One of my (8 wk old) meaties is crowing??? REALLY???

[CALI CHICK]

I knew the Cornish X would grow fast, but I've always heard that you butcher them before they begin crowing....Apparently not so.

And, why does it have to be a "skinny" one? He is only 6 pounds!

Crowing is a sure fire way to get the knife around here!

 

[brandislee]

One of mine was crowing the week before we processed as well.. but it was not super loud and sounded kind of weird. In this batch the roosters fought as well, which was also weird- like beyond just chest bumping and fluffing up, I went out one afternoon to feed and three of them were bloody all over their head/comb and I had noticed them fighting before. They also do the more chickeney things like scratching and grazing and trying to dust bath (in the grass, but still...), so I'm okay with the bad stuff.

 

[CALI CHICK]

[They also do the more chickeney things like scratching and grazing ]

-Yes, mine too. I only have 2 meaties (this was an experiment) and the one crowing is the one who is leaner, more active and generally behaving like my normal chickens!
Maybe they didn't get enough of the right mix when they were cross-breed? Now I'm curious if they will taste different. My husband, son and I are going to butcher them in the morning...UR...try to butcher them in the morning before sun-up.
We shall see.

 

[shanleyk]

I bought 25 Jumbo Cornish Cross from McMurray 9/1. Two to three of the males started crowing last week (six weeks old); not loud or long but it surprised me. Is this normal? Sounds like it is not atypical given the posts below? WILL THE MEAT TASTE DIFFERENT?? I was going to wait until eight weeks to butcher but I am thinking of processing the males this weekend (at 7.5 weeks). Opinions?

 

[brandislee]

I processed the batch I mentioned above at 7.5 weeks, and the batch I have now (also more "chicken-y," although no crowing) is getting processed tomorrow at 7 weeks exactly. I do that because otherwise mine tend to get way TOO big, at least the roosters. If I were smart I would process just the roos and wait another two weeks on the hens, but apparently I'm not smart and right now I am SO OVER broilers!

But they shouldn't taste different- they're still young chickens, and I'm going to venture that most chickens butchered at 8 weeks would taste about the same, they would just have a lot less meat than a broiler and possibly a different white to dark meat ratio.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Yeah! We DID butcher both of the meaties mentioned in my original post.

Sunday morning we started with the skinny, crowing chicken. He had a very weak, hoarse crow, that we only heard maybe 6 times...but he worked it like he was top rooster of the farmyard. I say "skinny" because he was just different than the lumbaring, lazy, fat cornish cross you expect. I think he weighed about 6 pounds feathered. When we put him in the fridge, he looked the same size as grocery store birds, but I'm not sure how much that was. Considering it was our very first time butchering, it went pretty good.

Monday afternoon we butchered the other chicken. He was the typical fat, waddling Cornish X. He weighed about 9 pounds feathered. Now also in the fridge, I think he's bigger than some turkeys we've had for Thanksgiving! It was more difficult to get the inside cleaned out because of the size and extra fat hanging onto the organs.

From my experience -which is very limited experience- the smaller chicken was much easier to process. I've read that people that raise chickens commercially like to keep the weight to 5 pounds as that's the size customers prefer. I don't know if that is 5 pounds before or after butchering, though. If we get more cornish X we will probably butcher them more by what size we want (and what we want them for) rather than by how many weeks old they are.

(My husband did the actual killing/draining part and I joined him with hot water to start plucking. I can't help getting attached to any animal...even the meat chickens. Maybe it would be different with 25 though?

 

[Tenom Dude]

I thinks it's quite normal, had a Turken start crowing at that age and a cornish x hasn't started to crow at at all and it's almost 4 months. I'm beginning to think it doesn't know it's a male...

 

[WishboneDawn]

We butchered out CC's at 10 weeks. They had started crowing a couple of weeks before. The meat was delicious.