Weight lost after process.

[Blue Man Dan.]

How much in total weight will a chicken lose after processing, i.e. losing its head, legs, feathers and innards?

as a fraction or a % of course....

 

[silkiechicken]

You get to keep about 75% of live weight, slightly less if you do toss legs, neck, gizzard, heart, liver. Those last things are great for stocks.

 

[Blue Man Dan.]

Well i probably need to clarify on previous posts..


I have 5 Cornish game and 5 Light Sussex in the Bator.

We are a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids - 5 and 2) so we don't need MASSIVE birds for the table. they are all for roasting purposes and the giblets will be kept for making stocks / gravy etc. as of this we only want an end weight of about 1.5 Kg or 3-4 Lb birds, some i will leave to get older so we will have some big birds if we have family over :O)

So really I need the live weight of a bird to be 5 Lb


I am hoping that the slaughter time will happen BEFORE the cocks start crowing, what are the chances of this happening? how old will my birds need to be before they meet the axe?

 

[terri9630]

Some of my cornish crosses started trying to crow at 5wks.

 

[silkiechicken]

I've not had a cornish x crow significantly on me yet... but if I understand right, you are planning on eating excess "dual" type birds. They'll almost certainly be crowing before they hit 5 lbs live. Go by age instead of weight on those guys.

 

[Blue Man Dan.]

Quote:
They are all going to be eaten, its just i wanted to eat the cocks before they started crowing - properly.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

she has cornish game not CX. Both of your breeds will be crowing before 5 lbs

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Yeah, that.

You'll want to eat them 14-16 weeks old or so if you can stand crowing. Most "meat birds" in this section refer to "cornish x rock" hybrids that grow very fast.