Roosters for Rooster

[meanbite]

Hey ya'll. My pet mastiff, Rooster, weighs around 200 lbs and currently eats a bird a day. I was purchasing these from wallmart but figure I can reduce my costs by raising my own birds to feed him as well as providing myself with pets and farm fresh eggs. I started out with BR's as they are great layers and get to a large size that would be good for Rooster. I don't really have a specific questions but I suppose am looking for opinions of how to manage the chickens for feeding Rooster. I don' think I want to process many at a time as I don't want to have to have a freezer. I was thinking I would just process one daily for feeding him or perhaps weekly. What are ya'lls thoughts?

 

[Menmyrc]

Unless you're going to let Rooster deal with the feathers, etc., processing a bird per day sounds like a whole lot more work than setting aside a processing day and doing several. If he's going to deal with feathers, then it might just make the flock that much more appealing to him, too. While my dogs aren't 200 lbs, I do have a freezer that I keep their meat in. The freezer was purchased new at Sam's club and was relatively inexpensive. Because it is new it is also fairly energy efficient. You can keep an eye on Craigs List to see if someone is getting rid of one. Mine are small dogs, so every day, when I take their dinner out of the fridge, I take meat out of the freezer and put it in the fridge for the next day. For the amount of meat that Rooster will be eating you would probably have to have a few day's worth thawing in the fridge to make sure it is thawed for him. Watch some videos (You Tube, etc) on processing to see what is involved. The first few can take some time if you've never done it before. You will get faster, but imagine a day that you are getting home late from work, family, etc. and Rooster is hungry and you have to go out in the cold and dark and process a chicken. Or, because you have a super busy day you have to get up while it is still cold and dark and process a chicken. Or, you have an emergency and someone else has to take care of Rooster for a few days and they have to process chickens....

Just my thoughts!

 

[meanbite]

thanks! that's exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. Currently I buy 6 birds a week putting 2 in the fridge and 4 in the freezer. one of the 2 is fed the following day then I take two from the freezer etc... I definately don't want to give the birds to him with feathers on so that he doesn't get the idea that attacking the live chickens is a good idea. I won't do much else to the birds though. I'm simply going to be killing and plucking them and letting him have the entire carcass which is what I do now with the whole birds I get from walmart except that they don't have heads or feet.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Are the bones not bad for his belly?

 

[PunkinPeep]

since you're going to be processing so many, and since Rooster probably doesn't mind a little less fat, you might consider skinning your chickens instead of plucking them. i haven't done it, because i want to keep the flavor for our own use, but i've heard that skinning is much easier and faster.

oh, and i agree.....it's definitely better to do a bunch at a time instead of one a day. i've butchered one at a time, several times, and i do not like it. it's less work if you get your set up all ready and do a bunch.

 

[meanbite]

Absolutely not! meaty bones are incredible for dogs! However..

NEVER FEED COOKED BONES TO YOUR DOG.

Raw meaty bones are a great meal for dogs. You should see my dog's teeth. They are movie star white! He also has fresh breath and leaves little waste in the yard and the waste he does leave is gone in a little over a day since there are no fillers in his food. He eats nothing but chickens BTW.

 

[meanbite]

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I think ya'l are probably right. I have an old cast sink I can use as the base for a station. Maybe I'll just make that part of my saturday or sunday ritual. I hadn't even thought about skinning....

 

[TimG]

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The birds from walmart also don't have intestines (and a few other inside parts) though I am sure that Rooster can handle all the extra parts.

I don't think you will end up saving money by raising your own; you won't be able to beat the $0.69 per pound specials. This is especially true if you factor in things like cost of fencing. Most people who raise meat birds for their family's consumption understand that they end up paying more for the meat than they would at the supermarket, but are OK with that because they know how the chickens are raised, fed and slaughtered.

 

[meanbite]

Quote:
The birds from walmart also don't have intestines (and a few other inside parts) though I am sure that Rooster can handle all the extra parts.

I don't think you will end up saving money by raising your own; you won't be able to beat the $0.69 per pound specials. This is especially true if you factor in things like cost of fencing. Most people who raise meat birds for their family's consumption understand that they end up paying more for the meat than they would at the supermarket, but are OK with that because they know how the chickens are raised, fed and slaughtered.

That's definately a valid point. I guess I'm hoping that between the eggs, Rooster's food and perhaps selling a few at the auction down the road I won't make money but will at least be one step close to being self sustaining.

 

[PunkinPeep]

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I have heard people all my life say that you should never feed chicken bones to a dog because they'll choke on them or something. But then a nice old man at my church told me about how he feeds chicken bones - the cooked kind - to his dogs, and he told me about one little bone on the drum stick that can cause a problem - and otherwise to just hand feed them to your dog, and they'll be fine. I've been feeding all my chicken bones to my dog ever since. I've had no problems. My dog LOVES chicken bones, and it provides her with lots of calcium and other nutrients from the marrow.

Chicken bones are great for dogs, cooked or otherwise.