Frying pan specials

[EOD Daddy]

Have any of you raised either on of the hatcheries frying pan special or just raised dual purpose roosters for meat? If so what was your experience and if possible some photos of processed birds. How long did it really take to reach @5 lbs? What did you feed them? Thinking of doing some just for fryers. Or would I be further ahead to order some improved Delaware birds or some of the NH birds from Freedom Ranger?

Thank You.

 

[Molpet]

I had a few hatchery br cockerels 16 wks they dressed less than 3 lbs.
In my signature is a study a guy did on a few hatchery breeds

 

[Morrigan]

I usually butcher hatchery stock cockerels around 13 to 16 weeks old. Weights usually are around 3 pounds. I'm always happy to get anything around 3.5 lbs. Expect less breast meat than you are used to.

If I waited for them to dress out at 5 lbs, they would be too tough to cook in any other way except for pressure cooking or crock pot.

I enjoy the flavor and additional texture of heritage birds and am OK with the smaller weights. However, if you are looking for more meaty birds, I would definitely recommend going the slow broiler/red ranger route.

 

[FunClucks]

The 12 Production Red X Prairie Bluebell Egger cockerels I was growing out for meat started crowing at 2-2.5 months. By 3 months only half of them were crowing. I sold them at 3 months instead of processing them because I was tired of the crowing, and didn't have time to process then, also they'd have had to grown for 1-2 more months to be a decent size, and the crowing of only half of them was already too much at 3 months.

So I guess what I'm saying, is be aware if you're sensitive to noise. The 2 month old CX were much quieter at processing time (5-9 wks) and gave a lot more meat for the effort.

 

[LaurenRitz]

I got 5 Bielefelder x Dominique cockerels from a friend. Live weight at 16 weeks about 5 pounds. The one I harvested last week (22 weeks) was almost 6 pounds live weight. I need to rig a hanging scale so I can get exact numbers.

 

[Morrigan]

I usually butcher hatchery stock cockerels around 13 to 16 weeks old. Weights usually are around 3 pounds. I'm always happy to get anything around 3.5 lbs.

I should have clarified that I was referring to dressed weights, not live weights. Live weights would have been closer to 5 bls.

 

[CLSranch]

A higher protein, game bird starter/grower crumble could help with a little more weight at a younger age and could help with health of a lot of your larger breeds. I keep saying I'm going to switch but...

 

[imacowgirl2]

Have any of you raised either on of the hatcheries frying pan special or just raised dual purpose roosters for meat? If so what was your experience and if possible some photos of processed birds. How long did it really take to reach @5 lbs? What did you feed them? Thinking of doing some just for fryers. Or would I be further ahead to order some improved Delaware birds or some of the NH birds from Freedom Ranger?

Thank You.

Million miles ahead to do the Freedom Ranger New Hampshire. I routinely get birds that dress out to 5-8+ lbs at 13-14 weeks. All of our layer roosters - many of which are the larger “dual purpose” breeds like orpingtons and australorp (which is what the fry pan specials are as far as I know) that I’ve processed, between 6-10 months, have all dressed out at less than 4 pounds.