Butchering Dilemma

[marymac]

I have 2 BLRW cockrells that I can not keep. I am planning on butchering 2 other cockrells soon as they are all the same age. Why do I feel so remorseful doing the BLRS's? Do you all on here do these type of birds. I just hate killing ones which are so pretty. When they say cull , does that mean the same as butcher? Do other people butcher their Marans and BLRW, and other fancy breeds. I just feel sad about it I guess.

 

[Deanner03]

Quote:
If you feel badly about it, see if you can find someone breeding those birds who may need a breeding roo (if they are breed standard). If not, process them for meat. Even fancy breeds taste good. It is, IMO, better than feeding them forever for nothing, kwim?

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Cull means to remove a chicken from your flock. Most of the time, the person is going to butcher the chicken and eat it. Sometimes a person is going to sell it or is going to euthanize a sick chicken.

 

[halo]

Friends of mine butcher their excess Marans roosters, and they make a really gorgeous dressed bird. Marans....its what's for lunch!

 

[slackwater]

I hear ya - it was more difficult to process my BLRWs and SCMs. But...they made really good dinner, and I kept one roo of each (the best one) for future breedings. Marans really DO make a nicely dressed bird!

 

[Schultz]

If there is a rooster that we cannot keep in our flock, yes we butcher it (cull). Not everyone does this and when we first started cull to us meant re-homing. We have since started butchering our own birds including culls as this is a source of meat that we have paid for in time, feed and bedding. It is up to you as to how you "cull" your bird. We were very remorseful at first but now our family is self-sustainable and we don't worry about what is in the food we eat on a daily basis. This, at first, is not an easy task but in the end quite rewarding, in my opinion.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I figure you can be sad to have to dispatch such handsome roosters, or glad that your meat comes wrapped in such attractive packages. It's just the grim, but tasty reality of roosters, that there are job openings as breeders, flock husbands, or pets for a mere 10% of them. The rest have their purpose on a plate. Which really isn't the worst thing to happen to a chicken, to provide nourishment for a grateful human family.

Anyway, they all look the same once their heads & feathers come off...

 

[Schultz]

Quote:
Very well said, thank you!

 

[Organics North]

I "culled" about 10 Marans and pure breed Ameracuana cockerels a few weeks back. I kept one of each and found a good home for the 2nd runner ups of both breeds.

Yep butchered the 10 they are in the freezer.. It is hard to do with such beautiful birds..

It is your call on what to do, try and rehome them, give them away, be over run with roosters, butcher them or have some one else do it for you.....

Sunny_Side_Up wrote:
I figure you can be sad to have to dispatch such handsome roosters, or glad that your meat comes wrapped in such attractive packages. It's just the grim, but tasty reality of roosters, that there are job openings as breeders, flock husbands, or pets for a mere 10% of them. The rest have their purpose on a plate. Which really isn't the worst thing to happen to a chicken, to provide nourishment for a grateful human family.

Anyway, they all look the same once their heads & feathers come off...

X3
(Yes I can not wait until I get the feathers and heads off.. then it does not bother me... then it's just chicken//)

ON​

 

[tuffy]

Can someone direct me to a site on "how to butcher" for a first timer? My husband will do it, he is an experienced deer hunter and we would like to thin our flock before winter. thanks