when to harvest broilers?

[amber t]

It seems popular to broiler 'em at 8wks. But they are tiny, not much meat for the work. My BO's are 5mo and finally look big enough to eat. The drumsticks and breast still look skinny. Maybe I am just used to hormone infused chicken from the store.

Should I get a different breed for meat, and process them at 8 weeks? How big is a live broiler and what does it dress out to?

 

[Bossroo]

The so called dual purpose chicken such as your BO will take many months to be big enough to be worth butchering. However if one raises the true meat chicken , the Cornish X, one will be able to butcher one at 35 days of age for about a processed 2 lb. " game hen" . Or, butcher at 6-8 weeks for a processed weights of 4-6 lbs broiler. If one wants to roast a larger bird, it can be processed between 11-15 weeks for a roasting bird of 8-14 lbs. For your information the "hormone infused chicken from the grocery store". is NOT hormome infused, but a very intensivey selected natural bird by University and private researchers for the past half century using selected lines of grandparent and parent crossbred lines developed for feed efficiency, superior conformation and very rapid growth and having spent millions of dollars for this research .

 

[chicken pickin]

Not sure your exactly what your asking. Im guessing your looking for the type of meat bird that is fast growing to process at 8 weeks old. If so then you would be looking for broilers like a cornish x or something similar. They have a rapid growth rate and are ready for process between 6-8weeks of age. I have broilers now from Meyer Hatchery and they are growing out huge and healthy. They are 5 weeks 4 days and our plan is I think to process them next weekend at 6weeks 6 days (i may wait til 8 weeks but next weekend is when we have help) Im hoping their weights after process are at an average of 6lb birds with some males a little larger and some females a little smaller.

Here is their pic at 5 weeks of age

 

[Oregon Blues]

If you want a decent size bird at 8 weeks, your only option is the Cornish Cross or Pekin duck.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

I agree, there isn't a bird out there that grows as fast as the Cornish X.