Easter Eggers as meat birds

[trainhound]

Do EE's make good meat birds at 5 months? Do hens taste better than Roo's?

I currently have about 30 EE's and would like to hatch out about a dozen every other month for meat and raise them to about 5 months then process. They seem to be a good size at that age and they seem like they would be less work than meatbirds, what do you think?

 

[chickenfanatic]

should be fine we eat sdome of the easter eggers rood all the time we butcher them at 4 to 5 months they always taste fine to us

 

[fullhouse]

We just butchered 5, 15 week old EE roos. Not big(dressed at 2.5 pounds), but better than I expected. We did feed a 20% protein ration the whole time and they ranged.

 

[trainhound]

What weight do they dress out to at about 5 months?

 

[dancingbear]

Are they tough at that age? The birds I've butchered past about 14 weeks have been tough. They were fine for stewers, (I usually crock-pot the older birds) and even very slow oven cooked, but not for frying or any quicker cooking method. Pressure canning is great, too. The older birds have more flavor, IMO, and the broth is wonderful and rich.

I've read that some breeds are tender longer than others, though, are EE's maybe one of those?

 

[fullhouse]

I wouldn't push 5 months, they were getting a touch stringy at 15 weeks. I would guess 3.5 pounds dressed on a high protein feed.

ETA: There are far better dual purpose birds out there. Rocks or Delawares make better dinners in my opinion.

 

[SandraMort]

yeah? Any idea of how buckeye roos dress out?

 

[chickenfanatic]

buckeyes dress out real nice if they are oung enough alot like a rhode island red. very meaty too mmm mmm

 

[SandraMort]

Young enough meaning... 12? 15? 20 weeks?

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[greyfields]

I had some EE's processed for a friend of mine when I took a batch of broilers in. They just laughed whe I picked the box up thinking they were mine.