The Meatie weigh-along!

[DogandPonyShow]

*sniffle* Final live weigh-in from Thursday... We had a hot spell here and the meaties were getting stressed - panting and holding their wings out, plus one flipped a few days before the weigh-in. Of course, this was the weekend that everyone was busy/out of town, so I decided to take them to a processor a couple hours away rather than try to push them another week. On the plus side, it was super quick for me... I dropped them off and they were ready within an hour. On the other hand, I don't know that I'll take them again because they were handled a bit roughly for my liking. I know that when you process hundreds, it gets to be routine, but I wasn't keen on the "lifting them out of the boxes by a wing" deal. I'm expecting to find a lot of unnecessary dislocated shoulders. Anyway, on to the live weights. They're resting in the fridge and I'm going to try to part them out and weigh them today.

Live weights, 45 days old.

Range: 80.75 oz - 111 oz. (5 lbs 0 3/4 oz. to 6 lbs. 15 oz.)
Mean: 93.75 oz. (5 lbs. 13 3/4 oz.)
St Dev: 9.5 oz.

Total weight: 1218.75 oz. / 76.17 lbs.
Change from last week: ~26% (Roughly - harder to calculate because I lost one)

 

[DogandPonyShow]

Okay, double posting because I just finished up getting the birds in the freezer... I left 8 whole (5 going to my husband's uncle, 3 for us) and parted out 5. It was my first time(s) breaking down a chicken, so a great skill to learn anyway. One chicken breast stayed in the fridge for my dinner tonight and I kept a whole one out for dinner tomorrow.

Range: 3.23 lbs. - 4.47 lbs
Average: 3.80 lbs

Total Weight: 49.46 lbs. for 13 birds
69% dressed percentage

Overall, I'm happy about the way they look. I would raise the Cornish crosses again, but will have to find the right time to raise another batch between the heat and the rain. We don't really have "Spring" or "Fall" here! I would also buy from Meyer again - I had one not right that died early on and one flip, but everyone else was happy and hearty.

 

[NonnasBabies]

I completly lost the other thread.

We processed ours Saturday. At 8 weeks the largest was 6 lbs 11.1 oz and the smallest was 5 lbs 2.2 oz. Lost one last Tuesday, her comb and wattle started turning purple.

Will definetly be raising these again!!

I forgot to add this pic!! The 2 small ones on top re 2 roosters we culled!!

 

[PotterWatch]

I am about half a week late in weighing my 5wk olds. Did them today instead of last Thursday or Friday. They had an average weight of 3lbs 11oz. We are hoping to process around the 20th but we may have to wait a little longer based on their current weights. We had one flip since our last weigh-in so we are down to 24 of the 5wk olds.

 

[ChickenAlgebra]

We're hitting a 5 pound average on the fatties now

It got HOT here this weekend, so we put a cut down kiddie pool with an inch of water in it and let the boys sit in the water. They didn't get too stressed actually, tho the water was beyond disgusting!

Processing them on Saturday, we are just getting too hot here for it to be worth the stress for this many. Plus, the amount of water they have to drink is insane, we just leave a hose on for them on low pressure and they STILL have emptied the bowl repeatedly.

 

[BarefootMom]

Quote:
my meaties turn 6 weeks tomorrow and are drinking a 5 gallon bucket every 24 hrs...there are only 24 of them! lol I have a box fan hooked up in the coop that is blowing down on them, they seem to really enjoy that and don't act too stressed so we are going to strive for the 8 week mark.

 

[ChickenAlgebra]

Quote:
my meaties turn 6 weeks tomorrow and are drinking a 5 gallon bucket every 24 hrs...there are only 24 of them! lol I have a box fan hooked up in the coop that is blowing down on them, they seem to really enjoy that and don't act too stressed so we are going to strive for the 8 week mark.

The boys on Sunday drained a 5 gallon bucket in 6 hours. Thus, the hose is on for them.

They have the box fan, the pool, all the cold water they can drink, shade and they are STILL panting at times. We put their food and water near the fan and pool so they aren't moving until the kids go scoop out their filth.

Thus why we try to NOT do meaties in the summer.

 

[backyardmenagerie]

Hi everyone. Sorry to have been ignoring you. I have an updated chart, and hope to get the graph updated too. I seem to be missing some data... I'm sure it's here somewhere, but I've been so overwhelmed with homework lately that I probably missed it. If you see an error for your data, like I have the weights in the wrong age column, or I missed a week, please let me know. Thanks.

PS. Anyone have some really good recipes for chicken?

 

[WildflowerJLH]

My FRs are 2 weeks today. Nothing has changed except weight.

High = 4.3 oz
Low = 2.0 oz
Average = 3.1 oz

 

[backyardmenagerie]

I will get that added, thanks!

Also, wanted to let everyone know I added a "losses" column. I haven't kept track of everyone's losses so far, so if you could let me know at your next weigh-in how many you have lost, that would help me out a lot. Thanks!