Sexing Buff Orpingtons at 16 Weeks?

[serinat]

Quote:
so they don't fight too much before five months? i read lots of threads that say butcher around 16 weeks, before the cockerels start to fight too badly. five months would be more like 20 weeks, which isn't too much longer to wait.

also, what about the meat getting tough? with heritage birds, you have to balance waiting for size with not letting them get too tough and muscle-y, yes?

thanks for all the help. my only experienced with pastured birds are the cornish crosses i used to buy, butchered and frozen, straight off the farm i used to shop at when i didn't have land of my own. eating heritage birds and figuring out when to butcher them is a big learning experience for me! there's a ton of info on raising pastured cornish crosses to 6 - 8 weeks, but not as much on raising a backyard flock and eating most of your boys at the "right time."

 

[DawnSuiter]

Yes it is a balancing act, but I have found my 5 month old boys just as yummy as the 4 month old boys, with the major difference being 5 month olds are plenty for dinner and 4 month olds were "slim" still.

NOW I"M NO EXPERT...

Perhaps you should experiment, and butcher a couple at 4 months and a couple at 5 months. I did this and after my experience have decided for us, that is a better time as the same amount of work yeilds much more meat.

so far the boys seem to get along fine until around that time 4-5 months as long as there is plenty of space and there are no girls to fight over. All I can say about that is.. of my extra roosters, the first to be aggressive is the first to go. I don't like to butcher too many in a day so spreading it out also works for me.

Disclaimer:
PLEASE don't anyone be offended (this kind of talk should be in the Meat Birds ETC area of the site) as I will not discuss butchering any further here nor is that the intention of this thread, it just happened to come up.

 

[hinkjc]

At this age, your boys should have some clearly visible saddle feathers coming in, which are quite bright and pointy compared to pullet plumage. Can you post pics?