Any hope that this Buff Orpington is a girl?

[kslizza]

14 weeks, 2 days

I admit it, I'm probably in denial, but after reading about spurs, I'm grasping at anything that might let me keep this sweetheart. Pretty much everything about this bird says roo, even to my newbie eyes: giant legs, redder, larger comb than sister, fountain tail. But there's just a flat little round spot where I would guess spurs would grow (see close-up in 3rd picture), so my faint hope has been renewed. Assuming he's a he, I've got to ask - what is the optimal age to eat a chicken?

Thanks,
Kelly

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

That is a cockerel.

 

[donrae]

That's a rooster, sorry. Spurs often don't come in until much later, sometimes not til a year or so.

18-20 weeks is going to be your good window to process this guy. Check out the meat bird section for some good threads on slaughtering and cooking dual purpose birds.

 

[kslizza]

I'm trying to accept reality. I'm over in the processing forum right now to see if I can go through with it. I hate to put all this spoiling and expensive treats into him and not get anything back. He's from my first ever and only incubation attempt, so I'm working my way up to the inevitable choice of re-homing (and someone else probably eating him) or eating him myself. I'm leaning more towards nom nom nom by the minute.

 

[donrae]

The best advice I can give on a bird you're attached to is to process him and put him in the freezer for a few months. Don't plan on eating him right away, it will be too fresh in your mind and quite possibly too difficult for you to eat. A few months later, the butchering, etc. won't be so fresh in your mind and it will be more like eating chicken, not an animal you were attached to. After we process chickens we eat a lot of beef and pork, after we process pork we eat a lot of chicken lol. The only thing we really eat fresh is venison, cause I didn't know them!

 

[Studio2770]

You can caponize him. (neuter) It makes him taste better but while he's alive he will be docile and quiet since there's no testes. Info on this is in the meat birds section.

 

[kslizza]

He's super sweet and not crowing yet, but since it's inevitable and he's at the right age for meat, I arranged to have someone else process him. I was reading up on caponizing (never had any idea that was a thing!) just last night to see if that would keep him from crowing, but it seems like it's not surefire.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm kinda looking forward to trying a home-raised chicken now!