*Roosters ONLY!* (Rooster Management)

[Amos-Moses]

slaughter at like 16 at the most weeks or only good for stew

So after 16 weeks the meat toughens up?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Actually you can stretch to 20 weeks after that is stew

 

[varidgerunner]

With proper aging and cooking you can have two year old roosters that are melt in your mouth tender and have flavor out of this world.

 

[Amos-Moses]

...Any attempt at housing large numbers of mature roosters together is likely to end much the same as the illegal activities that you fear them being used for...

I have heard that if roosters are kept away from hens, then they will have less to compete for and thus are less likely to fight. I've been told that some rooster-only flocks can be quite civil. What is your opinion on this, am I being naive?

If everything goes as planned, the roosters would only be cooped up at night, with free-range of the back side of my property from dawn to dusk. Also, they would be harvested by 6 months of age.

Do you think that they would still end up battle-royaling on a regular basis under these circumstances?

 

[varidgerunner]

Somebody will be the hen, if you know what I mean. (Thing high security incarceration). If you have a hen anywhere on seven acres, some of them will be outside her door unless she is in soundproof walls. If she has a rooster with her, he is not going to like the attention. At six months it's hard to say. Every breed and line within the breed matures differently. I have pure games that would be OK in such a set-up until ten months. I have others that wouldn't do four. Brahmas would do six months, leghorns not so much.

 

[ShannonR]

As a gamefowl fancier, I have done a lot of research into gamefowl, the people that have kept gamefowl, and the history of gamefowl, including their original purposes. The concept of a "bait rooster" is erroneous, bordering on myth. Think of it from a logical perspective. What you are suggesting would be like going to a preschool or nursing home to pick up sparring partners for a heavyweight boxer. Sell your extra cockerels, if what you view as seedy looking foreigners buy them, it is most likely that they are intending to slaughter them for food. If they do possess gamefowl, either as a reminder of their homelands, for the birds superior pet qualities (having been bred for ease of human handling for thousands of years, unlike most of the degenerate breeds gracing the hatchery catalogs), or if they keep them for nefarious reasons, they have little need or interest in your barnyard bred birds for anything outside of their protein contribution. They certainly are not needed to cause roosters to do what comes quite naturally to all breeds of rooster. Any attempt at housing large numbers of mature roosters together is likely to end much the same as the illegal activities that you fear them being used for.

Thank you so much for this post. You explained the bait chicken myth very well. It has always irritated me that people think this about what happens to extra roosters. I mean, really? Why do people's minds automatically go to the worst possible place? I could rant on and on regarding this subject, but to put it bluntly-- nobody wants your worthless little fluffy butt rooster for 'bait'. Dinner, maybe.

 

[Amos-Moses]

...to put it bluntly-- nobody wants your worthless little fluffy butt rooster...

I didn't realize that my ignorance would offend so many people, my apologies for passing on hear-say. I am more than happy to be corrected, but do you really have to insult my roosters?

I would argue that a dual-purpose breed rooster has more inherent worth than a gamefowl rooster. I understand that worth is subjective but meat, hen management/protection, and the ability to produce good egg laying offspring seems inherently valuable to an agrarian society. Perhaps I do not know enough about gamefowl, but I don't see their inherent worth. I think they are absolutely beautiful and it breaks my heart that so many breeds are in danger of extinction since cock-fighting has been outlawed, but I personally don't see how they contribute very much to society.

 

[varidgerunner]

I didn't realize that my ignorance would offend so many people, my apologies for passing on hear-say. I am more than happy to be corrected, but do you really have to insult my roosters?

I would argue that a dual-purpose breed rooster has more inherent worth than a gamefowl rooster. I understand that worth is subjective but meat, hen management/protection, and the ability to produce good egg laying offspring seems inherently valuable to an agrarian society. Perhaps I do not know enough about gamefowl, but I don't see their inherent worth. I think they are absolutely beautiful and it breaks my heart that so many breeds are in danger of extinction since cock-fighting has been outlawed, but I personally don't see how they contribute very much to society.

Time for school.

"Gamefowl" are essentially 50% of every broiler chicken raised commercially. The Cornish breed was a blend of Asil and Old English Gamefowl. (Although from my attempts at recreation, the Cornish has a good bit of "fluffy butt" in there too.) The Game definitely gave them their type, and their ample breast. In fact, many breeds are game based. Buckeyes for instance. Rhode Island reds as well. They were probably much better breeds back when they had a fresh infusion of game. My game cross hens are both beautiful and productive, it is easy to see why someone would build a breed around them, but if allowed to keep degenerating away from the game traits, they become just another helpless chicken, with no survival instinct, no predator evasion capabilities, and very little chick rearing instinct. Every breed that we have is derived from game chickens. That is why chickens were domesticated. People living in a jungle with trees hanging with fruit in all seasons, wild hogs, and the eggs of a million shorebirds nesting by a sea teaming with fish did not domesticate a bony 4 pound, wild jungle bird that hides its 20 small eggs a year for the purpose of meat and eggs.

Most breeds, compared to games are basically degenerate. Flawed in many ways, especially mentally. They lack the instincts that games have, and are prone to quirky behavior. Games, through their historic, and in many places current use, are superior, having been shaped by nature into a machine of perfect form and function, rather than misshapen by human fancy. This is why it is not uncommon at all to see games approaching twenty years of age, sometimes still breeding. Games are so much more noble than mere barnyard chickens, in their carriage, persona, and human interaction capabilities.

As a bird for the backyard or homestead, they are without equal. They can forage their own food, are survival experts, and self replicate at an alarming rate. Thanks to the skills of a game hen, excellent paternal traits selected for in the males beget excellent maternal traits in females. There is simply no better chick raiser. It took me a long time to realize why my grandmother, who was no cockfighter, spoke so fondly of her game chickens. She lived in a time before electricity, when a good broody hen was a necessary component of any poultry operation.

While not great for egg production (mine keep me in eggs most of the year) it is a simple matter to chuck some leghorn eggs under them and have laying hens coming on at all times. The meat is excellent, being much more like pheasant in flavor and texture. It requires a little different handling than the eight week old comparably bland and flavorless broiler chickens, but is quite good. I eat all of my extras, and get rid of my dual purpose breed extra roosters hatched under game hens through live chicken sales to foreign people. Simply not worth the freezer space when there are games to be had. My extras amount to spare hens that live in the woods, and manage to breed a cock on a tether and get a nest past me without me switching them out. Anything of known breeding is worth too much to simply eat. Since they are rare, thanks to many people having attitudes such as yours, they are pretty valuable to those who seek a little something more in their poultry.

Some people collect them, like Pokemon or stamps. Having different varieties in a collection is important. Some varieties have quite a bit of historical significance, and others very unique traits. I have sold birds to people from other countries where gamefowl are more commonly kept. I always assume the worst and usually question people outright. I find that in most cases, these people want birds for their kids, as they had chickens when they were kids. They buy farm store chicks and invariably end up with a mean rooster that attacks their kid. Knowing that this behavior is not likely with game roosters, they seek out birds for their children from breeds that have been intensively selected for thousands of years for it to be easy for humans to handle adult males, even when slightly agitated, without them turning on humans, as well as the females raising baby chicks, living a long time, bearing confinement well, being able to tolerate being alone, and a host of other traits that make them superior as children's pets.

Just because you can't see the value in something does not mean it is not there, or that other people don't see it. Don't take offense at any perceived insult to your mere barnyard chickens, just understand that gamefowl keepers and fanciers are not all criminals with birds with no value outside of criminal activities.

 

[sourland]

@Amos-Moses, I doubt that your query has upset anyone. The 'upset' has to do with the recurring urban legend 'bait chicken' idea. All is cool with you and your questions.

@varidgerunner, thank you for several well voiced, pertinent, and overdue posts of true facts about gamefowl. Well done.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I have heard that if roosters are kept away from hens, then they will have less to compete for and thus are less likely to fight. I've been told that some rooster-only flocks can be quite civil. What is your opinion on this, am I being naive?....

I don't think that the word 'civil' is the correct term. Rooster only flocks still have a pecking order and while all out war between the various roosters or cockerels in one of these men only flocks can be rare, that doesn't mean that they are conflict free. First with young cockerels is is best to include a 2 or 3 year old cock bird of sufficient size and temperment to keep the teenage chickens buffaloed, or under control. Then there is the different breeds or strains of chickens and not all of these strains will run together even in the total absence of hens. It is quite common for low ranking cockerels to be subjected to repeated gang rapes in these types of flocks. We're talking about 20 or 30 roosters at a time all waiting on their turn.