The Meatie weigh-along!

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

My largest weighed 2 3/4 pounds, smallest 2 1/2

Slow is the name of the game around here...

 

[backyardmenagerie]

BigDaddy'sGurl :

Slow is the name of the game around here...

Same here. I weighed one today, just to see where we are at, and it was only 2.5 lbs. So that's only half a pound gained in the last week, and that's after I switched them to 22% gamebird. I did move them outside, so they may be using more calories moving around and staying warm, but I feel like they are way behind on growth. And they're wasting a ton of food in the grass, too. Well, we can always wait longer to butcher them...​

 

[backyardmenagerie]

tgrlily, if you could weigh in today, that would great, and I can get the chart up tonight. Thanks!

 

[Bubbles_erin]

Ok so as far as raising them vs other breeds, I don't especially like them nor dislike them. I would do it again pending the outcome (ie how the meat turns out). The cons: they stink and poo a lot, eat a ton, drink a lot (so a little more work to them) pros: grow fast, short timeframe of raising them, forage okay, easygoing.

Recent observations and changes with my flock:
-no more layer/starter mix food, all my birds are eating 20% right now
-went out to check them mid-day a few days ago and they were out of food and water...increased food amount and check them more often now-this should help them gain quicker

Weighed one today and it was 4 lbs 12 oz!!!!

 

[backyardmenagerie]

Weighed mine yesterday, and they were bigger than I thought! 2lb 12 oz to 3 lb 4 oz. Average of 3 lbs. So the 2.5 lb one that I weighed Monday must have been the smallest.

Group 2, how are you guys doing? I believe all of you are due to weigh today or tomorrow.

Just out of curiosity, how many here are planning to process yourself, and if so, will it be your first time? How many are going to the butcher?




I'm expecting some new weights tonight, but I wanted go ahead to get this up.

 

[DogandPonyShow]

Quote:
I'll weigh in on Sat. The birds are looking bigger since last Sat., so I'm itching to get them on the scale... They went to 12 on/12 off tonight, and I hope to get them outside by this weekend. We got rain today, so I'm going to wait until that clears for sure.

I would love it if there was a reasonable butcher nearby, but there isn't. My husband and his uncle (farmers/hunters) will probably do the actual killing and I have some friends coming over as well to help with the rest. I think my friend's fiance might try to pull the "you eat it, you kill it" stuff but I'm not making anyone do anything they don't want to. I would rather not make the cuts at this point, but we'll see how it goes in a month or so.

 

[PotterWatch]

I'll be weighing tomorrow.

We process our own birds and so far I do most of the work. My husband runs the plucker but I pretty much do the rest. He says that he is going to try to do the killing, scalding, and plucking at some point and leave the rest to me. I'm not sure when that will happen but I hope he does some of it this batch.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

I'll be honest: after this venture I don't know if I will try again. I figured my costs for these meaties and each one cost me all told 6.99 each IF (that's a big IF) the last 50 lbs of feed was all it took. They are now just about out of feed again. That's another expenditure I wasn't expecting as they should have been just about big enough to butcher by now. I figure my cost per bird will now be closer to 10.00 by the time I butcher, if I wait. At this point, I may have to scrap it and process early with some nearly 3 pound birds. This is getting expensive!

 

[PotterWatch]

I weighed 10 of mine again this week and got an average weight of 11.5oz. The smallest I weighed was 9oz and the largest ones were 13oz.

 

[tgrlily]

Sorry I'm late with my numbers....
At 5 weeks, 3 days old mine weigh:
2 weigh 5lbs , 1 weighs 5.5lbs, 2 weigh 5.75lbs, & 1 weighs 6.5lbs!