I need Leghorn help, PLEASE!!!

[Bantimna]

Well are you sure most are cockerels?
You bucher them the same way as broilers.
I don't know what age you should bucher them, remeber they won't have much meat on them as what the broilers do.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
They are kinda scrawny, but they still taste just like chicken!

You might process a few at different ages, some at 12 weeks, some at 14, etc., and see what age they turn out the best. That way, if they're getting tough before 20 weeks, you'll know the go ahead and finish the rest before they get tougher, and you'll know for next time.

I know my dual purp roos start to get tough by the time they're 20 weeks old, so I cook 'em in the crock pot, but if I wanted fryers, I'd want to do them younger. They'd be smaller, but more tender. Even a scrawny bird has more meat on it than you'd think. If you end up with a few that are past fryer age, you can always slow roast them in a cooking bag, (275-300F for at least 2-3 hours, until it gets tender) or cook them in the crock pot.

You're breeding leghorns, those roos gotta go somewhere. May as well be your freezer. I'll eat any bird I raise, even if they are little, rather than throw away perfectly good food.

I don't know what the withdrawal period is on medicated feed, I never use it. My chickens do just fine without it, I don't believe in giving drugs to birds that aren't sick.

 

[Buster52]

I would say leghorns are too small to butcher any younger than 18 weeks.

 

[BirchHatchery]

intersting so your leghorns get tough at 20 weeks?

 

[dancingbear]

I don't have leghorns, I have dual purp, various breeds. That's why I said, "my dual purp roos start getting tough by 20 weeks...."

Do leghorns stay tender longer than others?

 

[BirchHatchery]

mine are not tought at 20 weeks so i dk jw ive had dual purpose at 20 weeks also maybe its in the feed?

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Birds need to be restricted from getting excersize if you want them to stay tender. Best to seperate the roos you want to have for dinner from the hens totally as most of their muscle work is in the posturing and pecking to be top bird. As soon as you can ID them as roos put them in the freezer pen, best if the can't even see hens or mature roos. Just before you process pick out any keepers you might want for your breeding program.

Seperating them from the hens and any mature roos will have other advantages too. They mature slower with no incentive, so you have less crowing and very few fights. The best dual purpose meat birds I did I had locked my mature roos up in a pen on the other side of the barn for the sake of the hens who were bare backed. The hens did not have a common fence with the meat birds but they could see each other. Anyway those roos stayed very immature and were very tender eating at 21 and 22 weeks by the time I got them all done.

 

[PunkinPeep]

I posted a similar question and received this link, which i find to be very informative, insightful, and helpful.

http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/cookingwheritagechicken.pdf

 

[Cara]

Ok, prepare for a dumb question.

I have White Leghorn rooster chicks up to my ears right now. I ordered them to bulk out my order to reach the minimum, as they were the cheapest chicks the hatchery had. I thought I could give them away, nobody wants them.

When a bird is described as a fryer, does that mean for making fried chicken? I'd much rather skin them, there's no way i'll get my husband talked into helping process and i'm not plucking that many birds by myself.

 

[BirchHatchery]

yes fried chicken