all male review

[gadus]

I'm getting dual purpose birds and will be incubating myself. I plan on not sexing the birds and killing the males at fourteen weeks - as well as the layers at the two year mark.

Is there a huge difference in taste with males? Is either one necessarily a better choice for chicken stock?

I notice that McMurray sells both sexes of meat birds for most breeds - with not too substantial price differences - so maybe it's just a question of ease of slaughter.

Thoughts?

 

[kattabelly]

When you say dual purpose, do you mean "heritage" type breeds or the slower growing meat birds that I think have become more popular relatively recently from the big US hatcheries?

They're still perfectly edible, and you might find you prefer the texture and taste of the meat at that age, but heritage type dual purpose cockerels really won't have all that much meat on their bones at fourteen weeks old.

If you just want to make chicken stock and aren't too bothered about the meat itself, I'd save yourself the space and time and feed costs and just look for unwanted cockerels or old hens people are either giving away or selling cheap.