Processing those extra roosters

[wsmoak]

There is ENTIRELY too much crowing going on around here, so I finally got my act together and reduced the rooster population by one this morning.

I just skinned him, not wanting to go to the trouble to set up the scalder and plucker for a single bird.

He was a "Barred Rock" ... except that he had a band of iridescent green feathers on his wings/back (and some of his friends have feathers down the legs.) Not sure what other breed snuck in there sometime in the past!

He dressed out to 3 lbs 4 oz (skinless but with organs) and after a few hours in the crock pot yielded 1 lb 8 oz of meat for the dogs. With the carrots I put underneath to keep it from sticking, and the broth, I ended up with eight 6 oz portions for them.

-Wendy

 

[Mum]

Congrats on your feast

 

[evergreen1]

how old was the rooster? how long it took you to process him?

 

[wsmoak]

He was about 18 weeks old. It took around half an hour. I was in no great hurry, and things are scattered around since they haven't been used in a while -- the killing cone is on the garden fence, and the processing table was across the yard. So, lots of walking in between capturing the rooster, bleeding out, dry plucking a little so I could see what I was doing (and because my MIL asked for feathers to make cat toys) and skinning/eviscerating.

The second victim was done this morning, the dogs will be enjoying their extra treats for a while!

Sadly, we are almost out of the Freedom Rangers we raised back in the spring. It's going to be a long, cold winter of supermarket chicken.

-Wendy

 

[wyoDreamer]

Sadly, we are almost out of the Freedom Rangers we raised back in the spring. It's going to be a long, cold winter of supermarket chicken.

-Wendy

Let's see, 8 weeks would have a new batch done before Halloween!

 

[wsmoak]

Let's see, 8 weeks would have a new batch done before Halloween!

I tried, but my fall meat chicken shipment was a disaster with 75% mortality. I don't think shipping in the late summer is ever going to work here.

-Wendy

 

[evergreen1]

so Wendy, when you are out of those chickens? are you going to raise more? if so what breed are you going to have?

 

[wsmoak]

so Wendy, when you are out of those chickens? are you going to raise more? if so what breed are you going to have?

There are probably five or six left at the bottom of the chest freezer. It's currently loaded with blueberries that need to be turned into syrup and preserves -- once that happens I'll be able to find the meat again!

Other than the single Red Ranger and Heritage White that survived the trip through the mail, I won't raise any more meat chickens until next spring. There will be a handful of Rainbow dual purpose roosters to process in a few months, and a couple more barred rocks (though those are *nice* stock from Cathy at Lonesome Pine farm and I might offer them to someone who wants to improve their flock.)

So in February or March I'll probably get more Red Rangers from S&G next door in Alabama to evaluate them, and then some Freedom Rangers because we really liked those. I'd like to buy closer to home so they have a shorter trip, but don't want to compromise on quality, and the FR's will be hard to beat. Sometimes I hear that all the 'red broilers' come from the same French parent stock, but I think it's been long enough that the different hatcheries will have diverged based on what they're selecting for.

Meanwhile... I picked up four Royal Palm turkeys last week (adorable!) and I also breed rabbits for meat, so we won't starve.

-Wendy

 

[Celie]

How large do red rangers get and do they have the leg or heart trouble that white Cornish Rocks do? Do you like Royal Palms better than Holland whites? Are they close in size? I raised the BB Giant white turkeys one year, because they were the only ones available at my local feed store, but found out they had to be AI to reproduce, so I went to the Holland White turkeys last year. The males get to about 40# on foot and the hens about 30#, but they do not have double wide breasts. They do mate naturally and lay quite a few eggs. I hatched out about 25 for next year and no leg or heart trouble, which is great.
When I raised BBW turkeys and White Cornish rock broilers, I had to restrict food fto 12 hour a day or they would eat themseves to death, but the last BBW turkeys we harvested weighted ovr 80 # toal weight and the breasts alone were around 35# each after they were deboned.

 

[wsmoak]

I had zero trouble with the Freedom Rangers last spring. I bought 25, they shipped 26, and every single one was running around healthy on processing day. See this thread for all the info, including weights.

I'm pretty sure all of the 'red broilers' from the various hatcheries are similar, but the FR's are the only ones I have personal experience with.

This is my first turkey adventure, so I don't know yet what I prefer. I took what I could get locally after the meat bird shipment disaster.

How old was that 80 lb turkey?! Some of my 7 lb roosters were a bit scary to catch, I am not sure about processing something the size of a labrador retriever!

-Wendy