So can I just fatten up and eat any roos that I have?

[Kentuckyrain]

Newbie here,, mainly got chickens for the eggs,, but am incubating and hatching babies,,,,, was just wondering if I can just fatten up and butcher the ones that turn out to be roosters? Not a market up here in my area for cocks, you can get them for free on CL. So I would love to branch off some day into raising and butchering my own chickens instead of buying them for meat at the supermarket, but so far, I am just starting out with laying hens for eggs and have been briefly trying the breeding/incubating thing.

So I guess what I am asking is, instead of just giving away any roos that I might end up with, can I just try to grow them out to eat them?

 

[sourland]

That is exactly what many do.

 

[Kentuckyrain]

That is exactly what many do.

So glad to hear that,,

So, like when I was a child, my dad used to butcher our chickens,, all I remember was him taking a chicken out back to the butcher block. He would hold the chicken back down on its back, against the palm of his hand. Rub it gently on the bellh,,, like the Homing Pigeons he had,,, The chicken was always relaxed,,,and fell asleep,, he would then, stretch their neck out, over a wood stump and hatch the neck off, quickly, usually, ,both the head and body would flop around the yard,,,, then I remember,, throwing the chicken in a pot of hot water, just to pluck the feathers,

Well, needless to say, my pet chick was my dinner,, We had no choice, because she was the last chicken we had, and we needed to eat.

 

[sourland]

It was Mom who had to kill the chicken for Sunday dinner - beware the non laying hen.

 

[jimbob86]

Newbie here,, mainly got chickens for the eggs,, but am incubating and hatching babies,,,,, was just wondering if I can just fatten up and butcher the ones that turn out to be roosters? Not a market up here in my area for cocks, you can get them for free on CL. So I would love to branch off some day into raising and butchering my own chickens instead of buying them for meat at the supermarket, but so far, I am just starting out with laying hens for eggs and have been briefly trying the breeding/incubating thing.

So I guess what I am asking is, instead of just giving away any roos that I might end up with, can I just try to grow them out to eat them?

Yes, but don't expect them to look like the storebought chickens, unless you bought CX birds for eggs ...... even the larger "dual purpose" breeds are longer and lankier than the commercial meat birds ....... there willl be less meat on them, and they'll take much longer to reach similar weights, if they ever get there ...... I think they taste better, though.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The age of the bird determines the best cooking method. Broiler, fryer or roaster then of course old layers are stew birds. To me 14 weeks is the cut off age for using the grill (broiler). It's at the age where exponential growth stops and carcass size get far less economical. I'm a fan of the flavor dual purpose birds have but care to how they are cooked is key. Roasting at 325F, using moist cooking methods with older birds etc.

 

[jimbob86]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/438262/what-meat-chickens-should-i-raise-whats-the-differences

There's good stuff there on using dual purpose birds for meat.

 

[Kentuckyrain]

Thank all of u for your comments/suggesting,, really appreciate it.