Killing our roosters

[SunnySoleil]

We are about to cull two of our roosters who were born in May making them 5 months old. We have two. One is now in a cage but the other is loose and running away quite intelligently it seems!!! Is it best to boil them or would they cook up good as a roast? They are silkie mixes and not huge.. probably weigh about 3lbs max... any suggestions. My husband thinks he knows everything and refuses to do the holding them upside down and razor slashing.. he is used to the axe and chopping block method. Doubt I'll change his mind...

Sunny
10 chickens and only one layer...

 

[sourland]

As brutal as it might seem, axe and chopping block is effective and quick. It's what I grew up with and am comfortable with. I would recommend crock potting or slow cooking the roosters. Coq au vin, chicken and dumplings, stew etc.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

For simplicity sake I would skin them, put them in the fridge for a day or two then in a crock pot for a day on low and make a stew. Scalding, plucking and roasting would be quite an effort for some pretty scrawny birds.

 

[Illia]

Really? I usually butcher my boys at 5 months old and they don't need stewing or the crockpot. They're still excellent roasting or frying birds.

But of course, it may be different with yours.

As for killing itself - I'd rather do the axe and chopping block than bleeding them.

 

[Azriel]

I roasted my 5 month old roos in a teriyaki marinade. It was

. I have also baked them, they are more firm than store bought chicken, but I didn't find them to be tuff.

 

[laura877]

I loop some binder twine around the chickens legs and hang them upside down on a nail or a bended coat hanger while I get my water boiling, knives and gut buckets ready, etc. I than get my broom or shovel handle. I lay the chicken on the ground, place the handle on their neck behind the head, step on both sides of the handle and grab the legs and give a quick pull. It pops the chicken head off clean and they don't know what hit them. I then hang them back up on the nail and let them bleed out. By hanging them before hand, it kinda puts them in a stupor. It sounds gross but its the way I was taught by my best friend. We would butcher 50 chickens at one time this way.

I butchered and skinned 2x 4 1/5 mo roos two nights ago. Their skin was so tender that it kept ripping.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Really? I usually butcher my boys at 5 months old and they don't need stewing or the crockpot. They're still excellent roasting or frying birds. But of course, it may be different with yours.

Right

, but by the question OP posed it would seem they are not fammiliar with eating farm chickens so to speak. In that case even a 5 month old dual purpose chicken is going to be much different than the conventional 6-8 week broiler most are accustomed to eating. Also given they are small birds which will be easiest to skin they can be easily overcooked and dried out making them tough as rawhide.

Just my thinking that for a first experience it would be better to stew them and have a good experience than to have a so-so first experience attempting to roast them. BTW I just finished a roasted cornish X last night and have to say it was far more tender than the extra 6 month old roos we made into soup last week. Even after they were simmered for hours.​