Meaties getting picked on by other young birds / tough chewy meat

[Henery Hawk]

Today I went out to check on my meat birds (7 weeks) and 4 of them had blood covered butts with lots of skin missing. I saw that just about every other young bird in there was guilty of pecking since they had blood on their faces. I noticed yesterday that one of my white leghorn cockerels was pecking at a meatie's tail feathers but didn't think much of it. Long story short- since it was hot and I was caring for our 3 month old son while my wife is away, I quickly put the victims out of their misery and did a quick 10 minute butcher job, removing the skinless breasts, leg quarters and wings.

My questions are:

When raising other breeds of the same age with meaties, is it common for the smaller breeds to pick at the obese birds? I figured it would be the big meaties picking on little ones but I guess I was wrong.

I decided to fry up the meat for dinner. We were eating the meat just a couple hours after they died. While it was very tasty, it was tough and chewy. Do you think this was due to the distress and trauma they experienced before slaughter, my failure to let the meat age a bit, or both?

 

[member 142084]

Mine was 8 weeks old same exact thing. I only had the one. The others who were the same age or older must have finaly had insticual activation. The meat birds are always eating and laying around. The other chickens are actually trying to kill a chicken they think is sickly- even though the meat bird technically is not. Poor little ugly things, they are soo sweet and get the shortest end of the deal.

 

[Buster52]

You have to let it rest at least 24 hours or rigor mortis will make it tough.

 

[what did I do]

Leghorns are known to peck on CX. We had that problem with our first chickens. They will peck at them until their guts come out. Other chicks will do it too not just leghorns. With out first chicks I treated them with rooster booster until we readied the other coop. They say that giving them salt helps. Too much salt will kill them.

 

[member 142084]

I have sweet buff orpingtons and they tore up his back.

 

[halo]

I let mine sit in the refrigerator for 48 hours before I freeze it. Id let it sit the same amount of time if I were going to eat it right away. No way it should have been tough and chewy. Dont give up, just next time let them rest at least 24 hours before cooking.