What age to fry??

[FluffyChickenMama]

For birds that are NOT meat birds at what ages do you do what with them.. Like what age is frying age and then what age is stewing age and roasting age.. I know you stew them when they are old but how bout the rest and when are they old??.. and how bout a rooster thats a couple years old.. or even one thats a year old.. does the same thing apply to the age and eating of a rooster that applies to a hen??

I looked for a thread about this and couldnt find one.. and I really hope I made myself clear..

Thanks.........Renae

 

[silkiechicken]

I don't really know the formalities but I do know that a rooster over 8 months... at least mine... even if aged two days in the fridge... is a tough rubber band!!!

I would think frying age would be something like 15 weeks, with roasters being older... with stew birds being anything you can't sink your knife into.

 

[FluffyChickenMama]

Thanks..

I was just wondering what ages are suitable for what preparation...

 

[chickenmama22]

We butchered a 9-10 week old rooster last week. Scrawniest chicken I ever saw! I'll guess that it weighed 1 pound after dressing. We aged the bird for 2 days in the fridge. The meat was delicious, but just not much there. I kept looking at the bird thinking "which side is supposed to have the breast meat?"

Now I am trying to fatten up the others, but wondering if it's really worth it. If I wait 2 months will they gain enough to make a significant difference vs the cost of feeding them? I have 8 of them.

Nancy

 

[FluffyChickenMama]

I dont know for sure thats why I made this post.. but I was thinking that around 4 mths would be the right size..

 

[silkiechicken]

I personally butcher at about 2-3 months for the males... it's not really worth feeding them.

 

[FluffyChickenMama]

the ones I have are about 10 mths but they are so small for eating..

 

[silkiechicken]

Compared to the meat birds from the store... they will always be small.

 

[Matt Berry]

For the fryers I found 14 - 16 weeks is a good age to butcher them. I had 16 fryers I had ordered through meyer hatchery to pad the rest of my order of pullets. My policy for them was you crow you go.

Needless to say the first one was at around 10 weeks old, then the rest were processed at the 12 - 16 week mark. The 16 week bird was the largest, but I think 14 weeks was a good compromise between feed consumption, overall size and tenderness.

The next batch I do, I'll probably process the majority of them between the 14-16 week mark.

 

[Cara]

We had 10 extra RIR roosters that came in April, and we butchered most of them at the beginning of September. We butchered the biggest at the time in August, and he was a reasonable size. We made chicken and dumplings with him the same afternoon and he was good, and the others went into fajitas, the same day too. All of them were pretty tasty, and I enjoyed the bite they have to them compared to store bought/restaurant chicken. They weren't chewy, but they weren't watery and squishy like store bought chicken. They were between 4 and 5 months old, and getting to the mean stage where we wanted them dead!