Rooster chicks - what to do with them

[Ren2014]

I checked my invoice and it confirmed... MALES included for warmth. I checked with Ideal and they said they are probably all White Leghorns. The girls I ordered are EE's and Barred Rocks. Of the extra 9 males, 5 remain. My husband suggests we eat them but because we are brand new to chickens, I do not know what to do with these guys until then?? Can a flock have more than one rooster?? At what age do they start mating? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[Alaskan]

raise them all together, and when you think they look big enough, eat them.

Even though it is a bunch of males, since they being raised together it won't be a problem. When it DOES start to be a problem, they are usually large enough to eat.

Now, a leghorn doesn't have much meat on it, so don't wait for it to get big and beefy, it wont.

BUT, that doesn't mean that it wont be extremely tasty, t just wont look anything like a store bought chicken.

read through this article and do NOT forget, LOW cooking temperatures!!!!

Once you start to cook at a high temperature all of that very flavorful meat suddenly becomes very tough and stringy.

http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/cookingwheritagechicken.pdf

 

[happybooker1]

Also plenty of Youtube video's on how to kill and prepare a chicken if you don't already know.

 

[Ren2014]

raise them all together, and when you think they look big enough, eat them.

Even though it is a bunch of males, since they being raised together it won't be a problem. When it DOES start to be a problem, they are usually large enough to eat.

Now, a leghorn doesn't have much meat on it, so don't wait for it to get big and beefy, it wont.

BUT, that doesn't mean that it wont be extremely tasty, t just wont look anything like a store bought chicken.

read through this article and do NOT forget, LOW cooking temperatures!!!!

Once you start to cook at a high temperature all of that very flavorful meat suddenly becomes very tough and stringy.

http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/cookingwheritagechicken.pdf

Thank you for the information and the article. It's good to hear they will be ok for awhile. At about what age do you think they will be big enough to eat? At what age do roos start bothering the girls?

 

[Ren2014]

Also plenty of Youtube video's on how to kill and prepare a chicken if you don't already know.

O thank you! I do not and my husband will need to learn. I'm not gonna do it

 

[Alaskan]

Quote:
I would probably start eating them at 3 months and the last one I would eat before a year, maybe as late as 10 months. But I like butchering one at a time, aging it in the fridge for two days and then cooking. I like to skip the freezing the meat part.

The first one that I ate would be the one that started to be a bother first.

Truly though, that is how I do it.

Some roosters start to be all full of themselves sooner than others. I would hate to guess an exact age though.

But eating whoever is being a pain makes the butchering more fun. I still remember one rooster we ate when the kids were still little. The rooster had started puffin up and trying to attack the kids, which was why we ate him. He was a little old, so we made him into an enchilada casserole. The kids would take their forks and stab it into the casserole and say things like "That is what happens when you give me owies! Hahahaha!" and "nasty rooster tastes GOOD!" It was great fun!

 

[Ren2014]

Alaskan,

I will do just that, too funny and yeah for the kids revenge I did use the roos to test our Great Pyrenees out. One was raised around chickens so I didn't think there would be any problem with her. Our big Pyr Lewis didn't even notice the little guys on the ground. Thanks again for the great advice.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

I'm over run with roosters right now, but I'm down to 16 of them. They aren't meat birds so I have to feed them forever and at 8 months they still look like a scrawny buzzard and barely worth killing. The ones that get to be a nuisance meet the hatchet soonest.
My rule of thumb is "When they start to crow it's time to go" but they're usually a bit tough by then.

 

[denco5]

I took my extra chicks to the local feed store, they were about to gladly take them from me and sell them but a lady in the store took them off my hands. As long as they are healthy I would think a local small feed store that sells chicks would take them, its all profit for them.

 

[Ren2014]

I'm over run with roosters right now, but I'm down to 16 of them. They aren't meat birds so I have to feed them forever and at 8 months they still look like a scrawny buzzard and barely worth killing. The ones that get to be a nuisance meet the hatchet soonest.
My rule of thumb is "When they start to crow it's time to go" but they're usually a bit tough by then.

Great rule! I like that, 'when they start to crow it's time to go.' I don't want them 'bothering' my girls either. Which comes first... the crow or the interest in females??