Nice harvest NM156.
Two seasons ago we took 20 White C-Rocks thru an experiment for longevity.. 10 were put down at 16 weeks.. That was in early July. The avg weight was 7-8 lbs with beautifully formed breast and thighs.
The other 10 we were to put down 5 in August and the last in Sept.
At this point all were very large and lazy..mostly hanging out in the shade or laying down next to the food supply. Although they were allowed free range they refused to forage or scratch out bugs....I did get two to eat a couple fishing worms I tossed to them but other than that ...nothing.
In the last 2 to 3 weeks leading into Sept., 4 died due to the heat, ...2 had to be put down due to hip dislocation (excessive weight) and the last 4 somehow made it to cull day.
Those 4 that did were truly Frankenstein looking birds....they gained about another 1/3 of their weight to an already huge bird.
The Breast halves dwarfed anything we had in the freezer from the last culling. The meat was very fatty due to the High grain content of the commercial feeds. One even had a tumorous growth on its upper back and several darken blood looking spots over its body..( we skin..not pluck)..that bird was disposed of. All these avg. 9 to 10 lbs
The remaining 3 were all within a pound or two of each other. We came out with an 11lb...12.3/4 lb and the last at 13lb 7 oz.
Seems the Genetic breakdowns appear to start around 12 to 13 weeks and by 20 weeks the birds bone structure simply can't support its weight any longer.....the meats appearance is more like "grocery store" chicken with its abundance of excessive "yellow" fat...due to the high corn and wheat/grain diet. The shear size of the "processed" bird more resembles a small to medium holiday turkey.
Like I said this was just an experiment on one particular test flock. The life span seems to be in the 16 to 20 week range with optimum bird cull at around 14 weeks. I'm thinking past 20 weeks would be useless to attempt due to cost and mortality rates. Though we have a neighbor whose first W-CR rooster lived long past the rest of the flock..this bird lived to be a ripe old age of 8 months and tipped the scales at 16 lbs.
To me this whole issue of Genetic Modification/Manipulation is frightening to ponder... I am a person who looks outside the "box" at most issues and have to wonder what other type modification experiments are being done on other animal species.......or even Humans.
