What is the weight difference between a live and dressed chicken? I have silver barred chickens, can grow to 17 lbs.

-- Herb Buckingham (mtairy@bealenet.com), August 30, 1999

Answers

Chicken loose between 40 - 20 % of their body wieght through butchering. It depends on the breed (cornish broiler crosses dress out with a little more meat to bone), if you keep on the skin, and are you keeping giblets.

For a 17lb bird who is under a year old (?), and an older breed, I would guess around 11 - 14 lbs after dressing (keeping the skin and giblets).

I'd be corious to know how close this guess is.

-- Kathy (redfernfarm@lisco.com), August 30, 1999.