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Growing out birds question

Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2020 12:12 pm
by Jaye
Newbie question here. I have never grown out birds for consumption before and so have no idea of what age they should be before they are dispatched. In the past I have been able to re-home birds that turned out to be male. Now I am faced with an overpopulation of boys, and nowhere for them to go. One of them is a lovely Splash Ameraucana, but sadly has a lot of red leakage, so is pet quality and wouldn't likely be of interest to anyone breeding Ameraucanas. For him, the decision has been made to grow him out for freezer camp. Not doing Kijiji for him because he will likely wind up on someone else's dinner plate.
What is the optimal age for this to happen?

Re: Growing out birds question

Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2020 1:35 pm
by Killerbunny
I ususally go 24 weeks with heritage type birds

Re: Growing out birds question

Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2020 2:20 pm
by Jaye
Thanks, @Killerbunny . He's 13 weeks old now. Hope his crow remains low volume and infrequent for the next 11 weeks.

Re: Growing out birds question

Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2020 3:33 pm
by Killerbunny
I found my ameraucana males needed the extra time because they were a bit skinny (tasty though) The Barred rocks went 4 - 4.5lbs at 24 weeks.