Hatching chicks and using a Roos as meatbirds

[Violanna]

Ok so I have a broody hen under a shed and unreachable, so I can’t check how many eggs she is sitting on. I also have some eggs in an incubator. At this point we already have 2 Roos and can’t add any more. So the plan is as soon as we know any of the chicks are Roos to separate them and treat them as meat birds…

Here is where the problem starts. We have a very mixed flock and no idea who the parents are of any of these eggs. Roos are a RIR and SF, hens are BO, Cali grey, Cali white, EE, SF, and Ancona. Would any of these mixes possibly not make a good meat bird? Also at what age do we cull?

 

[Molpet]

All will be bigger than a quail, and people raise quail for meat.
Age determines how it cooked.
I start harvesting at 16 wks for roasting.

 

[Morrigan]

They will not be of the same shape (much less breast meat) and size as supermarket chickens, but they should be good eating. I prefer the slightly stronger taste and texture of heritage birds over cornish cross --which is what you getting the market.

I like to butcher cockerels around 13 to 16 weeks old. I get around 2.5 to 4 lb carcasses at that age and they are still tender enough to cook in a variety of ways. That's also when they start crowing, chasing hens and so I'm glad to have them out of the coop at that point.

If you wait until they are in the 18 to 26 week range, you will get more meat, but you will have to looking into roasting or slow cooking techniques. Personally, unless a bird is slow to mature, I find them too tough to fry after 16 weeks old.

 

[Violanna]

They will not be of the same shape (much less breast meat) and size as supermarket chickens, but they should be good eating. I prefer the slightly stronger taste and texture of heritage birds over cornish cross --which is what you getting the market.

I like to butcher cockerels around 13 to 16 weeks old. I get around 2.5 to 4 lb carcasses at that age and they are still tender enough to cook in a variety of ways. That's also when they start crowing, chasing hens and so I'm glad to have them out of the coop at that point.

If you wait until they are in the 18 to 26 week range, you will get more meat, but you will have to looking into roasting or slow cooking techniques. Personally, unless a bird is slow to mature, I find them too tough to fry after 16 weeks old.

Thank you so much! This is exactly the info I needed!

 

[FunClucks]

I pressure-cooked a 1 year old rooster and he was delicious. Put a few quarts of water in the pressure cooker with some chicken soup veggies, and also got the most amazing broth which I then used for pea soup, egg drop soup, etc. The meat tasted like beef BBQ to me, so I put BBQ sauce on and had a sandwich.

 

[FunClucks]

Also, try not to name them. I call my meat birds "dinner chickens" any time we talk about them, to try and reinforce that idea with my kids from the beginning. Bachelor pads while growing them out can work well.

 

[Violanna]

Also, try not to name them. I call my meat birds "dinner chickens" any time we talk about them, to try and reinforce that idea with my kids from the beginning. Bachelor pads while growing them out can work well.

Oh my kids are homeschooled and poultry raising is one of our lessons. Both chickens and ducks. This is just our first time hatching our own eggs. They are fine with naming and still understanding they are food. However, losing a new chick.. that is devastating to them.

My oldest regularly goes up to our BO Princess Peach and tells her how delicious she looks, even though he know we aren’t eating her.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Oh my kids are homeschooled and poultry raising is one of our lessons. Both chickens and ducks. This is just our first time hatching our own eggs. They are fine with naming and still understanding they are food. However, losing a new chick.. that is devastating to them.

My oldest regularly goes up to our BO Princess Peach and tells her how delicious she looks, even though he know we aren’t eating her.

The visual had me rolling!

 

[NatJ]

So the plan is as soon as we know any of the chicks are Roos to separate them and treat them as meat birds…

Here is where the problem starts. We have a very mixed flock and no idea who the parents are of any of these eggs. Roos are a RIR and SF, hens are BO, Cali grey, Cali white, EE, SF, and Ancona. Would any of these mixes possibly not make a good meat bird? Also at what age do we cull?

All of them will be edible, and will taste like chicken. So they can all be good meat birds. But none of them will grow as big or as fast as a purpose-bred meat bird like Cornish Cross, so in that sense none of them will be "good" meat birds.

You can cull them at any age. I've known some people to butcher as young as 6-8 weeks (young and tender, with small pieces that are easy to cook on a grill.) I see other people have suggested several other ages too.

The best age depends on many factors-- how fast they grow, how much you care about tenderness (young) versus size (older), how quickly they mature (because at some point they stop growing anyway), whether they become a nuisance (crowing, fighting, mating), your weather (comfortable temperatures for butchering, or weather that makes it inconvenient to care for so many chickens), your schedule (when it is convenient to do the butchering, and when it is convenient to tend more vs. less chickens), feed costs (if the price goes way up, it can be more cost effective to butcher the males sooner, so they do not eat so much), and probably quite a few other things that I didn't think to mention.

Different people can have very different preferences about what age to butcher chickens, because different points are important to different people.

 

[Violanna]

This is great Information! Thank you guys so much! I think space will be our biggest decider. We bought a 40x80 pen to use as our brooder. I will be wing sexing at hatch and give each a 40x40 area. That way I can feed each accordingly. Once the pullets move to my in laws the cockerels will get the entire 40x80 area, but even that won’t last them long!