Red sex link males for meat birds?

[LilyD]

Oh a spur on the wing? That is strange! I'm glad to hear they taste good, these little guys will be my first home-grown chicken meal ever, I've got some pretty high hopes for them!
Does anyone know how to get chicken strips from them?

Chicken strips like chicken fingers? I use the breasts for that and strip them about an inch wide by about 2 inches long then dredge them in milk and flour and bread crumbs with whatever seasonings I use and then either bake or deep fry them. They are awesome as long as you remember to rest the meat first.

 

[Beka123]

Yes chicken fingers/strips/nuggets... However you call them at your house! So you can only use breast meat for chicken strips? So if I wanted a good 2-3 meals of chicken strips, (I have a 4 year old, she loves ckn strips) I could take care of 2-3 birds by stripping the whole skin/carcass off so that I don't have to de-feather it first, then just begin dis-assembling the skinless chicken the way I would see different pieces for sale in the store? And package it for the accordingly?



Also I have a question about "resting" it first, I've seen that on several posts, and I've gathered that it means leaving the bird in the fridge for a few days before eating, is that correct? And if that is correct, does that mean days in the fridge before I put them in the freezer for keeping, or take it from the freezer to the fridge for a few days before eating?

 

[deerman]

Yes I do know that.. I am well aware of how to breed them. I have a RR rooster and barred rock hens and when you breed the two of them you have a black sex link.. Correct???

Yes your correct for black sex link.

red sex link are red rooster (RIR NH) over white rock hen= golden comet

i have seem a lot of people selling eggs ,or breeding golden comet together then wonder why they are not sex link. Some people think golden comet x golden comet = golden comet

Jessica , didn't mean to come across rude....just pasting info out there.

 

[deerman]

Yes chicken fingers/strips/nuggets... However you call them at your house! So you can only use breast meat for chicken strips? So if I wanted a good 2-3 meals of chicken strips, (I have a 4 year old, she loves ckn strips) I could take care of 2-3 birds by stripping the whole skin/carcass off so that I don't have to de-feather it first, then just begin dis-assembling the skinless chicken the way I would see different pieces for sale in the store? And package it for the accordingly?
Also I have a question about "resting" it first, I've seen that on several posts, and I've gathered that it means leaving the bird in the fridge for a few days before eating, is that correct? And if that is correct, does that mean days in the fridge before I put them in the freezer for keeping, or take it from the freezer to the fridge for a few days before eating?

ice them down , mine right from butchering to tub with lots of ice and water, will be cool down within the hour. I have about 50 done , get home and start cutting and packaging for the freezer.

the ice and water will cool them down super fast.

show you how fast , place a can of pop in the freezer for 30 min. then place a can of pop in the ice /water for 10 min...one in the ice/water will be colder....

 

[LilyD]

Yes chicken fingers/strips/nuggets... However you call them at your house! So you can only use breast meat for chicken strips? So if I wanted a good 2-3 meals of chicken strips, (I have a 4 year old, she loves ckn strips) I could take care of 2-3 birds by stripping the whole skin/carcass off so that I don't have to de-feather it first, then just begin dis-assembling the skinless chicken the way I would see different pieces for sale in the store? And package it for the accordingly?
Also I have a question about "resting" it first, I've seen that on several posts, and I've gathered that it means leaving the bird in the fridge for a few days before eating, is that correct? And if that is correct, does that mean days in the fridge before I put them in the freezer for keeping, or take it from the freezer to the fridge for a few days before eating?

You can use dark meat too but the strips would probably be thinner and less long than from the breast. My son loves his made out of breast meat so I will do up like 3 or 4 breasts ( I part out my chickens when I process them) at a time and that is enough to fill a platter with fingers. You definitely could prepare the chicken in strips ahead of time as you are processing. I tend to do that when I cook them but I do part out my chicken when I process them.

As far as resting goes it depends a lot on your chickens age. For a chicken age 6 months or older I rest them for about 4 or 5 days in the fridge. It can be either before you freeze or when you take them out of the freezer to thaw them out to cook. Just take them out a bit ahead of time so they have time to rest. It will still work the same. I freeze all my chickens as I process them and rest when I take the pieces out to cook. Let's face it I just don't have enough fridge for 30 chickens to all rest at once lol.

 

[Beka123]

Thank You everyone you have been so helpful!! I appreciate all the info. Lol, I had a mental image of 10 whole chickens in my fridge for 3 days... Glad to hear I can do it after the freezing. I will also remember the ice water, and I'm glad to know that at least for a few birds I won't have to pluck them! That seems to be the part everyone has the most complaints about...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Since you got them off somebody on Craigslist, I'd assume they bred them themselves using two dual purpose breeds. If that is the case, I have eaten them as early as 15 weeks, but agree that 18 weeks is a lot better. They are pretty small at 15 weeks.

If you get red sex link roosters fron a hatchery, you have to be careful. Some hatcheries cross dual purpose breeds to make their sex links. Those work fine for meat. But some hatcheries sell commercial egg laying chickens as their sex links. These are no better for meat than leghorns. You can still cook and eat them, but you really don't get a lot of meat. I recently got a few chickens from a hatchery and ordered a dozen red sex link roosers to fill out the numbers. These were from Meyer and they were their Golden Buffs, which are a cross between two dual purpose breeds. These worked well. But Meyer also sells the commercial sex links. You have to be a bit careful what they are actually selling.

Another thing is about the chicken strips. The ones you are used to come from the commercial broilers. These chickens are harvested at 6 to 8 weeks of age and are extremely tender. At 18 weeks, the flavor difference in chickens is not as pronounced, but the texture will be different. Don't be shocked if you see that.

If your first attempt at cooking them does not work out as you think it should, don't get mad and throw out all the chicken in the freezer. That's not necessary. You may have to precook them before you bread and fry them. The key is to cook them at low temperatures for a length of time. There are different ways, but I'd consider cooking them in simmering water (not a full rolling boil, just a slow simmer) for a few hours to precook them. Just think of the opportunities to put a few herbs in that water and really seep them in flavor as they cook.

I put mine in the freezer the day they are processed, but I thaw them in the fridge and let them set a while.

 

[deerman]

funny story...i take my meat birds to be process....they do 50 birds in 30 min from time i get there till leaving.


same time a guy was there with 15 week old red star males...mine were 8 week old cornish X rock

big fat ,big breast, his all thin , he was talking to be how he alway had feed and water in front of then, like i though he had been starving them. he got the males for meat his brother got the pullets. then i told him about the big different in the two breed....his brother got him good , they order the redstar so they could split the chicks my sex....redstar they use white leghorn rooster..lol i told him next time order golden comet of black sex link...at least they use larger breed roosters.

this poor guy when he saw his birds pluck next to mine....started tell everyone there he had been giving them a good grower feed....like we all though he starve them...man you can give them all the feed they will eat ,can't make them gain weight like the cxr .....

 

[Beka123]

Lol yeah... I'm really turned off by the Cornish Xs, I know ppl love to use them, but I'll take a smaller bird that's not designed to die, I just don't like the idea of it. My personal preference. I'll take a slow grower with less meat, really, rather than face the possibility of having dead or lame chicks before I'm ready do butcher them, it just makes me so sad to think about! It feels like a pitiful existence to me. But I know that's just my own opinion and I'm sure I'm outweighed 10-1 on that. But I bet they were bigger!

How much do yours cost to process? And where did you go? I don't even know where to start looking for a butcher

 

[deerman]

1.75 per bird if 50 or more 2.25 if less than 50...its a local family will all they need for process...the whole family from the 9 yr old boy putting them into the killing cones, older brother kill ,father auto plucker and beheads them(funny part when time to gather the head he holler where my head guy, thats another job of the 9 yr old) he past them to the mother and daughter for gutting and cleaning, they are state inspected too.

Oh you shouldn't be losing these before buthering age...i lost two out of 52 one as very young another got caught behind feeder.

i try one batch to 12 weeks old....huge. but they eat so much feed after 8 weeks.

dumb thing i try years ago to keep some pullets for layer...ate like pigs, nice large eggs, but i kill them by 9 months. bet i had a lot of money in those eggs

but you should not lose a lot...myself no more than any other breed those first few months....its trying to keep them to long why you will start to lose them...you do need to house them different like lower roost .