ok....need your opinions....please....which ones do you eat....??

[crazypoultrychx]

so we have several "flocks" on our property....we are raising egg layers....turkeys...ducks....NJ Giants and we also have some buff orphingtons and sliver laced wayndottes.... (sp)....and heritage breed RIR....so....we were at a loss when we first started to process a bunch of 6 mo old RIR roos but they were WAY TO SMALL TO EAT....so then we got the NJ Giants....however we got them from the feed store and they are not any bigger then our RIR hens...that was when we learned the diff between heritage and feed store birds.......so we added turkeys.....and now we have 2 adult ones and I hatched 7 survivers.....so here is my question....what do you eat....the roos or the hens or everything....we are going to have to cull the flocks we have already as we have WAY TO MANY BIRDS at this point....but moving forward we want to do it right and I have NO CLUE how to sex chicks...but I was told that pointy eggs more likely means roos......but I havent proven this theory yet....we are going to lean more towards the heritage breeds from here on out but.......... what breeds do you raise and which sex do you tend to process more then the other..??

everyone does it different and we are really trying to lean more towards the heritage breeds vs the meat breeds as we want non genetically engineered birds but we also want the most bang for our buck....please....any input would be great!

 

[Stiggy]

cobb birds, or depending where you live, then Cornish somethings ( we only have cobb birds where I live) they grow so fast, all they do is eat, and at 10 weeks can be eaten, at 16 weeks they weigh about 4-5 kg. you can usually get them from hatcheries/ as extras from places that grow and sell them to supermarkets etc.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

so we have several "flocks" on our property....we are raising egg layers....turkeys...ducks....NJ Giants and we also have some buff orphingtons and sliver laced wayndottes.... (sp)....and heritage breed RIR....so....we were at a loss when we first started to process a bunch of 6 mo old RIR roos but they were WAY TO SMALL TO EAT....so then we got the NJ Giants....however we got them from the feed store and they are not any bigger then our RIR hens...that was when we learned the diff between heritage and feed store birds.......so we added turkeys.....and now we have 2 adult ones and I hatched 7 survivers.....so here is my question....what do you eat....the roos or the hens or everything....we are going to have to cull the flocks we have already as we have WAY TO MANY BIRDS at this point....but moving forward we want to do it right and I have NO CLUE how to sex chicks...but I was told that pointy eggs more likely means roos......but I havent proven this theory yet....we are going to lean more towards the heritage breeds from here on out but.......... what breeds do you raise and which sex do you tend to process more then the other..??

everyone does it different and we are really trying to lean more towards the heritage breeds vs the meat breeds as we want non genetically engineered birds but we also want the most bang for our buck....please....any input would be great!

I don't think your 6 mo old RIR roos could really be too small to eat. I mean people eat quail and pigeon. They won't have the huge carcass of a Cornish X, but they can still be eaten. I've raised three kinds of meat birds (Cornish X, Freedom Rangers and Red Rangers) but I've also eaten a few roosters that were sent by mistake when I ordered pullet chicks as well as a few older hens who I had purchased as layers. The cooking style is different for different sizes and ages of chicken, but they can all be delicious and worth eating.