Who long do dual purpose breeds take to be fat and ready?

[Mamaperreca]

We are new to this and bought dual purpose breeds instead of Cornish X.

Oh well, it hasn't been a big deal but I thought they were looking big. We butchered one this weekend and he was tiny.

How many weeks or months do they take?

Second, my mom thought they are not putting on weight as fast as they should be because they are free ranging during the day. So we are basically planning to have them still in the chicken tractor but stop moving them around. Forcing them to eat more feed than grass. Thoughts on this?

They are about 12 weeks.

 

[chickencrazymamahen]

You didn't say what kind of feed you were using, I use Purina Flockraiser start to finish, love it, love the way they grow. When butchered they are not going to look like supermarket chickens...the breast will be smaller and legs longer...not as meaty. We usually start butchering ours at about 12 weeks and they are rather small also, ( we just fry lots of potatoes and serve extra side dishes

) but oh so tender!!! We try and be finished by 16 weeks. Others on here recommend longer than that and then letting the carcass rest/cure for a couple days to tenderize. This year we are going to leave some to 18-20 weeks and try this, they should be quite nicely sized by then. Most of ours previously have averaged between 2-3 1/2 lbs. cleaned weight....so I am thinking a few more weeks to grow will put some extra weight on them. Good luck!!

 

[Mamaperreca]

Thanks. I was using Flock Raiser, and I just switched this week to a local Feed Store that grinds their own. It is still 21% protein with added vitamins and all kinds of good stuff. They seem to like it real well.

Yes, that all sounds pretty right on. The one we processed was VERY tender and yummy. I would say 2 lbs. or a little more but not much more. We are thinking 3-4 more weeks and then the biggest ones at least should be getting pretty nice.

We have a mix of Barred Rocks, RIR, Orpintons and all that. The lady at Orschelens *Assured* me that oh yes, they are just like the cornish, they take 6 weeks. LOL. Lesson learned there, for sure!

2 I am questioning to be Hens. So they get to live longer so I can find out for sure.

 

[chickencrazymamahen]

Thinking that the lady at Orschelns just wanted to get rid of all those peeping chicks!

We have never done the Cornish X, just not sure about getting them grown w/o the leg problems and then they would all need to be done pretty quickly, for us, its better to do a few at a time, so we do the slow grow and love the flavor. Good luck with the rest of them....our newest batch of mixed up heavy chicks is 6 weeks old, so we have a bit to go before butcher time. Have been out of "good" chicken for a while and can't hardly wait!

 

[Mamaperreca]

Yeah thanks, my mom came and helped us dress them and gave me a refresher on cleaning them out and all that. Much easier than I anticipated. We just skinned them and it was really quick. We have told our kids from the get-go that these are "eatin' chickens". However, we still treat them great, have fun watching them peck around. My daughter will go sit by the coop and feed them clover and stuff through the fence.