Red Broiler hens look a wee bit scrawny 2 days before D Day

[themagicash]

My red broiler cockerel looks great (love how I got just one roo out of 8 birds in a st run) but some of the hens look pretty small. They are 11.5 weeks old. Their harvest date is this Saturday. If I hold off on harvesting some of the hens, how long can they go? Has anyone kept a red broiler till 18-20 weeks? Next week I am starting some CX and I could probably keep the red broilers until the CX are ready...

Anyone had issues on a long lived red broiler?

My 8 broilers are in a 40sqft run and occasionally free range my suburban yard. They have had 20-28% feed depending on what the store had in stock.

Thanks!

 

[mstricer]

In my opinion that is too high of protein and you could have all kinds of problems. 18% is what I always us. I had CX's that were laying before I butchered. Breast weren't as juicy but alright, I was able to get 5 meals from the breast meat of all the girls I butchered. The funniest thing was watching my Duccles mating with them it was like they were just sitting on a table

They were fertile too. I hatched one thinking it was Duccle but due to the lack of leg feathers I knew it was a CX mix, cute chick though.
Michele

 

[PotterWatch]

When I did red broilers, I kept the pullets until around 16wks and they weren't having any trouble. I could probably have kept them longer if I wanted to. We raise our CX on 22% feed for their whole lives though I wouldn't go any higher than that.