Best Age to Sell Roosters?

[Slothinc]

I will keep that in mind!

I have 17 chicks for sale and the ones who don't sell will be food, so I may have a large amount of meat, so I may do that!

If they aren’t already listed somewhere for sale, I’d list them right now and keep them listed until you decide to process them yourself. In my area you can’t give roosters away, not even purebreds. People here have even been giving away chicks and hens because the market is so over saturated and the “chicken fad” that started with the pandemic is dying out. So I wouldn’t really count on being able to sell them, unless your area is just totally different than mine.

 

[EdgeC]

Thank you for all the info about jarring! Would this work with silkie cockerels or are they simply too small/not enough meat to be worth it? You can’t even give boys away here. When you do this, do you drain out all the blood and gut them, and then cut off legs, head, etc?

Yeah gut them (first always), defeather, blood isn't a big issue and you can remove the feet and head. Simply cut into quarters still. Only thing with a silkie is you might need a smaller jar. If you want, you can give the liver/heart/feet/head etc... to your other animals (dogs) if you don't want them to go to waste... can compost the feathers

 

[chicken opey]

I have about 10 I will need to make decisions about

 

[GlicksChicks]

If they aren’t already listed somewhere for sale, I’d list them right now and keep them listed until you decide to process them yourself. In my area you can’t give roosters away, not even purebreds. People here have even been giving away chicks and hens because the market is so over saturated and the “chicken fad” that started with the pandemic is dying out. So I wouldn’t really count on being able to sell them, unless your area is just totally different than mine.

I have them listed in multiple areas.

It seems like people around here still like chickens.

 

[McChooky]

Most people raise game chickens here because the grounds so rocky you can't build a fence . Everything's an hrs drive from here.

 

[GlicksChicks]

Most people raise game chickens here because the grounds so rocky you can't build a fence . Everything's an hrs drive from here.

It is pretty rocky here as well. Thankfully where I plan to build a fence for a bigger chicken area, there was already a horse/goat fence in.

 

[NatJ]

Thank you for all the info about jarring! Would this work with silkie cockerels or are they simply too small/not enough meat to be worth it?

Any breed should work. You get more meat from big ones and less meat from small ones.

Whether silkie cockerels are too small is a matter of who you ask. Some people eat quail, which are smaller than almost any chicken you can find (even bantam cockerels tend to be larger than quail by the time you know they are males.)

I would suggest doing a few and then make a decision about what size is too small to be worth your time, because your personal answer may not match anyone else's.

 

[McChooky]

Any breed should work. You get more meat from big ones and less meat from small ones.

Whether silkie cockerels are too small is a matter of who you ask. Some people eat quail, which are smaller than almost any chicken you can find (even bantam cockerels tend to be larger than quail by the time you know they are males.)

I would suggest doing a few and then make a decision about what size is too small to be worth your time, because your personal answer may not match anyone else's.

I chose breeds that rarely go broody so I don't have a bunch of cockerels to deal with . Most of my chickens are leghorns so I get about a dozen eggs a day from my flock.They keep my family up in eggs but they don't have much meat on them .They make a good soup

 

[DawnLee]

I process mine no one buys males they are a dime a doz

It depends on the breed. I just sold my beautiful lavender English Orpington for 35. He is 10 months old.

 

[Coops Dad]

Thank you for all the info about jarring! Would this work with silkie cockerels or are they simply too small/not enough meat to be worth it? You can’t even give boys away here. When you do this, do you drain out all the blood and gut them, and then cut off legs, head, etc?

Silkies tend to give unappetizing carcasses because of their skin color, and tend to be very small compared to standard breed cockerels.

I've processed over 2 dozen cockerels, a half dozen aged-out laying hens and 20+ Cornish Cross meat birds in the last month. I start by killing and bleeding the bird (.22 to the dome, then slitting the neck arteries and hanging upside down for about 10 minutes) followed by a dip in 160* water to loosen the feathers. Then it gets a ride in the chicken plucker until it's naked. After that, it is gutted and either converted to quarters or vacuum bagged as a whole bird.

I've been eating pheasant, duck and goose since I was very young, so I was accustomed to disassembling fowl but, for the uninitiated, there are a ton of good videos on YouTube.