BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[RedRidge]

 


It would be more to sell them right away and not waste money.
EDIT: Or to give them to someone who would eat them.
EDIT: Would there be another breed which is auto sexing which would be a better producer?

Most sell day old chicks as straight run with no guarantee of gender.

Rhodebars are here
Welbars I do not know about

Both are dual purpose.

As someone who has been working on rhodebars for quite a while, I can give you my experience... you get what you pay for. ;-)
First of all, the stock from GFF (at least rhodebars) needs dire improvement... and that's assuming they are even purebred.
Aside from that, I had my own reasons for wanting autosexed dual purpose poultry... I have a large ready outlet for day old cockerels. Please note all the adjectives I just used... autosexed AND dual purpose.
The rhodebars I started with lay awesome, but dual purpose they are not. For something that "should" be the equivalent of a standard bred RIR (with autosexing and proper barring), the rhodebar foundation stock didn't even come close.
So, you need to consider your reasons for wanting an autosexed variety. If it's something you really want, then I suggest you get best corresponding genetics you can and begin your own breed improvement project. It's been a great project and I've learned a ton, but it isn't an overnight sensation.
I am blessed with some very awesome RIR, otherwise I wouldn't have taken this project on. The RIR I have are truly dual purpose, have excellent carcasses and lay very well - I absolutely love them.
I have both a large egg market and meat market (that's how we make our living... beef, lamb, poultry and rabbits... so being able to sell day old cockerels to chefs knowing they'll be nice breasted cockerels with great flavor fits nicely into our market.
It's working well for us, but I realize it isn't for everyone.
Weigh the pros and cons for yourself... if you have the time and the space you could create something really wonderful. ;-)

 

[bnjrob]

This is my dilema as well; when to cull cockerels.

I HAVE to add a grow out pen somewhere far away. 1) I want to see what I have to work with and make an educated choice. In the past I have rushed to cull because of feed expense and fighting. 2) I can't get over the notion of the waste. Killing a little baby is hard! These birds could be used.

I am hoping to find a market for my stewers and cockerels. I am going to talk to the mission in town. I know they take dear killed on a nuisance permit, but usually butchered. I am going to approach the Asian market in town. I am hoping they will have a community that will want them. I still have to sell cockerels for something if I am going to feed them. Low producing egg hens I feel less inclined to sell for much as I have already made my money. I may work a 2 for deal??? Anyway chicken feet are big in that community and I am looking to sell those off when I butcher. I don't know if I could do snake food. Seems cruel. I would rather chop their heads! I also have a huge hispanic community I am hooked into here because of all the farmers around us. I think I may be able to find buyers that way. I have a few point men to that community. I know many middle easterners buy and kill their own goats, maybe chickens too? Think culturally. Maybe you have some of these communities in your area?

Have you thought about keeping them yourself and using the meat? I took some of the cocks we just butchered, took the raw meat off the bones, and ran the meat through a hand-crank meat grinder. I got a little over 7 lbs of ground chicken from 4 carcasses. The bones and skin I threw into the freezer and will make broth from them when I have time. I've already tried some of the ground chicken and was quite pleased. I normally buy turkey burger instead of ground beef, since turkey is cheaper. But it is almost $3/lb for a frozen roll of it, fresh ground turkey is even higher, closer to the cost of ground beef.

 

[RedRidge]

 
This is my dilema as well; when to cull cockerels.

I HAVE to add a grow out pen somewhere far away.  1) I want to see what I have to work with and make an educated choice.  In the past I have rushed to cull because of feed expense and fighting. 2) I can't get over the notion of the waste.  Killing a little baby is hard! These birds could be used.

I am hoping to find a market for my stewers and cockerels. I am going to talk to the mission in town.  I know they take dear killed on a nuisance permit, but usually butchered. I am going to approach the Asian market in town.  I am hoping they will have a community that will want them.  I still have to sell cockerels for something if I am going to feed them.  Low producing egg hens I feel less inclined to sell for much as I have already made my money.  I may work a 2 for deal???  Anyway chicken feet are big in that community and I am looking to sell those off when I butcher.  I don't know if I could do snake food.  Seems cruel.  I would rather chop their heads!  I also have a huge hispanic community I am hooked into here because of all the farmers around us.  I think I may be able to find buyers that way.  I have a few point men to that community.  I know many middle easterners buy and kill their own goats, maybe chickens too?  Think culturally.  [COLOR=FF0000]Maybe you have some of these communities in your area?[/COLOR]

Have you thought about keeping them yourself and using the meat?  I took some of the cocks we just butchered, took the raw meat off the bones, and ran the meat through a hand-crank meat grinder.  I got a little over 7 lbs of ground chicken from 4 carcasses.  The bones and skin I threw into the freezer and will make broth from them when I have time.  I've already tried some of the ground chicken and was quite pleased.  I normally buy turkey burger instead of ground beef, since turkey is cheaper.  But it is almost $3/lb for a frozen roll of it, fresh ground turkey is even higher, closer to the cost of ground beef. 

We always keep a certain number of each kind of animal for us each year... but selling the extra is business. Afterall, we can't eat several hundred sheep, several dozen steers, or several hundred cockerels. ;-) even if you're feeding your own family, most poultry folks hatch out way more cockerels than they can eat each year.

 

[bnjrob]

We always keep a certain number of each kind of animal for us each year... but selling the extra is business. Afterall, we can't eat several hundred sheep, several dozen steers, or several hundred cockerels. ;-) even if you're feeding your own family, most poultry folks hatch out way more cockerels than they can eat each year.

Well if you can easily find a market for them within the confines of your state laws, then it is worth getting the money for them.

 

[ronott1]

Have you thought about keeping them yourself and using the meat? I took some of the cocks we just butchered, took the raw meat off the bones, and ran the meat through a hand-crank meat grinder. I got a little over 7 lbs of ground chicken from 4 carcasses. The bones and skin I threw into the freezer and will make broth from them when I have time. I've already tried some of the ground chicken and was quite pleased. I normally buy turkey burger instead of ground beef, since turkey is cheaper. But it is almost $3/lb for a frozen roll of it, fresh ground turkey is even higher, closer to the cost of ground beef.

How old were they?

 

[bnjrob]

How old were they?

The ones I used for ground chicken were year old cocks that we hadn't had time to butcher yet. They were the obvious culls and a little smaller than the ones still out there that I need to go through for a final cull. Their carcasses dressed out at 5 to 5.5 lbs. If I had taken more time I could have gotten a little more meat, but since I was going to use the scraps for broth anyway, I didn't feel like getting every single piece of meat off the bones.

Also did some 5 month old cockerels that dressed out at 4 to 4.5 lbs. They went into the freezer whole.

 

[ronott1]

The ones I used for ground chicken were year old cocks that we hadn't had time to butcher yet. They were the obvious culls and a little smaller than the ones still out there that I need to go through for a final cull. Their carcasses dressed out at 5 to 5.5 lbs. If I had taken more time I could have gotten a little more meat, but since I was going to use the scraps for broth anyway, I didn't feel like getting every single piece of meat off the bones.

Also did some 5 month old cockerels that dressed out at 4 to 4.5 lbs. They went into the freezer whole.

That is a great use of them.

I usually make chicken and dumplings out of the old ones--and skin them instead of plucking them.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: If I might add . . . home grown and processed poultry meat is without all the added broth and water. it bothers me to see up to 20% added broth to a whole turkey carcass. That is expensive water and salt in my opinion. The Perdue roaster that I roasted last week had a shocking amount of liquid in the bottom of the roasting pan. If a salt solution is preffered, there are many recipes and you can control how much and what flavors. . .. . . just my opinion.

 

[RiddleMe]

Quote: I do the same thing with my older cockerels/cocks, hamburger is just getting too expensive and the chicken has great depth of flavor. Plus, the dark meat on them is so dark once it's ground up my husband can kinda almost convince himself he's getting beef. I wouldn't try to pass it off in a hamburger, but it works pretty much anywhere else. Also, add the right spices and some fat and it makes good sausage.

edited - guess I should have mentioned I also skin them, but I still save the carcass for bone broth. I've also cooked it bone-in in the crockpot and it's turned out nice and tender.

 

[bnjrob]

If I might add . . . home grown and processed poultry meat is without all the added broth and water. it bothers me to see up to 20% added broth to a whole turkey carcass. That is expensive water and salt in my opinion. The Perdue roaster that I roasted last week had a shocking amount of liquid in the bottom of the roasting pan. If a salt solution is preffered, there are many recipes and you can control how much and what flavors. . .. . . just my opinion.

Yes! There is a lot of *juice* when I cook a pound of the storebought turkey burger. Which means I'm paying for water weight that has to be cooked off before putting into a meal if I don't want things soupy. But there was no juice of any kind when I cooked up the ground chicken. In fact, I had to add some chicken fat that I keep in the refrigerator, to keep the meat from sticking to the pan. That ground chicken crumbled and browned up so nicely, but can't always get storebought ground meat to crumble that well.