Dark Cornish economics, part 2

We butchered another third of our cockerels last week, and I decided to crunch the numbers on these 16 week old Dark Cornish.  You might remember that at 12 weeks old, our cockerels weighed an average of 2.25 pounds per dressed carcass, which came out to a cost of $2.51 per pound.  Our 16 week old birds weighed 3 pounds apiece, and the new weight cost us $4.33 per pound in feed.  Clearly, letting our cockerels get older makes the feed to meat ratio worse, not better.

The 16 week old birds were also considerably spunkier.  I thought it was cute the first time I saw the cockerels roosting on the coop roof, but now I'm wondering how we're going to capture the last 9 birds before our last butchering day.  Even worse, when Mark went into the coop to catch his first chicken on our kill day, the chickens were so big and vigorous that one accidentally gave him a big scratch across his face.

I had been considering keeping a breeding pair of Dark Cornish to experiment with next year, but I've changed my mind.  I've decided we don't need --- or want --- a predator resistant breed, and would instead prefer something sedate and docile.  So the last 9 broilers are slated for slaughter this week, and next year's experiment is simmering on the back burner.