Don't have the nerve- 6 roos driving me nuts!

[little_grey_bantam]

<---- 22 pet roosters - need to butcher them... but I love them. As pets. LOL BF and FFIL is going insane

Gotta dispatch them soon... but how much meat am I gonna get out of bantams or gamebirds? HAHAHAHA
MY BLRW boys are too precious and beautiful to eat and we can't eat the silver rooster thingy - he follows us around too much! ACK!

 

[becky3086]

I just gave away over 30 bantams on craigslist. I had like 12 people email wanting them.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
A lot more than people get from quail, and they eat those all the time. They'll just be about the size of those little Cornish game hens at the store, you know, the ones that are neither Cornish game, nor hen. Only yours will be older, so they'll need long, slow cooking to be tender. Crock pot, or very slow oven, (like 275-300F, for 3 hours) in something with a lid, (or a cooking bag will do) and they'll be great. Just cook 2 or 3 at a time, depending on how many people you're feeding.

 

[prncssprplfrog]

I was wondering the same thing about my Bantam Brahma roos- but then they are pretty big, almost the size of my standard cochin tanks. They are about 10 months old now.

I would think they would be about the size of a fryer- which is fine for our family.

I really don't want to deal with the mess- and yes- the killing would be the hardest part -cause I can gut & clean a fish with little problem (after someone else kills it for me).


No matter what I find out- I think we will be less 5 or 6 roosters by the end of next weekend... I had to do some rooster behavior modification yesterday when I was charged at for going to the nest boxes. It took all of my composure not to break his neck!

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
I've raised LF Brahmas, they are just massive birds. I wondered how big the bantam versions would be. It sounds like they'd be meal-sized birds. Big, for a bantam, but as big as the LF versions are, I'm not surprised! At 10 months, they will definitely need the slow-cook methods.

The big ones didn't have as much breast as you'd think, as big as they are, but there was still a lot of meat, and very tasty, too. I'm crossing them w/standard Cornish, now, to see what I get. The early attempts show much bigger breasts than before.

Quote:
See there, if you'd acted on impulse, you'd already be rid of one roo, and have one roo's worth of practice under your belt! (If it wasn't just really bad timing, anyway)

I've often had the same impulse, I've been raising chickens for a long time. I have 2 excess cockerels right now, a pair of young Buckeyes. I really don't want to kill them, but....they don't fit with my current breeding plans. I'll keep the 3 Buckeye pullets, they can join the breeding experiment.

I saw one attempt to mate a hen yesterday, for the first time. She kicked his butt and then chased him all over the field. It was pretty funny, but it means it's time for me to get rid of the those 2 young males, before they become a nuisance.

Beautiful birds you have there, BTW! What are those pretty dark brown hens, w/the black penciling? They're very nice looking hens.

 

[prncssprplfrog]

Thank you. I still think I might keep one of the drk brahma roos. They are so pretty & well behaved.
The two dark hens in the middle are my Partridge Cochins. That's the reason that I want to keep one drk. bantam Brahma- to breed with my cochins.

I forgot that Brahmas in general are dual purpose birds, but didn't think about that with the bantams. They are quite a bit bigger than my Sebright & Wyandotte bantam.


I have more cochins in the incubator- I think I'm heading toward an all cochin flock eventually.

 

[dancingbear]

My favorite roo ever was a buff Brahma, he was just enormous, and so sweet and gentle with the hens. He used to feed the hens treats from his beak. He was so sweet, I miss that one! He lived here until he died of natural causes. His name was Papa.

 

[prncssprplfrog]

I LOVE my dark brahma roos, but the buffs have had attitude since I got them. The chick I got from a buff brahma x sebright cross has attitude as well. At least I think it was the buff, hard to tell with so many daddy's...
They are BEAUTIFUL roosters though. Yours is gorgeous!

 

[redturtle]

good video on youtube.com
look under....Survival Skills with Russ - How to Butcher a Chicken pt 1 (kill, pluck, gut)

be sure to catch the second part also

 

[prncssprplfrog]

Thanks all. I appreciate the advice, videos, links & encouragement. As a last ditch effort, I put yet another ad up on Craigslist the other night around 10:30. By 11:30, I had an email response.

Hopefully my 5 (keeping 1) roos will be picked up tomorrow! They will be going to a guy who has 30 pullets. Boy they'll be happier than a pig in poo! No more fighting for a date right?
If this guy doesn't work out- I came home to another email of someone else who's interested as well.
Seeing as I have 6 chicks & 18 in the incubator, I have a feeling we'll be going through this all again soon.