I thought Barred Rocks were dual purpose. Our first processing and it's a sad chicken. *Update page

[AinaWGSD]

Yes, it's normal. What's not normal is the gigantic breasts on the chickens you buy in the grocery store. Those commercial broilers have been carefully bred for decades now to achieve the massive amount of breast meat that they have as consumer's taste has changed and white meat has become more valued. A dual purpose bird will never have that much breast meat on them, no matter how you raise them or where you get your stock.

Be prepared, home raised chicken also has more texture than store bought chicken (even if you raise the commercial broilers yourself). Part of it is breeding, part of it is exercise (those chickens in the store probably got as much exercise in their entire short lives as your guy did the first two or three weeks), and part of it is age. The grocery store chicken is done growing at about 6-8 weeks of age, so they are still very much babies. Your barred rock has had a chance to reach adolescence/puberty at least and has had a lot longer to develop muscles through exercise and development of the sex hormones. It's kind of like the difference between veal and beef. Some people who have only eaten store bought chicken think that a 16-20 week dual purpose bird seems tough or stringy compared to what they're used to. Personally I think they're just more firm.

 

[furbabymum]

Yes, it's normal. What's not normal is the gigantic breasts on the chickens you buy in the grocery store. Those commercial broilers have been carefully bred for decades now to achieve the massive amount of breast meat that they have as consumer's taste has changed and white meat has become more valued. A dual purpose bird will never have that much breast meat on them, no matter how you raise them or where you get your stock.

Be prepared, home raised chicken also has more texture than store bought chicken (even if you raise the commercial broilers yourself). Part of it is breeding, part of it is exercise (those chickens in the store probably got as much exercise in their entire short lives as your guy did the first two or three weeks), and part of it is age. The grocery store chicken is done growing at about 6-8 weeks of age, so they are still very much babies. Your barred rock has had a chance to reach adolescence/puberty at least and has had a lot longer to develop muscles through exercise and development of the sex hormones. It's kind of like the difference between veal and beef. Some people who have only eaten store bought chicken think that a 16-20 week dual purpose bird seems tough or stringy compared to what they're used to. Personally I think they're just more firm.

Thanks. When you've had commercial chicken your whole life seeing a "real" chicken is kind of shocking. As my husband was saying at lunch, We are so far removed we don't like our food to look like it ever had a head or a mother.

 

[Life is Good!]

Nicely done on your first time!

We raised our first batch of Freedom Rangers this spring - and have Black Java's as layers. Our black Java roo's didn't look ANYTHING like our FR roo's (about the same age interestingly enough). However, I have to say, as scrawny as the BJ roo's were - the two carcasses fed about 25 folks on Sunday for a small-ish size bowl of soup (think appetizer sized). And there were left-overs of another 7 BIG bowls of soup for dinner on Monday too!

While their dressed weights were terribly low (for what we put into them), I did get a whole lot of meat off them! Add the incredible stock made from them and their tasty meat....well, no one noticed that there wasn't a lot of breast meat in the soup!

Yes, I'll process our other 'extra' roos when it's their time. Now I know that there is enough on them to make it worth their effort. But, we still have 25 Cornish cross in the brooder for winter consumption (and about 8 FR's from the spring until they grow up and take their place in Camp Frigidaire!)

 

[furbabymum]

Nicely done on your first time!

We raised our first batch of Freedom Rangers this spring - and have Black Java's as layers. Our black Java roo's didn't look ANYTHING like our FR roo's (about the same age interestingly enough). However, I have to say, as scrawny as the BJ roo's were - the two carcasses fed about 25 folks on Sunday for a small-ish size bowl of soup (think appetizer sized). And there were left-overs of another 7 BIG bowls of soup for dinner on Monday too!

While their dressed weights were terribly low (for what we put into them), I did get a whole lot of meat off them! Add the incredible stock made from them and their tasty meat....well, no one noticed that there wasn't a lot of breast meat in the soup!

Yes, I'll process our other 'extra' roos when it's their time. Now I know that there is enough on them to make it worth their effort. But, we still have 25 Cornish cross in the brooder for winter consumption (and about 8 FR's from the spring until they grow up and take their place in Camp Frigidaire!)

My big problem with the whole thing is I'm in the barfing stage of pregnancy. I'm not a squeamish person but with how much I already hate food, add in the processing and at this point I haven't been able to eat any meat at all. lol Poor rooster is going to waste on me!

 

[Mskayladog]

Dumb question about to be asked....why is the carcass so yellow?

 

[WinklerFarms]

The outer skin is still on it, this is from the scald temp/time being off.

 

[furbabymum]

The outer skin is still on it, this is from the scald temp/time being off.

This is good information. So did I scald too long or too short???

 

[finnfur]

We just processed three Americana over stock roos about two months ago [ our first process ] . Looked about the same as yours and same age.
My first impression was the same as yours because been use to store bought . Ate the first one the same week and he feed wife and I two meals and lots of scrap for the dogs.
Was real tender and delicious crocked in the pot . Actually I think it had about the same amount of meat but spread over a bigger frame.LOL

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Dumb question about to be asked....why is the carcass so yellow?

The outer skin is still on it, this is from the scald temp/time being off.

Don't some chickens just have yellow skin, as opposed to white?

 

[Oregon Blues]

My big problem with the whole thing is I'm in the barfing stage of pregnancy. I'm not a squeamish person but with how much I already hate food, add in the processing and at this point I haven't been able to eat any meat at all. lol Poor rooster is going to waste on me!

Put it into the freezer. You'll feel more like eating it later.