Official BYC Poll: What do you do with your roosters?

[jonalisa]

We all know the importance of having a "rooster plan" when raising chicks. My first option is to sell mine. If I cannot sell I give them away and if I'm really stuck I have the option for them to go live on my friends farm.

I do eat chicken but personally I would find it difficult to butcher a chick I've raised. Fortunately I've never had to do it. I'm really interested to know what you all do with your boys...


(Check out more Official BYC Polls HERE!)

Other: I was lucky enough to find a farm that would take him and I made a $50 donation to the farm.

 

[HappyClucker7]

Earlier in this thread, I said that I would get rid of any roosters. Well, I accidentally ended up with two, got attached to them, and now they're staying.

 

[Erin80]

First we try to give them away to a home where they will have hens and a job to do. If that fails, we eat them. We may keep one rooster this time around.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I've responded to the poll previously. We bought Black Australorp cockerels in March of 2020 for the freezer. They were good, but I found the color of the meat a little off-putting. I think I'm going to stick with EEs in the future. We had gotten EE "pullets" the previous year and ended up with 3 cockerels. They were not only delicious but pretty to cook. We don't mind that they are not extremely meaty.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I've responded to the poll previously. We bought Black Australorp cockerels in March of 2020 for the freezer. They were good, but I found the color of the meat a little off-putting. I think I'm going to stick with EEs in the future. We had gotten EE "pullets" the previous year and ended up with 3 cockerels. They were not only delicious but pretty to cook. We don't mind that they are not extremely meaty.

Am curious - what about the BA meat's color was unappealing to you?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Am curious - what about the BA meat's color was unappealing to you?

It wsn't a pretty "white," aka, orangey pink like the meat you get at the grocery. It was blueish grey in places. It looked kinda bruised, actually, but it wasn't. It just had to do with the pigmentation of the meat. It was quite tasty, but ... just something to get used to. I think we had five or six of them processed and they all looked like that. Just .... different.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Ah, interesting. Thanks for sharing!

 

[CastleCoop]

We usually keep them, if we have enough space for roosters and if we don't have that many roosters at the time. However, if the rooster becomes mean or too aggressive to the other chickens, we will find a good home that is willing to take him in.

 

[Alderen]

We don't raise any chicks ourselves. I know there's no 100% guarantee when you get your chicks from the hatchery, however so far we've only received hens. If we did get a rooster, I guess we'd have fried chicken for supper.