My experience killing and cooking young heritage breed cockerels

[angc11]

I decided to make a post here about processing and cooking young heritage breed cockerels after hatching eggs and having a huge excess of cockerels, mainly for my own records but also because I haven't been able to find this specific info online so maybe this helps someone else.

This is my first time raising chickens so I am not an expert at all, but this has been my experience so far. Back in March, I hatched 44 eggs from a bunch of mixed heritage breed eggs (EEs/Ameruacanas, cochins, buckeyes, mille de fleurs, salmon favorelle etc) I got from a lady locally who is all organic and free range. I sold 8 chicks to a friend and now I have approximately 18 cockerels and 17 pullets. I am currently keeping them within electric poultry netting with a mobile coop and I move them once a week to new pasture so I would call them "partially free ranging" chickens.

I don't have any adult chickens so a lot of the cockerels are starting to get incredibly rowdy and mean toward the pullets and no adults are there to put them in their place. There were two cockerels that were particularly mean, grabbing pullets by the necks and not letting go (probably trying to mate already) and keeping pullets away from all the feeders and treats. Also ripping feathers out of other cockerels necks and eating the feathers. Just general bad behavior that seems to be hard on the pullets.

So my husband and I decided to process the worst two cockerels at 12 weeks old in our backyard. We used a killing cone and slit their jugular and let them bleed out for a couple minutes. We used a Roots and Harvest electric scalder (which was pretty pricey at $340 but works quite well) at 140 degrees for ~40 seconds. I added some natural dish soap and put the whole bird in (feet too) and stirred with a cultivator tool. I hand plucked since it was just two and they were small (took me about 10-15 minutes a bird with all the tiny feathers) and then I used a fishing table with a sink connected to my hose to eviscerate. I was able to eviscerate them the same way you would a normal sized chicken. I'll add my evisceration process in a comment in case anyone is curious (and for my own poor memory).

Both birds weighed 1 pound and 13 ounces after processing. I just tried cooking one of them after letting it rest in the fridge for 4 days. I salt and peppered it and roasted it in a cast iron skillet on 425 for 15 minutes and then turned the heat down to 350 and roasted for approximately another 10 minutes and pulled it out to rest when the breast was reading 155. The meat was very tender and tasted quite good!! It was my first heritage rooster so a bit different than all the broiler/grocery store chicken i've eaten in my life. I'd compare the texture and taste to duck breast. A little gamey, slightly rubbery, but I liked it a lot! I was also surprised at how much meat there actually was on such a tiny carcass. My husband and I were able to split the whole for lunch and it was enough to make us full.

I will be processing more cockerels over the coming weeks because others are starting to get mean and they're all starting to crow which I imagine my neighbors are not thrilled about. I will probably update as I cook different sized and aged birds mainly for my own records, but also maybe so that this helps anyone who is in the same predicament as me.

 

[angc11]

Here was my evisceration process. I was fortunately able to observe and help with processing on a local farm called Happy Wife Acres and this is how I was taught. I'll attempt to describe in words, but they actually have a really detailed video of their evisceration process on youtube here:

.

1. cut off the feet and peel the feet (to use for stock)

2. cut off the oil gland at the base of the chicken

3. half way up the neck, lightly cut around the skin of the neck until you can pull the skin off. Pull on the trachea until it comes apart from the neck. Then put two fingers into the neck hole and massage into the breast and then walk your fingers outward. You are looking for the crop. This is the hardest part in my opinion is finding the crop. It's a little bag that you have to peel away from the skin

4. Go to the bottom of the bird with breast up and make a gentle cut above the pubic bone, making sure to open the bird up without cutting into the organs. You can cut a bit and then pull it the rest of the way open, that feels foolproof to not rupture any intestines that way. Once you have a hole big enough to fit your hand in, stick hand in and reach all the way up to the top and grab the organs and pull them out. You should have most of it when you pull (but make sure to keep the intestine connected to the cloaca and not rupture the intestine). You'll see the crop and trachea come through too if you separated it correctly. You'll also see the heart, liver and gizzard come out which you can save if you eat that. If you are cutting the liver off, make sure not to rupture the little green thing attached to it, that is the gallbladder and it's filled with green bile.

5. Get out the lungs by reaching in and feeling them on the rib cage. It's a little tricky but just try to massage them out with your fingers. It's ok if you don't get the whole thing.

6. cut out the remaining organs connected to the cloaca by starting on one side of the pubic bone and cutting down below the cloaca, doing the other side and then cut across to fully cut out the cloaca and the intestine attached to it. You will want to try not to rupture the intestine since there might be poop in it.

7. cut off the neck with sharp scissors by holding the neck and cutting it at the chicken's shoulders

8. rinse out the inside of the bird by putting two fingers in the neck hole so water will stay in the bird. Rinse well and then throw chicken into a tub of cold water while you process the other birds.

9. If you plan to eat the chicken soon, you can let it dry a bit and then put it in a ziplock bag. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 3 days before cooking

10a. if you want to freeze, get thick poultry bags. Put your bird in there after drying it a bit, ziptie closed and then poke a tiny hole in the bag. Get your scalder up to ~200 degrees and then plunge the bird in the bag in there using heat resistant gloves. This will get most of the air out of the bag so that you can freeze. Take the bird out and then plug the small hole with some tape. Then it's ready for the freezer. You can put directly in the freezer, but make sure to let it thaw for 3 days before cooking and eating.

10b. Edit: I have not tried this yet, but here's @FunClucks instructions for using tubing instead of poking a hole: "Put the straw inside the cavity of the chicken when it is in the shrink wrap bag, and have it extend several inches beyond the end of the chicken carcass where it come out the open end of the bag. Put your zip-tie onto the bag around the straw, firm, but where you can pull out the straw later. Shrink wrap the chicken, and once all the air is out, you can remove the straw and fully cinch down the ziplock." Thanks for that!!

 

[iwltfum]

You have the process down - including fantastic description of a clean evisceration - for never having raised or butchered chickens before. Nice job

A half and half mix of cockerels and hens can definitely get a bit crazy starting around the 3 month mark so I would say your timing is great and maybe time to start thinking about handling the rest of the boys.

Almost 2 pounds is about what I would expect of backyard dual purpose birds at 12 weeks from hatchery lineage. If you keep hatching out eggs and if you are mindful about which rooster(s) you decide to keep around, you could have a really successful dual purpose backyard flock that could even make some side income selling your excess pullets. Local pullets are crazy expensive this year ..I'm not sure if it will continue but someone told me a few weeks ago they were about to buy some 2 year old standard-breed laying hens for $30 each...

 

[FunClucks]

Good job! Excellent work, and excellent description, especially for a first-timer. Sounds you've got it down.

One thing I would suggest is get a sturdy straw. Metal ones or durable polyethylene tubing will work. Put the straw inside the cavity of the chicken when it is in the shrink wrap bag, and have it extend several inches beyond the end of the chicken carcass where it come out the open end of the bag. Put your zip-tie onto the bag around the straw, firm, but where you can pull out the straw later. Shrink wrap the chicken, and once all the air is out, you can remove the straw and fully cinch down the ziplock. Voila! Chicken in a shrink wrap bag with no holes in it. You can use the method you use, with the tape, but I prefer the straw method, so I thought I'd share.

 

[angc11]

You have the process down - including fantastic description of a clean evisceration - for never having raised or butchered chickens before. Nice job

A half and half mix of cockerels and hens can definitely get a bit crazy starting around the 3 month mark so I would say your timing is great and maybe time to start thinking about handling the rest of the boys.

Almost 2 pounds is about what I would expect of backyard dual purpose birds at 12 weeks from hatchery lineage. If you keep hatching out eggs and if you are mindful about which rooster(s) you decide to keep around, you could have a really successful dual purpose backyard flock that could even make some side income selling your excess pullets. Local pullets are crazy expensive this year ..I'm not sure if it will continue but someone told me a few weeks ago they were about to buy some 2 year old standard-breed laying hens for $30 each...

Hey thank you @iwltfum! Yes, I am planning to process most of the cockerels very soon, they're driving me crazy and eating twice the amount of food that the pullets do haha. I am also planning to keep two of my favorite cockerels and either hatch more eggs when the hens start laying or ideally let a hen go broody and hatch eggs for me. I have a lot of bantam hens so hopefully at least one will go broody and be a good mom! It would be great to get to the point where I'm able to sell eggs and pullets and get some return on my chicken investment. Right now they're just expensive pets lol!

And yeah...I've seen those super high pullet/laying hen prices on fb and craigslist which is why I ultimately decided to go with hatching eggs and I'm glad I did

 

[angc11]

Good job! Excellent work, and excellent description, especially for a first-timer. Sounds you've got it down.

One thing I would suggest is get a sturdy straw. Metal ones or durable polyethylene tubing will work. Put the straw inside the cavity of the chicken when it is in the shrink wrap bag, and have it extend several inches beyond the end of the chicken carcass where it come out the open end of the bag. Put your zip-tie onto the bag around the straw, firm, but where you can pull out the straw later. Shrink wrap the chicken, and once all the air is out, you can remove the straw and fully cinch down the ziplock. Voila! Chicken in a shrink wrap bag with no holes in it. You can use the method you use, with the tape, but I prefer the straw method, so I thought I'd share.

Thanks @FunClucks!! Oh yeah, the bags I bought did come with polyethylene tubing! You can use that method with the hot water shrink wrapping?! If so, I will definitely use that tubing when I process the rest of the boys

 

[FunClucks]

Thanks @FunClucks!! Oh yeah, the bags I bought did come with polyethylene tubing! You can use that method with the hot water shrink wrapping?! If so, I will definitely use that tubing when I process the rest of the boys

You should have gotten some sort of instruction method or manual or even just a pictorial flier with those shrink bags telling/showing you how to do it. Amazon or google can help out too. Makes things neater, IMO. Works best when you shrink wrap them after rigor mortis passes. Good luck!

 

[cassie]

I decided to make a post here about processing and cooking young heritage breed cockerels after hatching eggs and having a huge excess of cockerels, mainly for my own records but also because I haven't been able to find this specific info online so maybe this helps someone else.

This is my first time raising chickens so I am not an expert at all, but this has been my experience so far. Back in March, I hatched 44 eggs from a bunch of mixed heritage breed eggs (EEs/Ameruacanas, cochins, buckeyes, mille de fleurs, salmon favorelle etc) I got from a lady locally who is all organic and free range. I sold 8 chicks to a friend and now I have approximately 18 cockerels and 17 pullets. I am currently keeping them within electric poultry netting with a mobile coop and I move them once a week to new pasture so I would call them "partially free ranging" chickens.

I don't have any adult chickens so a lot of the cockerels are starting to get incredibly rowdy and mean toward the pullets and no adults are there to put them in their place. There were two cockerels that were particularly mean, grabbing pullets by the necks and not letting go (probably trying to mate already) and keeping pullets away from all the feeders and treats. Also ripping feathers out of other cockerels necks and eating the feathers. Just general bad behavior that seems to be hard on the pullets.

So my husband and I decided to process the worst two cockerels at 12 weeks old in our backyard. We used a killing cone and slit their jugular and let them bleed out for a couple minutes. We used a Roots and Harvest electric scalder (which was pretty pricey at $340 but works quite well) at 140 degrees for ~40 seconds. I added some natural dish soap and put the whole bird in (feet too) and stirred with a cultivator tool. I hand plucked since it was just two and they were small (took me about 10-15 minutes a bird with all the tiny feathers) and then I used a fishing table with a sink connected to my hose to eviscerate. I was able to eviscerate them the same way you would a normal sized chicken. I'll add my evisceration process in a comment in case anyone is curious (and for my own poor memory).

Both birds weighed 1 pound and 13 ounces after processing. I just tried cooking one of them after letting it rest in the fridge for 4 days. I salt and peppered it and roasted it in a cast iron skillet on 425 for 15 minutes and then turned the heat down to 350 and roasted for approximately another 10 minutes and pulled it out to rest when the breast was reading 155. The meat was very tender and tasted quite good!! It was my first heritage rooster so a bit different than all the broiler/grocery store chicken i've eaten in my life. I'd compare the texture and taste to duck breast. A little gamey, slightly rubbery, but I liked it a lot! I was also surprised at how much meat there actually was on such a tiny carcass. My husband and I were able to split the whole for lunch and it was enough to make us full.

I will be processing more cockerels over the coming weeks because others are starting to get mean and they're all starting to crow which I imagine my neighbors are not thrilled about. I will probably update as I cook different sized and aged birds mainly for my own records, but also maybe so that this helps anyone who is in the same predicament as me.

Just a comment. There are a lot of recipes out there for cooking Cornish game hens. You might check some of them out. At one pound that is essentially what you had. My guess is the improved flavor was due to the age of the chicken. Older birds are more flavorful. If I lived where I could do it, I would buy a batch of Cornish X and process them as game hens.

 

[Molpet]

Good job and great write up

The older they are the cooking method changes or they get tough.

 

[angc11]

Just a comment. There are a lot of recipes out there for cooking Cornish game hens. You might check some of them out. At one pound that is essentially what you had. My guess is the improved flavor was due to the age of the chicken. Older birds are more flavorful. If I lived where I could do it, I would buy a batch of Cornish X and process them as game hens.

Oh yeah funny you mention that! I actually should have included in my post that "roasted cornish game hen" was exactly the recipe I looked up and followed and it worked perfectly for my 12 week old cockerels.

Also, on a side note, I roasted another 1 lb, 13 oz bird following the roasted cornish game hen recipe this weeken. This time I pulled all the meat off and weighed it and it was roughly 9 oz of cooked chicken which I find to be an impressive yield for how tiny the carcass looked!!