I need Leghorn help, PLEASE!!!

[MakNat]

I'm breeding leghorns now. And of course, half the chicks are roosters..... My questions are: When can you process the cockrels? How young? And how long should they be of the medicated food? My 10 week olds are still so small... Are they to be fryers? They seem so small..

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

Commercial strain Leghorns (from a hatchery) Kill them as soon as you can tell they are cockerels

Exhibition strain Leghorns (from an exhibition breeder) Kill them as soon as can determine that they are not the very best you have.

You can never, I mean never, I said NEVER come out of raising Leghorns for meat with satisfactory results unless all you are interested in wasting time, resources and money.

The days when Leghorn Ks were useful as meat birds ended with the Depression.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I can think of several reasons someone would want leghorns. I have had them and they are nutty enough to fly away from dangers, thus making them safer from preditors. They hatch out really good. They are satisfied with less feed. And they out do all other breeds for egg production.
Now a lot of people prefer other breeds, but more power to you if you can get something out of your leghorns. I have eaten my extra males, regardless of the breed. I will agree that you won't get the meat out of a leghorn that you could get out of a cornish cross, but its still meat and the sooner you kill it, the sooner you can give that extra feed to the pullets. They look lanky after you pluck them, but once you cut them in pieces, they look like decent pieces of chicken and they are lean.
I honestly think if you have know-how and space you can make any breed of chicken worth your time and effort.

 

[BirchHatchery]

in Regards to Neil Grassbaugh NEVER SAY NEVER!

i raise leghorn roosters by the 100s for meat i feed full access of broiler feed i butcher them at 20 weeks of age use them for Friers!!! cut em up for dumplims tacoes salads things like that. they are the cheapiest breed to raise rather for meat or for eggs i also free range when the weather good they make the best freiers i have ever eaten no fat good flavor. people eat quail people eat pheasent a leghorn roo has about much meat as a pheasent does farms around here raise pheasants buy the 1000s ive seen em cut up next to my leghorns their bigger so i dont see the issue when people say little meat on them so Economiccaly yes they make sense Economically yes i do make profit on them its the only chicken the bars in town use !!! any chicken can be eatin from a banty to pigions so yes their worth your time i get mine for 10 cents each (day olds total cost come 20 weeks of age around 4 dollars purdy cheap for 2 lbs of home grown meat. in the past thats the only chicken people used for Friers my grandfather supplied the bars in our small town with frog legs and leghorn cockerals and i am doin the same today. They may not have the meat of the cornish rock but the taste will be far supirior of one and alot less FAT!

 

[MakNat]

Ok good.. So around 20 weeks.. I know they're not big, thats not the issue.. Its only 2 of us here. It really love hatching them and I know I can't have a 100 roosters running around!! Thanks! Now thats an answer that I can handle!!

 

[beerman]

Any idea how my 2 year old Leghorn roo might taste?

 

[rhoda_bruce]

very good, but make sure you stew him for a long time.

 

[Bossroo]

Opera singers all !!!

 

[BirchHatchery]

yes 20 weeks is the best for freiyin chickens leghorns anyhow. u say u only have to 2 people their see thats were i think ppl go wrong with thinkin they need such a giant bird not everyone lives with 6 ppl in a house hold. We have 3 ppl here and a 2-3lb leghorn does us for one meal. we normally fry them on the stove however u do them will work and we also smother them in bbq suace for the grill. Their is no fat on these chickens unlike the cornish xs and if u let the meat set for 2-3 days before freezing you will find a far supirior tasting bird. good luck i do the same thing u are i belive maybe lol? i have breeding flock of leghorns i sell eggs and hatching eggs and i also hatch my own off them i keep the roos for meat and sell the pullets.


Beerman regards to your 2 year old probly tough but if u cook em id stew him for along while

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

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