Cruel disposal of unwanted chicks?

[EggLuver]

soup, encheladas, burritos, stir fry, tacos, chili, pizza and anything else you can think of. The older the bird, the longer and slower it has to cook so they are good for soups. I have also cut mine up into cubes and cooked them that way and used the carcass to make chicken stock. I then cooked the cubes and some chicken gravy over rice. My kids loved that. I was given some bear meat one time that was supposed to be tough. Cooked it low and slow and it came out pork roast tender, cut with a fork.

 

[bama gal]

Cool. That's what I was thinking but........I know a leghorn won't have as much meat as some of the other breeds. Never had bear! Maybe one day!

 

[Spaceglider8]

We had some standard cochin mixes that we let grow up a bit too long, and like someone said they were kinda...chewy....so I quit bbqing them and put them in the chicken and rice crock pot. If nothing else, I figured I could strain the meat out and use them for boillion (sp) flavor...and yep, they WERE good for that! I do remember Sam lovin the chewy meat and asking for "MORE BOCK BOCK DADDEE, MORE BOCK BOCK!" Evidently some 3 year olds like the jerky style of chicken, maybe it helped him with teething???....

"more bock bock!"

 

[Magic Birdie]

At that specific hatchery, yes

 

[normanack]

We had some standard cochin mixes that we let grow up a bit too long, and like someone said they were kinda...chewy....so I quit bbqing them and put them in the chicken and rice crock pot. If nothing else, I figured I could strain the meat out and use them for boillion (sp) flavor...and yep, they WERE good for that! I do remember Sam lovin the chewy meat and asking for "MORE BOCK BOCK DADDEE, MORE BOCK BOCK!" Evidently some 3 year olds like the jerky style of chicken, maybe it helped him with teething???....e "more bock bock!"

That's funny! It reminds me of my son at that age. Chicken was "bock bock," pork was "piggy bock bock, " beef was "moo cow bock bock," and KFC was "choo choo bock bock" (because a train ran behind the KFC parking lot). My daughter was more sensible and just called any meat "chicken."

 

[drumstick diva]

You never know what kids are gonna say, there were alot of tornado warnings on the air and MY THEN, young niece saw the dark clouds and cringed at the loud thunder and yelled "A tomato is coming."

Thank good ness it didn;t but we still tease her about calling it a TOMATO

 

[davidchickens]

Personally I find it a waste. Yet in the large business world there is a BIG difference between the meat farmer and the egg farmer.On a side note I hear young excess roosters, proccessed make wonderful friars! Hope so because of our two young roosters will be big soon!

 

[Spaceglider8]

I have gotten a lot of young birds in this year, and I can see how some grow faster than others, feather out, etc--so when I see that I can understand somewhat how its not market feasible to butcher all those roosters after feeding them up to what may be ten to twelve weeks depending on the breed and how much meat they would give off. However what I don't see is how a lot of these big hatcheries specializing in egg producing hens would say that all these leftover birds would be so poor in using as friers--cheap meat is cheap meat. I don't see raising out these birds as a detriment for poor families if a farm or hobby farm would choose to raise them out as such, albeit the regular meat producing chicken farms would not like it as cheap as chicken is already. Its a matter to me if those who have the means are willing to do work for those less fortunate and providing a use, therefore, for animals less desired.

 

[Fred's Hens]

The result of 40 years of selective breeding to produce the modern super egg layers has produced a cockerel counterpart that is simply not a meat bird, in any meaningful sense of the word, not even in the dual purpose chicken sense. The egg laying industry, world wide, reportedly requires between 2 billion and 4 billion pullet chicks each year. There simply is no need for the corresponding 50/50 number of cockerels hatched. No market exists for them. Zero. Zip. It is what it is.

With world wide grain and feed stock prices skyrocketing, as demand outstrips supply, on a broad scale, no one is going to go through the expense of feeding out the scrawny cockerels. Sorry to say, but that is merely the brutal reality.

 

[normanack]

The result of 40 years of selective breeding to produce the modern super egg layers has produced a cockerel counterpart that is simply not a meat bird, in any meaningful sense of the word, not even in the dual purpose chicken sense.  The egg laying industry, world wide, reportedly requires between 2 billion and 4 billion pullet chicks each year.  There simply is no need for the corresponding 50/50 number of cockerels hatched.   No market exists for them. Zero.  Zip.   It is what it is.  

With world wide grain and feed stock prices skyrocketing, as demand outstrips supply, on a broad scale, no one is going to go through the expense of feeding out the scrawny cockerels.  Sorry to say, but that is merely the brutal reality.  

Not arguing. It seems at first glance that those waste egg-breed cockerels would be good for something -- dog food? fertilizer? -- but I suspect if there were a way to make a profit from them, somebody would already be doing so. But oh, the opportunity if somebody came up with something. . .