I don’t raise broilers so I’ll skip those questions.
- What breed(s)/crosses make the best table birds?
In my opinion people really get hung up on breeds when it’s not really all that important. If you read through the “Meat Bird” section you’ll see several threads where people talk about something much more important, strain. There are certain attributes that make for a good meat bird, how fast they reach butcher age, how efficient they are at converting feed to meat if you buy or produce their feed, proportion of white to dark meat depending on your preferences, skin color and feather color if you pluck them and leave the skin on so carcass appearance is important. I skin mine and cut them into serving pieces so skin color and feather color is irrelevant as far as carcass appearance. Dark pin feathers aren’t a problem for me but they can be a pain if you pluck. That’s why light colored chickens work best if you pluck, you get a prettier carcass.
If the person selecting the breeding birds selects for certain traits those traits will be enhanced. If they do not select for those traits, they will not be enhanced but will quickly decline to “average”. This applies to the different qualities that make a good meat bird as much as egg shell color and shade, whether or not a certain strain of chickens go broody, how large the average flock eggs are, and even behavior trends. Hatcheries in general do not select for most meat bird qualities so there is not a lot of difference in most dual purpose birds based on breed.
An example, final size doesn’t mean a lot, amount of meat at butcher age does. Brahma’s get really big but they are slow to mature. They are not good at converting feed into meat at a young age but are mostly bone until they mature. And they eat more to maintain that larger frame than some other breeds so they are often not a good choice for a meat bird. But some people have bred Brahma’s to put on more meat early so these may make an acceptable choice. A lot of that depends on when you butcher them and how you feed them. If you are buying their feed it’s usually not a good choice, but if they forage for most of their food so you don’t have to buy it and you wait until they mature before you harvest them, they can be a good choice.
Sixty to seventy years ago the main breeds raised for meat were Delaware, White Rock, and New Hampshire. But when the Cornish Cross broilers were developed, hatcheries stopped breeding these for meat bird qualities, especially things like rate of growth and feed to meat conversion. While these still make good choices, especially if you pluck, they are not a lot better than most other dual purpose breeds. Egghead_jr has done a lot of research and has a thread where they talk about different strains from breeders as far as meat bird qualities. I’ll give a link to that thread.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1076131/sustainable-meat-standard-bred-dual-purpose-bird-thread
As far as what crosses work best, a lot of that depends on your personal preferences and a lot on the quality of your original stock. The only place I see breed coming into this more than strain is to use Cornish as part of the cross if you like a lot of breast meat. I’m talking about the true Cornish, not the Cornish Cross broilers. Those are two totally different things.
- How do I get the best from my meat birds?
I hate the word “best” in this context. It’s so subjective, what does it really mean? I don’t know what Sumi means by “best”. There are so many different ways this can be interpreted. And it implies any other methods are sub-par even if the goals are totally different.
A lot of this depends on your actual goals and your set-up. At what age are you going to butcher? Do you buy all their feed or do they forage for most of their food? Do you butcher only males or do you also butcher the females? Are you breeding your own or buying the chicks or hatching eggs? How important is “big” to you. And just so many more options. There are only two of us so big isn’t that important to me. I butcher cockerels, pullets, old hens, and old roosters. Mine forage a lot. We can get two meals out of even a pullet, plus a lunch or two out of a larger bird. I butcher the cockerels after they hit 18 weeks if I have time and freezer space, or I let them go later. I actually prefer 23 weeks. I try to evaluate pullets for laying before I butcher them so they are older but they never get that big. What works “best” for me is not at all relevant to someone raising them to a certain age and butchering only cockerels. Those might be for personal use or they might be selling them.
Sumi if you can describe what you mean by “best” I might be able to respond. Maybe not. But right now best is just way too ambiguous.
- Tips for processing and preparing older birds (spent layers, old cocks etc)
Some people “starve” their birds before they butcher, lock them up with water but no feed the night before they butcher so the digestive track is pretty well cleaned out the next morning. I don’t, just rinse really well if I nick something I shouldn’t. A lot of people age their meat, often in brine, before they freeze it regardless of the age of the bird. It does tenderize the meat, especially in older birds. I don’t, I freeze mine the day they are butchered. But I take mine out of the freezer on Sunday and let them thaw in the refrigerator until Thursday when I cook them. That might count as aging but it is not brining.
The older the chicken the more connective tissue they have. If you pluck that isn’t a big deal, but I skin mine. Older hens aren’t too bad but even a cockerel at 5 months age can have a fair amount of connective tissue holding the skin to the carcass. Older roosters are a real pain. I wind up cutting a lot of that connective tissue when skinning. And it still takes a fair amount of brute force. My wife wants skinless meat anyway so I skin, but it may well be worth plucking older roosters, especially if you don’t have a lot of upper body strength or stamina.
Females, pullets about to lay all the way through older hens, have a lot more fat than males. The hens store this fat so they have something to live off of if they go broody. This excess fat is mostly stored in the pelvic region in a “fat pad”, but that extra fat is scattered all though their body, including on internal organs. The amounts of fat can be huge. Don’t think there is something wrong with your hens if you see a lot of fat, it’s normal.
Pullets and hens that are laying of close to laying will have several egg yolks in various sizes in their body cavity. I feed those to my dogs. If they are not laying you may just see a mass of tiny ova up next to the backbone, but if they are close to laying, expect to see some decent sized yolks.
That’s the only differences I can think of in butchering older chickens versus pretty young ones, connective tissue mostly in males, and fat and egg yolks in females.
Cooking older hens or roosters, or even older cockerels and pullets, is quite different to cooking broilers processed at 6 to 8 weeks of age. The older a chicken gets, the more flavor and texture it has, just like other meat animals. Aging and brining (not exactly the same thing) makes a difference. So does the perception of the person eating it. If you are only used to eating the chicken purchased at the store, you may not like the flavor or texture of older chicken. Some of us much prefer it.
In general, the older the chicken the slower and with more moisture it needs to be cooked. Some people may be OK eating 15 week old chickens grilled or fried, especially if it was brined or aged, but to many people that would be like leather. There are a lot of different ways to cook older chickens, age and sex has something to do with what works. Cog au Vin is a traditional way to turn an old rooster into a gourmet meal. Chicken and Dumplings is a comfort food traditionally made with old birds. They can be great in soups and stews. I often bake mine, coat them in herbs then bake in a sealed baking dish for a few hours at 250 degrees. Just rinsing the pieces off but not shaking the water off provides plenty of moisture if the dish is sealed. Cooking them in a crock pot overnight can give tremendously fall-off-the-bone meat. Some people use a pressure cooker to get the same general result. It may take a little practice and the results may not be what you initially expect, but there is no reason you can’t serve an old chicken suitably cooked at a dinner party.
When I butcher mine I cut them up into serving pieces. Drumsticks, thighs, breast, and wishbones are reserved for the table. The backs, necks, wings, gizzards, heart, and feet are reserved for broth. I blanche the feet, dropping them in boiling water for 15 to 20 seconds, the timing depending on how old the bird was. As long as you don’t overcook them the skin peels off pretty easily and the toenails twist off. That gets them clean enough for me. Some people use the heads but that’s too much for me. Even I have my limits. I’m just not going to pluck heads. You just can’t get better broth than from using old birds, especially old roosters.
I cook mine in a crock pot on low overnight, maybe 12 to 15 hours. After I remove the chunks and the fat from the broth, I pick the meat. A lot of it has fallen off the bone, but be careful. There are a lot of pretty small bones in that. That cooked meat if fabulous in chicken tacos, chicken salad, chicken soup, or any other uses you can come up with for cooked meat.
If you don’t want to cook an old hen or rooster for the table, use it all for broth and pick the meat. It can be a little time consuming and tedious, especially trying to avoid the small bones, but to me the meat you get is worth it.
