Extra EE's for meat? Is it worth it?

[lizage]

I have 8 EE cockerels I was planning on bringing to a processor to use as meat birds. They will be around 18 weeks old. They look pretty small to me still so I was wondering if it was worth it? Would their meat be "tasty"? How much weight-wise would they way (dressed) at this age?

Thanks!

 

[wekiva bird]

It depends on the what the EE is mixed with .The meat is tasty, but it is best to use the chickens to make a large batch of chicken broth and then use the remaining meat for chicken salad & etc.

 

[kizanne]

I did a few EE roosters earlier this year. their meat was tasty if you like 'chicken' taste versus CX white bland taste. But there certainly wasn't much meat on them. I don't know how much you pay to process and what you consider worth it. ?what else would you do with them? We processed them ourselves so it was worth it as we already had the feed in them. I wish I could have given you a weight but weigh yours and remember 30-40% will be bones, feathers and such and ask yourself if it is worth your process charge for the meat. I think the previous poster is right in that they would be good for making a tasty broth. I am hooked on homemade chicken noodle soup with tasty broth and homemade noodles.

 

[triplepurpose]

I'd say it's "worth it." I raise surplus roosters of all kinds for home consumption and consider all chickens to be "dual purpose." But if you think they are going to look like those fat things you get at the supermarket, you should disabuse yourself of that notion right off. Real chickens aren't like that. They are smaller and taste much better.

 

[AinaWGSD]

I also vote "worth it," at least for me. We hatched a bunch of EE this spring after we had to get rid of our Ameraucana rooster. Last week, at 14 weeks I found one of the cockerels dying and chose to butcher him then rather than letting him go to waste. There wasn't a lot of meat on him, but it was enough for our family of two adults and one toddler to have for dinner plus a thigh and breast left over for breakfast and lunch the next day. I don't know if it was because he was home raised or because we brined him (or both), but it was probably the best chicken I've ever had and I found it to be very much worth the effort of processing him. We start processing the rest of the cockerels next week at 16 weeks and will do them in small batches of 3-4 over the next few weekends. By the time they are 20 weeks we should have all of them in the freezer.

"Worth it" is different for everybody. No, there isn't going to be much meat on an 18 week old EE carcass compared to the commercial cornishX that you see in the store. But meat is meat. My cockerel dressed out at around 2lbs (he was 1lb 11oz when we weighed him in the bag before adding the brine, but that was after removing the neck and backbone, we butterflied him and grilled him whole). If I had to pay the processor to butcher them, they may not be as "worth it" to me, especially if I didn't have any other birds to take to the processor that day (the one near me charges a flat rate for anything less than 20 birds, so the fewer birds you have processed the more expensive they are regardless of how much meat is on the carcass).

 

[CluckAcres]

So wondering... what did you end up doing with them?

 

[CluckAcres]

So wondering... what did you end up doing with them?

nevermind just seen your other post. LOL