What age to eat roosters?

[Lagniappe Alpacas]

I had 8 white leghorn roos added to my pullet order for packing peanuts. When will be the best age to eat them? They will be turning 9 weeks this week. Two of them have been crowing for a few weeks already and those are much bigger than the others. I know that leghorns are skinny birds, I have hens, so not expecting much meat, but do want to get the most from them.

 

[Judy]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...raditional-meats-from-historic-chicken-breeds

Best ones I've had were 12-16 weeks, better 12-14. IMO you don't want too much testosterone running around there.

 

[Fred's Hens]

My mother loved 14 week old Leghorn "fryers" as she called them. She didn't care that they only weighed 2 lbs, the taste of frying small framed Leghorns at that age was what she was after. I was no more than nine or ten and had to dispatch a hundred of them. That was my position of the family "assembly line". Catching with a fowler's hook and running the chopping block. I personally preferred a slower developing 16-18 week White Rock, weighing in at least a pound more. Each to their own.

 

[Lagniappe Alpacas]

Great article, thanks so much!