Fryers

[joeman2041]

I have about 50 slow broilers which I intend to butcher at ten weeks. The problem is I also have regular roosters, Doms, Delewares, RIR, dual purpose birds, that I want to butcher at the same time. As you can imagine they are about half the size.Just how old are you suppose to let your birds get before you butcher them? I have let some go longer than ten weeks, 12 to 17, and they were much bigger but tough. Ended up giving them away Can anyone tell me just when you butcher fryers, by age or weight?

Joeman2041

 

[Omniskies]

These days I've been butchering my dual purpose roosters at 4-8 weeks of age. There is very little meat, but what is there is nice and tender (I just cook them like quail).

If I wait longer than that then we do popcorn chicken, cashew chicken or stir fry. That way the pieces are tiny and the chewy factor doesn't matter.

I'm still wanting to grind up my tough birds and make ground chicken. So far I've been too lazy to come up with an easy way to debone them to make grinding a viable option. Once I do we'll be eating chicken nuggets and chicken patties.