I did it - Meat bird !!!!! SO pleased!!!!

I finally did it
From egg to plate !!!! We had 4 chicks hatch in June and I have cared for them and fed them and looked after them since. But we are not allowed Roos so there was an issue as of course sooner or later some of them will doubtless turn into BOYS!

I have been dreading this because well the wee chicks were cute and I enjoyed watching them grow as I have before - but this time we had made the choice that if you crow you go!!! Meaning we were not going to look for homes for them but rather put them in the oven! - That is hard to do when you have loved and cared for your poultry!

Well the babies have given a great amount of pleasure and I have been more than aware of their growth and the weeks that have been ticking by. Well Friday there was an odd sound from the shed and Saturday there was a definite crow!!!! I had figured we had two roosters out of the chicks and was not at all sure which one was the crower. Then by Sunday I had a good idea and by Sunday afternoon I knew for sure - the grey one!!!!! The barred rock type thing went for me on Monday morning and so I locked him in the shed on his own and told DH to do the deed (while I was out because I am a coward!!!!) I came home to find a headless bird hanging in the garage! So I have plucked it and processed and last night I cooked it!!!!! - I can honestly say with every bite I thought - well you are never gonna bite or attack me again!!!!! - The meat was beautiful !!! And I am so very please with myself that finally from egg to plate - we have achieved a MEAT BIRD!!!!! -lol
Only thing is the other rooster is a beautiful big boy and is very very docile and loves his cuddles! - I called him Wesley after our vicar thinking someone might actually give him a home but the folk that said they would changed their minds - darn so I am sadly waiting for the day to come soon when Wesley will have to go too. It is funny though as -

I tuck Wesley into bed every night and warn him to be quiet and he is locked in my shed
Better not mention this in Bible study - or that I might eat him? -lol




The grey one got it - The white one I think is female and also the wee brown one next to her but the wee one at the back is definitely a roo boy! - that is Wesley and now he is a real handsome boy! -Darn!!!!! This is what you get for calling your birds after Church members! The grey one DH called Margaret as he thought it was a girl - I told her Sunday we were going to eat her! -lol Here is a lovely pic of Gwendoline with Edith and Wesley under her wing and Betty the white one hiding!


This is Gwendoline with "margaret" - Told DH it was a boy!


What is left of him from last nights dinner is now in the fridge waiting on me making some lovely sandwiches for lunch!

Though Gwendoline has been aimlessly wandering the yard looking for something? Do you think she know yet???? ooops!

Oes - yum !

Congratulations... Umm I guess lol! I wish I could do the deed but I just rehome my roos. I think it would be great not having to buy chicken at the store when I have a yard full of them but I don't even know how to pluck or process a chicken lol and I especially don't know how to "do the deed".

congratulations!

Good work! It is hard to take an animal that you raised yourself and decide to butcher it. However, this is one of the realities of chicken raising. At some time you are going to end up with a rooster or perhaps decide that it is time to replace your laying hens with younger, more productive ones. I think you've done something smart and practical in learning how to process a chicken. This summer I actually took in 20 unwanted roosters which people had raised and then had to rehome because they lived in places where they weren't allowed to have roosters. One I kept, one little bantam I found a great home for and the rest ended up in the crock pot or the freezer. Only one person actually asked me to teach them to butcher, which I happily did. The rest just didn't want to have anything to do with it. Their loss I figure. Again, congrats.

Hummingbird Hollow said:

Good work! It is hard to take an animal that you raised yourself and decide to butcher it. However, this is one of the realities of chicken raising. At some time you are going to end up with a rooster or perhaps decide that it is time to replace your laying hens with younger, more productive ones. I think you've done something smart and practical in learning how to process a chicken. This summer I actually took in 20 unwanted roosters which people had raised and then had to rehome because they lived in places where they weren't allowed to have roosters. One I kept, one little bantam I found a great home for and the rest ended up in the crock pot or the freezer. Only one person actually asked me to teach them to butcher, which I happily did. The rest just didn't want to have anything to do with it. Their loss I figure. Again, congrats.

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I had a few roosters that I breed before - I had one we called Big red and Duck and then I had a lovely Cream crested legbar and a Maran
The legbar was beautiful and the maran boy was hatched a week late and barely survived we struggled to rear him and it was a terrible time.
I managed to get a real good home for the legbar called Blues and Omlet the Maran - the other two I got a local couple to have them who assured me they were pets? Yeah right !!! They were soon dispatched and oven baked! I was so mad! I had done all the hard work for them to murder my boys and take the meat!!! I vowed if anyone was getting the benefit from all the hard work it was gonna be me and mine! so I learned to process!

Oes - though I do love this old roo I got int he shed - heavy boy already! He loves to jump into my arms every morning gonna cry when DH stretches his neck! Told a friend in church I had not stretched Wesley's neck yet - darn the vicar was behind me! -lol He knows I am going to eat him now! What you get for calling your roo after the vicar! -lol

I assure you that I'm always 100% truthful when I take people's roosters. Early in the summer I told them that I hoped that at the end of the summer I'd have one rooster that would live on with my ladies but the rest I would be processing and eating. Later in the summer I told them that I was pretty sure I'd found my keeper rooster and therefore the odds were very high that any rooster they dropped off would be butchered. I only had one person tell me "never mind" and one person who said "fine with me but don't tell my wife". I told him then he better be sure that his wife wasn't there when I picked the rooster up because if she asked I would tell the truth. Mostly people seemed OK with the idea, knowing that my goal was to be as humane and efficient as I knew how. It always makes me a little sad though because many of these roosters were absolutly beautiful boysand I really only had need and space for one. Here's the one I kept.

Has anyone raised pioneers for meat birds

The other rooster got dispatched over the holiday . Quick to die and slow to cook he was lovely - will I do meat birds again?
YES definitely!

Oes