Leghorns

[redneck4life27]

What is the best age to butcher white leghorns?

 

[Ridgerunner]

What are your intentions with the meat? Any chicken can be eaten at any age, it’s how you cook them at different ages that is important.

Leghorns are never going to be a good meat chicken. They are small and just don’t have much meat on them. They were developed to lay eggs, not be eaten. They are real good at converting feed to eggs; they don’t waste much nutrition maintaining a big body. But people eat quail. Leghorns are bigger than that.

It’s like any other chicken. If you want to fry or grill it, get them pretty young. Different people have different tolerances but maybe 12 to 15 weeks. The older they get the slower they need to be cooked and the more moisture you need to keep with them.

It’s a personal preference thing. There is no “best” age that covers every human being on the face of the planet. How do you plan on cooking it?

 

[redneck4life27]

well most hatcheries call them fryers. So the ones I want to process are 6months old I think they'll be fine to eat anyway.

 

[donrae]

At 6 months they won't be good fryers, they're too old and tough. They'll need a slow or pressure cooking method for best results. I thought 3 months is the "good" age for fryers.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

As soon as they are old enough to pester the girls or no later than four to five months if you're raising all boys.

 

[HS Pye]

The earlier the bird the better the meat. I'd say five to eight months. But personally I wouldn't recommend leghorns for meat since they have little meat on them.

HS Pye