I have some LF roosters heading to the butcher at 12 weeks of age. I know it is a bit early but I need the space and they need to go. I also have some bantam roosters that are the same age as the LF roosters. I've been trying to find them homes and I have for a few but I still have at least 5. So I planned to grow them out to about 16 weeks and off to the butcher with them. Does anyone here have bantams butchered? I'm wondering how much meat is on them at 16 weeks? Should I grow them out a bit longer? They are taking up much needed space as well but not as much as the LF ones.
They will be small, yes, but to me, meat is meat. I've picked up and processed bantams, I ended up skinning them and making a whole lot of stock and a big pot of chicken and dumplings out of them. I also kept the meat off the rest, shredded and froze it, and I think we've finally eaten all of that too. Here's a bowl 'o banties (and silkies, and silkie/bantam crosses). I picked mine up free from someone who needed to get rid of a bunch of roos. They tasted like chicken I'm not sure the ages, but I think they were around 6 months.
I think it's worth it. Our family learned to process on four banty Brahma cockerels that were just 10 weeks old. We had a fried chicken dinner and the little kids loved the pint-sized chicken parts. We later processed a silkie roo and I have to say that cavity was pretty small for cleaning!
