whole feed bowl , while my 8 chicks same age don’t. Because of that, I started free ranging and restricting the broilers intake of feed. 12hr breaks

they are getting huge! I have 2 hens and 1 roo. Never had any kind of rooster. So my main question is how long does it take for this breed to mature? When would a rooster and hen reach maturity? Or they earlier than other breeds??

Do broilers crow a lot? And when if I held a hen to keep in my flock, when would she likely lay (age)?

I have two hens. One has a very red comb and the other is very pale. They are only 8 weeks old. Currently the size of my polish, just way heavier. The rooster, well he has a pretty comb and his lovely tail is coming in. Any tips advice I’d enjoy to hear. As I’ve never had them, I did read up on them. But it’s different once you raise them.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I don't think they are old enough to crow when you butcher them

 

[iwltfum]

You can probably butcher them by 10-14 weeks. We butcher our ranger type breeds at 8 weeks and around 4.5 pounds butchered, but you could push them another month or two and have 7-10 pound birds potentially. After too long, you will spend more feeding them than the meat will be worth to you.

 

[esme13]

Do they ever slow down eatting? Or is it their mission to eat non stop? If I held on to a hen, would I regret it with feed ratio?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Unless you drastically change their diet and living quartets, you can't really 'hold onto' a hen. They're built to self destruct

 

[esme13]

Unless you drastically change their diet and living quartets, you can't really 'hold onto' a hen. They're built to self destruct

That is good to know!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Even then though they won't produce fabulous offspring for eating. Theyre hybrids, and the chicks will more than likely just be regular smaller birds

 

[esme13]

Even then though they won't produce fabulous offspring for eating. Theyre hybrids, and the chicks will more than likely just be regular smaller birds

All of this is great to know if one did keep until laying, what’s the earliest and latest they can start laying ? What is the life span of these hybrids? And any ideas what mixes into them? Or is that just all over the pace with the hybrids? I like learning

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Best results are butchering at like 10 weeks I think. They probably only live a tear or two though if you force them to eat less and move, but they just are meant to be but ch ered

 

[JacinLarkwell]

And each hatchery normally has different crosses