Roosters as meat birds?

[ScrumbleWood]

you all realize this is a zombie thread, one from six and a half years dead, right?

Hello there! Yes, I did realize the age of the thread. A google search led me to this thread, so I surmised that it would be likely for other folks to land here as well. As old as the thread is, my intention is less about conversing with the previous participants and more about adding to the conversation in case future eyes find this thread. How kind of you to check in!

 

[ScrumbleWood]

Yes, this thread is 7 years old. I think this happens because for some reason pictures and threads get listed at the top or on the side as new ones, or are searched up.

If anyone currently wants to know though, the only way this would be cost effective is if you have the kind of pasture that will support the birds with hardly any additional feed at all. Otherwise they simply eat more than they're worth.

Yes! We find that the roosters forage extremely well through the woods. The challenges are then predator pressure and moving a shelter through a wooded area. With LGDs on the prowl we've been able to utilize perimeter fencing to secure a large swath of the farm, and we put the roosters through pasture (behind ruminants and horse) and through the woods. Again, cost-effective for us includes flavor and genetic fortitude. We find these to be best with the older breeds.

 

[LilyD]

Yes! We find that the roosters forage extremely well through the woods. The challenges are then predator pressure and moving a shelter through a wooded area. With LGDs on the prowl we've been able to utilize perimeter fencing to secure a large swath of the farm, and we put the roosters through pasture (behind ruminants and horse) and through the woods. Again, cost-effective for us includes flavor and genetic fortitude. We find these to be best with the older breeds.

ScrumbleWood I agree wholeheartedly. I found I while I fed for a longer time, I ended up feeding less than I did to the cornish X birds because even if they were let out to free range with the other birds they tended to stay right next to the feeder eating all day while when I did just roosters they were out foraging from the time I let them out at 5 am until bed time then I would add a scoop of food to their feeder. In the morning it would still be half full and they would want to go out to forage rather than staying in the coop to eat. They do take longer to get to processing weight (usually 16 to 20 weeks here the most I have gone was 24 weeks birds were still tender and nice and filled out well. I have done SG Dorking roos and Orpingtons. The SG were great meat decent breast and leg and thigh meat at about 18 weeks of age better if you wait until 24. The orpingtons seemed to get to process weight a bit quicker roosters big and meaty hens were fat and ready to lay by 6 months.