plan on incubating RIR eggs for meat production

[rhoda_bruce]

I started up the incubator a few days ago, but husband got aggrevated, so I turned it off before I even put in the first egg, but today I called the ag store and explained to the manager that I only am interested in the roosters and don't need the pullets and did he think that I could get enough for the pullets to cancel out the cost of feed for them and the roos, and also about the market for pullets.....did they have a demand for pullets? He wants me to incubate whatever I can and bring the pullets to him and he guarantees they will sell faster than they go out.
So I am re-setting the temp in the incubator. I am hoping that I can almost get paid to put meat in the freezer. I only wish I had a bigger breed to use for meat, but RIRs should take care of me. I only have 5 roosters left in freezer camp, so I will be needing to buy some store boughts before long.
So do ya'll think I can have the hopes of finishing off the roos with the money I get from the pullets?

 

[TimG]

Quote:
You could be feeding them for months before they get to freezer weight!

 

[BirchHatchery]

yes chickens can be butcherd at any age depends how big u want them i butcher leghorn cockerals at 20 weeks old i use em for frieng and bbq on the grill. I laugh when ppl say o man u could wait months to put meat on a bird THATS because these people dont no what REAL chicken is their use to birds butcherd at 6 weeks of age pumped with antibotics yea that broiler booster u use.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Well they won't get the size of the broilers I just killed......thats for certain, but I did kill a RIR roo, 2 americana roos and several araucana roos recently. Just fryer size will be fine. I don't need some huge birds. It might cost me too much if I go for too much weight.
What I really want is for my daughter to arrange a meeting with one of the professors at the university who knows all about poultry and is able to caponize. I would really love to learn that procedure.

 

[TimG]

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I've butchered a year old RIR rooster that had a disappointing amount of meat. I've butchered 6 month old Delawares that had a disappointing amount of meat. One that I slow cooked produced barely a pound of meat; I imagine that amount would be a disappointment even for "frieng and bbq". When I raised meat birds last year (Cornish Cross and Color Ranges), I used neither "broiler booster" nor antibiotics and I was not disappointed with the size of the birds. But, it's nice of you to presume otherwise.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

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Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens shows the caponization procedure. If you can follow a book directing you I'd get it.

 

[The Chicken People]

Its on here or you tube as well as in Storeys! I saw a video or a diagram! I believe it was a video!

 

[Kim_NC]

We grow out RIR, BR, Delaware, BA, EE and BSL/RSL roos from our hatches to eat. We feed 16-20% grower pellets, free range and give garden waste of fresh veggies. At 16-18 weeks we typically end up with finished weights of 2 3/4 - 3 1/4 lbs. Of course, they do not have the breast meat of Cornish X (we raise those too.)

The cockerels will eat approx 15 lbs of feed each, from chick to butcher size. Do some math based on the price of feed in your area - but for us, buying bulk feed and allowing some free ranging, my feed cost is about $2 per bird.

Let me say also, they are not going to compare with Cornish X for weight or tenderness. (I understand where TimG is coming from there.) They can however, have great flavor and be delicious.
And yes, they end up costing an ave .67/lb plus your time....maybe you can buy commercial chicken cheaper than that. BUT your own will be safer (from a chemical/antibiotic/hormone standpoint) and have BOTH better flavor and nutrition.

Usually at butcher time, we prepare them a couple different ways...

- Skin the whole carcass.
1. Prepare breast as boneless, skinless for use in recipes like Chicken Picatta, marinated and grilled.
2. Debone and can dark meat for meatpies, chicken & gravy, soups.
3. Make stock from bones and can for bean recipes, soups, stews.
4. Wing 'drummets' go usually into buffalo wing recipe - I don't keep the other wing portion when processing.
4. OR cut up whole skinless bird for recipes like Coq Au Vin.

- Pluck hind portion only, Skin rest of carcass. I brine these for 24-48 hours to improve texture. Note: if you don't brine them, then marinate before cooking.

1. With skin intact leg quarters to can be grilled, roasted or fried. Note: careful here with age, over 18 weeks, they are too firm or tough for most people's taste.
2. Remove whole skinless breast for recipes, grilling or roasting.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I am totally on the page with all of you, believe it or not. Right now I have RIRs to work with and the prospect of raising what I will get out of the 69 eggs that fit in the incubator with only room enough for the thermometer, for 3 weeks and then getting back more than my investment, so I can then get even more food, is looking nice to me. At that point, I will start using the grain I get from the people near the river. And I should start seeing more grass also.....there is a nice patch of clover that grows very close to where I plan on brooding them. Regardless of how much meat I get, I am thinking it might be pretty much free, except my work, time and loss from the egg sale.
But I well remember several years ago, when my oldest was about 10 years old and she wanted to enter the broiler contest with the 4H. I let her because I wasn't using my brooder....not from October thru December that is. Well she only came in 2nd......and no one can convince me that the winner was from the same batch btw. But we slaughtered all the males first at about 12 weeks of age and they were awesome and had gorgeous shapes. Melt in your mouth kinda experience. We did keep some of the hens that laid some pretty big eggs, but we never incubated any.....yes I know they wouldn't have been the same.
I probably will eventually be getting some individual small coops, because I like to separate things and a small broiler project might happen, but between the guineas and chickens I already have, I will have meat anyway. There is no way I won't kill the unwanted roosters, because I feel they are costing me too much in feed for nothing but rooster fights and harassed hens, so they will go in the freezer.
To: Kim_NC........you must be related to my maternal grandmother. She can get almost everything out of any investment. When I can, I do boil my bones, backs and necks and use the meat as I need them or use as a stock for gumbos and soups. I used to can a lot of things and I still would if it wouldn't have made my house so hot and if I could only find a cheaper place to purchase my lids for my jars. Grandma tells of Hurricane Betsy all the time and how she took stuff from her freezer and put it straight into mason jars and saved everything except a little seafood. Being from Louisiana, I like to keep as many thing out of my freezer as I possibly can.
Cindiloohoo: Thanks for the tip. I will locate my caponizing booklet and see who, exactly wrote it and possibly obtain a copy, if its not what I have. I don't feel confident enough to perform the procedure on a living bird, but I plan on doing it on a dead rooster when I can.
The Chicken People: I will watch the procedure on you-tube if I can find it. I saw a man who claimed to know how to do it, but I promise you, I could have done it better.....what I watched is a rooster murder. Not pretty.

 

[Kim_NC]

Quote:
LOL..perhaps our grandmas were cousins???