Questions about raising the "extra" male chicks in my hatchery order as meat birds

[makingshift]

We ordered a few ducklings and guinea keets from Ideal and they sent 10 extra male chicks along to keep everybody warm. I sure don't need 10 random roosters around (the two I have may be one too many). I was wanting to raise some meat birds so I'm planning to use these 10 extras as my meat birds. They are all yellow chicks but I don't know what breed- they could be anything. Has anyone here ever raised randoms for meat? How did it turn out? I know Cornish require a higher-protein feed, but do I also need to feed non-Cornish a higher-protein feed, too? Thanks in advance for any input or advice.

 

[Sundown_Farmer]

Packing peanuts could be anything. We find roosters to be tough in every respect. It's even hard to pull their heads off at butcher time. Long legs and razor breasts but flavorful, if tough, meat. You'll need 6 or 7 months to raise less bird than you could raise in 6 or 7 weeks if you had CX. You could caponize them but you're still in the 6 or 7 month range. In that timeline you could raise a pig.
You could raise them to 2 months then list them for sale on CL or a local auction. There are several groups who pay a premium for red roosters for food.

 

[makingshift]

It sounds like with all the feed I'd need to raise them to butchering size it might not even be worth it. Hmmm. I'll have to think on that. What do you do with your "packing peanuts"? (Haha- I hadn't heard that term before.) Thanks for the ideas about Craigslist and auction!

 

[missnu01]

That is my issue with the whole thing...it takes so long to feed that rooster to eating size...but if you can hang on for a few months then sure eat them...and think about maybe making a rooster pen..that way all the roosters can't harass your chickens...since roosters start roostering months before chickens are chickening...Lol.

I have thought about selling off the chicks instantly as extras...but I feel sort of bad for the people that don't know they are buying straight up cockerels...I guess the hatcheries get tired of killing thousands of tiny precious male chicks...so they send out a few for someone else to have to deal with. I have a hard time with the idea of killing a healthy chick, but not so much a healthy rooster.

 

[Sundown_Farmer]

We rarely get packing peanuts anymore. IF I specifically order a couple of roosters with my pullets they almost always double the rooster order. To this point we have raised all roosters, picked the best and butchered the rest. 10 extra birds really isn't a problem when you raise 300 at a time.

Don't be afraid to try CraigsList. Just be honest about what you have. Roosters of unknown breeding cheep!

 

[LilyD]

We got 13 Production Red roosters and ended up processing and eating 11. One was absolutely sweet and we were able to rehome him as a rooster for breeding. One ended up being a hen and she is in with the layers now and also sweet. The other 11 were absolutely evil and I had no problem with eating them. It was bad enough that they even tried to jump up and claw me in the face when we went out to feed them. They did have long legs and were ready at about 5 months to eat. Breast meat was still there but not as much as on cornish X birds. They were not tough as far as I'm concerned but then I rested them well before freezing them and brined them before eating. If I had to grow them out longer than that I would probably pressure cook them and can the meat for later to use for things like chicken and dumplings or stew. Just my opinion though. The flaver was great, the longer you age them the better they taste but it's how long you can live with them that might be the problem.

 

[Mehjr10]

We raise all ours up and after harvest, rest the meat until rigor passes then freeze.. The Crock Pot works wonders..

 

[makingshift]

Thanks, everyone. This was all helpful information. I'm going to raise them up for meat and we'll see how it goes! I suppose I'll be able to post the results in 20 weeks or so.

One more questions- for those who have raised up their extras as meat, did you feed them a higher-protein starter or grower feed? (I'm currently feeding the usual 20% protein starter). Thanks!

 

[Mehjr10]

My standard chickens just ate along with the rest of the flock as they progressed through the weeks. When raising Cornish X , I feed the higher protein until kill date.

 

[LilyD]

Thanks, everyone. This was all helpful information. I'm going to raise them up for meat and we'll see how it goes! I suppose I'll be able to post the results in 20 weeks or so.

One more questions- for those who have raised up their extras as meat, did you feed them a higher-protein starter or grower feed? (I'm currently feeding the usual 20% protein starter). Thanks!

We fed broiler feed mainly because that's the only feed that we can get up here that doesn't have any antibiotics in it and we didn't want to feed antibiotics to birds we were eating. They also got veggie, fruit, breads and cheese scraps from our local bakery that gives us buckets of scraps every 3 days.

This year I am feeding fermented feed made up of whole grains (wheat, barley), corn, field peas, kelp meal, sunflowers and mealworms when they need extra protein to my layer chickens and supplment with fresh veggie fruit and grain scraps as well as egg shells, cheese and other things from my kitchen. I will probably feed this to the meat birds as well.