They are eating well and growing fast. It's a bit of a shock to me how fast they develop, but if they were Cornish Cross (the most popular breed in factory farming), they would be ready for slaughter now. That's a frightening thought! Some of our Mistral Gris birds struggle to move around as they have a growth spurt, but then their strength catches up with their weight. A Cornish Cross that is developed to be fully grown at 5 weeks, can barely stand at this point.
There are lots of differences between the meat birds and the layers that we are raising together, apart from size, behaviours are different. The layers are starting to roost but the meat birds are too heavy to fly up there. While they are quite active, they are just as happy to lie in a feeder and stuff as much food in as possible.
A few photos to show you what I mean (the black and grey birds are the meat birds):
