My first meat!

[Schrebergaertner]

We hatched our first broody-brood in April, and 5 of the 8 turned out to be boys. DW and DDs had no interest in eating them, to say nothing about processing them, but I was interested in both. I did a lot of research and asked lots of questions and the boys were getting really noisy, if not fully grown, so this weekend it was time. Unfortunately, the weekend was too busy for me to spend the hours a first-timer would take to do it, so I found a relatively local poultry place that would process them for $5 each. In and out in 10 minutes, and they were really clean. So last night I cooked the first one. They were almost 3 months old, and I had heard that even that young they could be tough and dry, so I checked into different brining and crock pot recipes to tender them up. But for the first one, I just wanted to experiment as is, so a little seasoning and onto the grill.

Bottom line--yum! Tender and flavorful, even if a little scrawny. Now we know we can easily make good use of any roos we end up with. Or should I say "I," since I have my doubts the rest of the family will ever join me.

FWIW, mom was an EE and dad was a Welsummer.

I guess the next step in chicken math is actually raising meaties, as opposed to dealing with accidental roos?

 

[kizanne]

Congratz on the first one. You are on your way to never buying store chicken again. I really enjoy our chicken we raise but even if I wanted to go back to store bought hubby wouldn't let me he's hooked.

 

[Keepee]

Congratulations on your first one! I can not WAIT to get my little meat birds in so I can have my own home grown chicken!

 

[LilyD]

It really is up to you if you want to go the meaty route or if you would rather stick with the roos you home grow. I did meaties and decided they were not for me. I just want an outlet to use up the roosters I make when my hens decide they need to hatch out babies. I raise Brahmas, Dellys, and I am starting with Dorkings this year. So far I am very pleased with the boys produced right here on the farm. The best thing is I can process two or three at a time rather than processing them all and there is no rush because they can live as long as needed rather than getting sick and dying at 8 weeks because they are too heavy. Makes processing easier and if needed I can keep the roosters around until I need to eat one.

 

[Life is Good!]

The best thing is I can process two or three at a time rather than processing them all and there is no rush because they can live as long as needed rather than getting sick and dying at 8 weeks because they are too heavy. Makes processing easier and if needed I can keep the roosters around until I need to eat one.

Interesting, as I'd take the opposite approach - I don't WANT to have to process all the time, I like having meat in the freezer that I can grab in the a.m., thaw out during the day and have dinner on the table by 6pm. If I had to process all the time, that would mean the 1hr I have between working and dinner on the table would be SO much more crazy! To each their own....

However, spending a few evenings (post-dinner) processing the 25 FR's we raised - that was possible because we made the commitment to 'get it done'. And now it's done and done.

However, we too have baby chicks who will need to be grown to an acceptable size and then find their way to the freezer. We raise Black Java's and I currently have 12 chicks, 2 or 3 known roos...who will find their way to the table.

 

[kizanne]

I'm with Lily D. I like doing like 5 on a Saturday morning. That lasts me for 2 weeks then do some more. I have a very easy setup/clean up. It takes us way too long to process about 20 min. / bird. We used to take longer; this is the fast version. Doing 25 at a time is not enjoyable/feasable. I like the DP for that reason so I can process when I feel like it and have fresh meat in my spare fridge. I also have found I really like the taste of DP better. I do like that a CX can make more meals and such but we didn't enjoy raising them or the pressure of processing them or losing them. On the other hand I'm addicted to raising and crossing so the DP works out there too

 

[LilyD]

Interesting, as I'd take the opposite approach - I don't WANT to have to process all the time, I like having meat in the freezer that I can grab in the a.m., thaw out during the day and have dinner on the table by 6pm. If I had to process all the time, that would mean the 1hr I have between working and dinner on the table would be SO much more crazy! To each their own....

However, spending a few evenings (post-dinner) processing the 25 FR's we raised - that was possible because we made the commitment to 'get it done'. And now it's done and done.

However, we too have baby chicks who will need to be grown to an acceptable size and then find their way to the freezer. We raise Black Java's and I currently have 12 chicks, 2 or 3 known roos...who will find their way to the table.

Oh don't get me wrong I don't want to have to process all the time either. I usually process all the roos as they get big enough to get done. But if for some reason I can't get all of them done. The rest aren't going to die if left another week or two. That's what I like. We did that once with the CRX and they were super tough by 10 weeks even with brining. Wasn't by choice but we had to deal with the aftermath.