Raising extra roos for meat

[Egghead_Jr]

I'm eager to hear your results. In general folks separate the pullets and cockerels due to birds pushing smaller birds to side of feeder. Prepubescent cockerels don't have the thought of finding food for mates yet. This seperation is usually for the pullet benefit to have plenty of food...but in the case of same age birds with many cockerels hitting teen years in human terms the cockerels are still not finding food for mates but bullying one another for dominance. It makes sense they are separate so those "raindeer games" of showing off don't push other males from feeder too. If there are no girls with them they get along like brothers. Add an attractive female to the mix and all bets are off, just like brothers...

When is that 4 week oldest cockerel hitting 14 weeks? Make sure to butcher him on time so if it's not to your liking you can try a few at 12 weeks. If those aren't right then perhaps you just don't like chicken

 

[BlueShadow]

I'm eager to hear your results. In general folks separate the pullets and cockerels due to birds pushing smaller birds to side of feeder. Prepubescent cockerels don't have the thought of finding food for mates yet. This seperation is usually for the pullet benefit to have plenty of food...but in the case of same age birds with many cockerels hitting teen years in human terms the cockerels are still not finding food for mates but bullying one another for dominance. It makes sense they are separate so those "raindeer games" of showing off don't push other males from feeder too. If there are no girls with them they get along like brothers. Add an attractive female to the mix and all bets are off, just like brothers...

When is that 4 week oldest cockerel hitting 14 weeks? Make sure to butcher him on time so if it's not to your liking you can try a few at 12 weeks. If those aren't right then perhaps you just don't like chicken

This will be the third time I have separated the cockerels and pullets. The first time was quite by chance, the birds just needed more space, so I moved the pullets and cockerels I was interested in maybe keeping into the main coop while leaving the cockerels I definitely wasn't going to keep in the brooder shed. I butchered a couple from the brooder yard before butchering one from the main coop, and was shocked at the difference in size. As you mentioned, the biggest difference is the decreased fighting when the girls are gone. They seem to have a few scuffles, get the pecking order sorted out, and then that is that and very rare fighting or even chasing around after that. I am pretty sure the difference in growth is primarily the decreased energy expenditure. I know I weighed them but I can't remember for sure what the difference was. I think it was about a pound, probably the birds were plucked but not cleaned when I weighed them. I will try to take some weights this time.

Two more weeks until the oldest cockerel hits 14 weeks. Its not that I don't like chicken, its that the 1 and 3 year old can be picky. Stinkers!

 

[BlueShadow]

Butchered the oldest cockerel today. A few days shy of 14 weeks, he was only 13.5 weeks, but with the hot weather heading this way, it seemed best to do it now

This was a Buckeye from Meyer Hatchery, and he was only in the rooster pen for 2.5 weeks. The rest of the time he had a large run to roam. He was 3 lbs 13 oz live weight, 2 lbs 1 oz butchered and cleaned. I thought the carcass size was reasonable considering the young age. Yes it was much smaller than I am used to. Breast looked proportionally full to what I would expect on a grown bird, it was the thighs that looked a little thin to me. I did appreciate the ease of butchering a young bird

 

[Maeschak]

Very nice little bird!

 

[TinyBirds]

We just did 10 birds today at 15 weeks old. They were welsummers, marans, and legbar. All were about 3.5 to 4 lbs live weight. They were quite a bit smaller than the saipan we processed at 16 weeks and those were 5.5 to 6 lbs. I prefer this age for processing because the skin pulls off so easily. I dont defeather them since I dont like dealing with a big container of boiling water. I prefer the saipan since they have more meat and less fluffy feathers to deal with when processing.

 

[BlueShadow]

@Egghead_Jr here are the results you were waiting for.

I ended up with far fewer roosters than anticipated. They kept turning into pullets! In the end, I had 3 roosters, 1 RIR and 2 Buckeyes. They were in the rooster pen different lengths of time, about 8, 2, and 0 weeks. Live weights were all about the same at 14.5 weeks. 4 lb 11 oz, 4 lb 12 oz and 4 lb 12 oz. So no apparent difference. Only the RIR will be butchered, probably tonight

 

[BlueShadow]

Butchered the RIR today. I continue to be very pleased with butchering young. The skin pulls off easily, its easier to cut through joints, the carcass size is easy to fit into containers to rest in my refrigerator.

4 lb 12 oz live weight, 2 lb 11 oz skinned & cleaned at exactly 15 weeks.

 

[junebuggena]

I always process my cockerels at about 12 to 16 weeks, once they are about the same size as my mature hens. You are never going to get the same sort of meat off them that you will get from a Cornish cross, no matter what you do. And by the time they hit 12 weeks, they are burning through twice the amount of feed that the same age pullets consume, and you're only going to get maybe a half pound to a pound more out of them by keeping them another month longer. Not enough of gain to justify the amount of feed they consume.

 

[BlueShadow]

I always process my cockerels at about 12 to 16 weeks, once they are about the same size as my mature hens. You are never going to get the same sort of meat off them that you will get from a Cornish cross, no matter what you do. And by the time they hit 12 weeks, they are burning through twice the amount of feed that the same age pullets consume, and you're only going to get maybe a half pound to a pound more out of them by keeping them another month longer. Not enough of gain to justify the amount of feed they consume.

Oh, I don't know, these are only 2/3 the size of my mature hens (at best!) But yes, I have become a convert to butchering at younger ages. I realized that I could keep them until 5-6 months, get twice as much meat, and spend twice as much on feed. Not worth the chores! (unless its a roo I am considering keeping for breeding purposes, those need a bit more age for me to decide)