Butchering your roosters!

[Windy_Acres]

Thanks guys! My loppers are straight; I'd forgotten there are curved ones. I'll have to look for a good set!

 

[BYCforlife]

I've found the easiest way to butcher chickens is to have your friend from Bolivia over!

As @Parront said, (slightly changed) they love chicken, have skill, will travel!

 

[oldrooster]

I see a lot of people offering free roosters so often. One or 2 roosters are really easy to butcher! Or, if you don't want to butcher them, you can bring them to a butcher for fairly cheap. Their meat is not as good as broilers, but in a dish (stew, chicken pie, etc.) They taste very good! I will be butchering my extra roosters.
There are most likely not many people who want your roosters, since they most likely can get them to breed from a hatchery.
I just wanted to share my opinion, because I don't like seeing all the people desperately trying to sell their roosters.

I've always wondered if someone who might be retired or on disability if they couldn't possibly fill a deep freeze with free or dirt cheap birds from all the roosters people want to get rid of. if the could have a bunch of pet carriers and a pickup or an old van that could be hosed out they might get lucky and drive around 1=2 days a week while running their own errands and fill the vehicle up with birds and then butcher away all evening...

 

[oldrooster]

it always amazes me at how many people hatch eggs willey nilley, and then don't want or can't keep the roosters.
simple solution. eat them, don't expect someone else to cover for their mistakes..
they brought them into the world, now it is their responsibility to take care of the problem they created for themselves..
......jiminwisc.....

That's part of the problem other side of it is someone not knowing what they are buying off craigslist, or from a swap meet, auction whatever and getting roos, or buying sexed and finding out the hatchery isn't 100% correct and getting them that way. a few years back my local tractor supply carried a straight run of black sex link so if you didn't know what you where doing you may have gotten all males! I was looking and not buying and I couldn't remember the code for what was what, got home and looked it up and realized the bin had been picked thru pretty well, because out of 15 or so chicks there was only 3 to 4 hens...
Why they had a sex link straight run IDK. that to me was super stupid. I would have thought they should have had a straight run of some other breed and had sexed sex links, I always figured in my mind like there might be a fluke you might get the one that's marked like a female out of 1000 or maybe 20000 but your odds of that is slim to none, I'd take a chance that way of getting a roo that way if I didn't want any...

 

[Ms Clucky]

I give mine away, but I ask them a lot of questions and one of them is your not getting him for eating, right? They might lie but at least I won't know about it. They say he is to small cause all of mine are Bantams.

 

[jvls1942]

you won't eat them, right ?
who in their right mind would go collecting roosters without the intention of eating them?
People can't expect someone else to keep any rooster they do not want or can't keep.
If I take a rooster it will be eaten.
If the person getting rid of it doesn't agree to that, he keeps it..
Rabbits are also a good source of free meat..
I do not care for rabbit that much,
One time I was at a small animal auction.
at the end of it, they had dozens of rabbits left over. they couldn't even give them away.
I said to my companion, there ya go. Lots of free meat if you want it..

 

[oldrooster]

you won't eat them, right ?
who in their right mind would go collecting roosters without the intention of eating them?
People can't expect someone else to keep any rooster they do not want or can't keep.
If I take a rooster it will be eaten.
If the person getting rid of it doesn't agree to that, he keeps it..
Rabbits are also a good source of free meat..
I do not care for rabbit that much,
One time I was at a small animal auction.
at the end of it, they had dozens of rabbits left over. they couldn't even give them away.
I said to my companion, there ya go. Lots of free meat if you want it..

The only way I can see a person taking a rooster and not eating it (at least immediately) is if someone has a rooster from a different source than the birds you have for breeding purposes. Like if we lived near each other and wanted to breed chickens for meat (and new layers) if we both order from different hatcheries and keep one rooster from the ones that slipped threw when ordering a shipments of pullets after a few generations we might swap our roosters for a different blood line to keep going for a few more generations.

 

[oldrooster]

They aren't like store chickens that you are used to. To BBQ, try just marinating them over night with your favorite flavor and some tenderizer, with papayin (sp?) (from papaya). Or just de-bone the breast meat, like a quail, if they are small. You can par-boil them a little before you put them on the BBQ, then cook at a low temp. My gas BBQ has a temp gage -- about 325 degrees. I keep a pan of water in with the chicken so it does not dry out. BBQ leghorn was good -- did parboil so they they aren't pink inside. They were starting to crow, about the same age as yours, I think.
In the crock pot, cut up in pieces, with the other things you like in your stew, potato, carrot and onions, 8 hours on low, you come home to a tasty dinner. Store chicken just falls apart, real chicken is just right.

instead of papaya you can use lemon, lime, pineapple, or grapefruit juices as well also look up vinegar based bbq sauces/marinades that contain vinegar it's the acids in the different citrus fruits (don't mix unless you want to) and the vinegar also has acids in it, I think you might be able to use Apple cider vinegar straight also....

 

[Egghead_Jr]

16 weeks is pushing the range of BBQ. Frying would be better at that age up to 18 weeks.

Some say 15 weeks is outside broiler age. I'm more inclined to say 14 weeks. 12-14 weeks is my age range to BBQ.

 

[Mosey2003]

The only way I can see a person taking a rooster and not eating it (at least immediately) is if someone has a rooster from a different source than the birds you have for breeding purposes. Like if we lived near each other and wanted to breed chickens for meat (and new layers) if we both order from different hatcheries and keep one rooster from the ones that slipped threw when ordering a shipments of pullets after a few generations we might swap our roosters for a different blood line to keep going for a few more generations.

Surprisingly enough, there are some that will go to great effort to keep multiple roosters they have "rescued" or taken in. I gave a few cockerels to one such a few years ago. I rather doubt she was lying, as I was very clear I had no issues with them being eaten.