At what age do chicken farmers send chickens to the slaughter house?

[gritsar]

Quote:
That's the age at which the commercial birds (cornish Xs) are harvested around here. And at that age they are every bit as big or bigger than my 9 month old brahmas.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Leghorns are laying hens. Are you talking about birds for meat, which would be send to a processing plant, or are talking about spent hens, which would be sent to a rendering plant (or the compost pile)?

 

[Chef]

Quote:
Buy a pressure cooker, it makes almost any meat tender. You can also cut down on waste. Even the bones can be used. I put chicken bones in the cooker with water and rice and cook after reaching pressure for 20 minutes. The bones crumple easily. This mixture is then fed to my senior dogs to provide added calcium and prevent hip problems associated with older wolves.

Are wolves and dogs the same thing?

Yes, the meat of older birds is tougher. There has been alot more time for muscle tone to develope. I would suggest using the cornish x. Although they dont live very long I have a pair that is 10 months old and still get around just fine. The roo weights in at over 23#.

The hen is around 15#.

Chef

 

[WalkingWolf]

Actually chef most breeds of dogs were derived from wolves. And yes the AKC has recognized wolves as a breed of dog. German shepherds, and most large breed dogs have problems in senior years if calcium is not augmented.

I understand that birds breed specifically for meat, are a better option when only using the birds for meat. But there is no sense of wasting a layer when it reaches that point that it is not worth the feed for the reduced laying over time. In that case I and others have no problems processing those birds for the table. But then they are used as most would use game meat. We use our pressure cooker a lot. Squirrel got cooked in it last night meat falling off of the bone. I have cooked some of the toughest cuts of beef, and buffalo and had it so tender it can be cut with a fork. Nothing gets wasted including the bones. I was just suggesting that a old bird does not have to be a tough bird if cooked right.

 

[PetalumaChicken]

I assume you mean spent layers. For backyard layers I sent mine to a friend to eat when their egg production fell down to 1 a week or less, and I couldn't bring myself to kill them. That happened when they were about 3 years old. If I can get beyond that in the future, I'll try pressure cooking them or making them into chicken stock for soup.