Unwanted Males

[MamaPoult]

Hello all,

My wife and I are brand new to this. We purchased 1 dozen mixed sex chicks with the intent to raise them for eggs. We have 6 Rhode Island Reds and 6 other random species.

We are wondering what to do with the males. My preference would be to slaughter for meat. We do want to keep them as 'pets' and I don't want them to needlessly go to waste.

Specifically, I want to know when to slighter them.

If I slaughter them early enough (before sexual maturity) wikill them taste the same as hens? The internet seems to suggest that in the meat industry that males and females are raised and slaughtered. I fully understand that I have laying breeds, but in theory, if I slaughter the birds early enough they should NOT be roosters and just taste like normal chicken?

Thanks

Hi! The internet is wrong. In my experience roos taste just the same. We prefer them since they get bigger! A not tasty chicken is an old chicken. I'd slaughter at about 8 months but we do ours as young as 5 since out extremely short summer.

 

[Molpet]

Cooking methods by age