when are they full grown????

[Nicos]

I was just looking at my dominant cockerel Au Vin - and the size of his spurs:eek(:..he jumped up at me feet first the other day when I disturbed one of the lasses suddenly!)

I don't mind him doing that (at the moment) so long as it's my fault.

Anyway- it got me thinking- he must be about 1yr old now..and just when will he be fully mature??? Having seen piccies of other adult males , it looks like his long tail feathers need to grow another couple of inches...and how big do the spurs tend to grow??- they're about as long as his back toe at the moment.

[Hilary B]

I was just looking at my dominant cockerel Au Vin - and the size of his spurs:eek(:..he jumped up at me feet first the other day when I disturbed one of the lasses suddenly!)

I don't mind him doing that (at the moment) so long as it's my fault.

Anyway- it got me thinking- he must be about 1yr old now..and just when will he be fully mature??? Having seen piccies of other adult males , it looks like his long tail feathers need to grow another couple of inches...and how big do the spurs tend to grow??- they're about as long as his back toe at the moment.

A stag gets 'full size' by about 3, but he goes on growing better antlers each year until he is definitely becoming 'old'. I suspect there may be a parallel in the length of cockerel's tail feathers and spurs. It also varies with breed of course. My massive fluffy cochin cockerels actually had spurs the same length (in inches) as a neighbour's tiny bantam! (That was over 20 years ago, so exact size has slipped memory, it is them being the same I remember).

[Snadger]

At that rate when he's fully mature he'll be a tough old bird to eat!

My Light Sussex are 12/13 weeks, crowing, full combs and wattles and have loads of meat on them!

[davefromthechipie]

At that rate when he's fully mature he'll be a tough old bird to eat!

My Light Sussex are 12/13 weeks, crowing, full combs and wattles and have loads of meat on them!

god im a doing somthing wrong >< some of my ones are that age and dont have loads of meat on them !!!!!! they are growers pellets , 24/7 access to feed i give them treats too once a day . they arnt skinny but if i was to skin/eat them you would get more meat from a pigeon lol .

[Snadger]

god im a doing somthing wrong >< some of my ones are that age and dont have loads of meat on them !!!!!! they are growers pellets , 24/7 access to feed i give them treats too once a day . they arnt skinny but if i was to skin/eat them you would get more meat from a pigeon lol .

Some breeds mature quicker than others and each heavy breed usually has a show strain (more involved with colour, prettyness etc) and a utility strain bred for meat and eggs!.............or so I am led to believe!

[bluemoon]

Our Rhodies seem miniscule at 15 weeks. I saw Lynda's hens when they were 17 weeks and mine are currently half that size. I've had them since they were 9 weeks and the farmer still has a few left from the same hatch, but when I saw his they were the same as mine. Rhodies apparently develop slowly to the point where they remain difficult to accurately sex even when they are quite old (still not sure if one of ours is a cockerel). As Snadger says it depends on the breed and to a certain extent what they've been bred for, though ours are from a good utility strain so their small size, in this case, has nothing to do with them being show birds.

[Hilary B]

On average a cockerel won't put on much more flesh once he has reached the age at which his sisters start laying. After that he is too busy feeling his hormones to actually grow, but his tail feathers and spurs may continue growing for quite some time.