Eating pullets (young extra hens)

[Cody brown]

I was wondering if anyone hers has ever eaten a young hen. Im looking into getting some dual purpose breeds and i knoe people eat the roosters but are extra hens okay aswell? Also would i be able to toast any chickens, as long as there young?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I will 100% eat a pullet if I have a good reason to. Culls are part of farm life.

But I must admit - I don't USUALLY eat my pullets unless I have already gotten rid of old hens and tried to sell them. Self sufficiency is great, but you know what's better than 3lbs of bony pullet meat? $20. And that $20 can go toward something else that lets me become more self-sufficient like tools or fencing.

So eating a pullet is no different than eating an extra roo. But it doesn't fit in with my priorities very often. Much better to eat an older spent hen and keep the new pullet IMO.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I think you can eat whatever birds you want. Most people keep the females for eggs, but often will eat them after they no longer are laying. If you have meat birds, people raise them for this purpose, both male and female.
Dual purpose are bred to be both meat and egg birds.
Though it may be more worthwhile selling any extra pullets you have.

 

[3KillerBs]

Yeah, the only problem i have with eating older hens is that you have to use their meat for soups and stews. I was thinking that with young pullets their meat will be more tender. Better for a roast chicken . Is that the case or are younger pullets meat just as tough?

A pullet would stay tender longer than a cockerel of the same breed because of the effects of testosterone. Cornish X pullets are eaten right along with the cockerels, but are smaller at the same age.

To my mind having the best possible chicken and dumplings after the egg-laying is over is a feature, not a bug.

 

[Cody brown]

I will 100% eat a pullet if I have a good reason to. Culls are part of farm life.

But I must admit - I don't USUALLY eat my pullets unless I have already gotten rid of old hens and tried to sell them. Self sufficiency is great, but you know what's better than 3lbs of bony pullet meat? $20. And that $20 can go toward something else that lets me become more self-sufficient like tools or fencing.

So eating a pullet is no different than eating an extra roo. But it doesn't fit in with my priorities very often. Much better to eat an older spent hen and keep the new pullet IMO.

Yeah thats is a really good point. The money selling pullets could got towards more things around the garden. Thnx

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Yeah, the only problem i have with eating older hens is that you have to use their meat for soups and stews. I was thinking that with young pullets their meat will be more tender. Better for a roast chicken . Is that the case or are younger pullets meat just as tough?

This is technically correct, but will depend on a few things...
Boneless cuts on egg pullets are TINY and usually not worth doing anything but soup out of anyhow.
A heritage or DP hen may take 8 months to start laying. By that point you're still looking at cooking in a low wet environment (some roasting is OK, frying/baking is not).
Eating an older hen (18mo+) can be just fine if you cook them in any way that covers the texture. For example, an old hen makes great ground chicken for tacos or sausage. Slow cooking an older hen and pulling the chicken for bbq chicken sandwiches is delicious.
No matter what you do a heritage/egg/dp chicken will never have the soft texture of a broiler and will always make some much chewier chicken nuggies.

 

[Geena]

Thankyou , is this the same with dual purpose chickens. The pullets will stay tender for longer?

Yes, they do. We always eat any pullets not kept for breeding, and normally grow them out for a month or so longer than the cockerels. I actually prefer the pullet meat.
Personally, with all the time effort and money I put into raising them, I'd much rather reap the benefits of delicious home grown chicken than sell them.

 

[3KillerBs]

It hasn't happened yet, but my intent is to sell extra pullets rather than eat them.

If I have one with a defect -- physical or temperamental -- that renders her inappropriate to sell I'll probably eat her instead. But once I've got the flock rotation going I'll be more likely to cull and eat an older hen instead of a pullet.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Yeah. A store bought broiler is processed at 6-8 weeks, a dp/heritage breed will be all skin and bones at that age. You're never gonna get the same softness. A 20 week old cockerel/pullet CAN be fried but will be a lil chewy in my experience. Once they get much older than that, you gotta cook em low and slow and most DP aren't laying at 20 weeks. Pullets will stay softer a little longer but not a lot.

 

[Ruthster55]

I wouldn’t eat a pullet unless it had some really bad or obvious defect that affected the quality of life.

If the pullets just have the wrong color or conformation or even a disqualification like wry tail, sell those pullets as egg layers to people who have small suburban or urban hen flocks! Those pullets probably won’t be bred, but they will produce eggs for the people in town which is a use a lot more productive than one time in the stew pot.

Usually, people will pay more for a pullet than the meat is worth.

If you have enough chickens, you can probably find a meatie or excess cockerel to eat without needing to bother the pullets.

If there’s a hen that you don’t want to breed, just collect her eggs regularly.

If she goes broody, put eggs from hens you DO want to breed under her at night.