What is the youngest age you can butcher cockerels?

[Trish1974]

I will have a lot of excess cockerels to butcher this year (I have someone do it for me). These are pure Araucanas, so they are on the small side of large fowl and grow slightly slower than other breeds. I will not have the room to grow them to the ideal size, so I'm wondering how soon I can butcher these guys but still have it be worthwhile? There will only be two adults feasting on these birds so I don't need a whole lot of meat.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

You CAN butcher at any age, the question is solely one of when its worth it you based on time and effort. I can't speak to your birds in terms of size, its not a breed I have first hand familiarity with, but my wife and I tend to eat a light breakfast, skip lunch, eat a big dinner. I find that if I butcher around 4# live weight, I get a carcass the heavy side of 2 3/4#, and a perfect meal for two - its about 12-14 oz of protein each. Depending on the bird, we see that anywhere between 8 and 14 weeks, pan roasting has plenty of flavor, still nice and tender in spite of free ranging.

Or, you can put more work into it, and process around 2-2.5# live weight, get single serving birds more akin to lean Cornish hens.

 

[NatJ]

You CAN butcher at any age, the question is solely one of when its worth it you based on time and effort.

Sometimes I butcher cockerels (even bantam ones) as soon as I know what they are.

When they are very small, I do a sort of lazy butchering-- pull off the skin instead of plucking, discard the last two joints of each wing, and cut the bird up as I work so it's easy to get out the guts. Then I make a nice pot of chicken soup using a bunch of those small birds. Yes, they are tender enough to cook in other ways, but the pot of soup is the one that takes the least time on my part and still gives a dish my family enjoys. (Water + chicken overnight in the crock pot, pick the meat from the bones and strain the broth, add other ingredients and cook until done. I give the bones to the chickens to pick over, because they always find bits of meat I missed.)

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree, there is no set age, we are all so different in so many ways. Usually I'd suggest you try a few different ages as you go along and see where your sweet spot is. I don't know how many you have or what your agreement is with the person that's doing it for you so that may not be practical. Does it need to be all at one time or could you do two or three different batches? I don't know if that would give you room to let more grow. I don't know what you consider the idea age either.

If the person doing it is flexible enough my suggestion would be to grow them until you reach your room limit before you start. But it sounds like your question is how early can I butcher them, you want to get it done before it is an emergency.

Some people butcher at 12 weeks. There will be very little meat then but the meat will still be tender enough to cook any way you wish. A couple of reasons they butcher this young is that the are not supposed to have roosters or maybe any chickens at all and they don't want the crowing to give them away. Or they want to be very sure the boys are not going to start harassing the girls as they start puberty. It's not because they have grown enough to have much meat, they won't. But you can eat them, there is some meat there.

Others wait longer. 16 weeks is a very common choice. They've usually put on some meat by then. I can think of one guy that likes 14 weeks but he has bred his to be a decent size by then. My personal preference is 23 weeks, that suits my goals and facilities. I doubt you can wait that long.

 

[Trish1974]

Thank you all, your information was very helpful!

 

[speedy2020]

16 - 20 weeks for dual purpose breed.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

If the person doing it is flexible enough my suggestion would be to grow them until you reach your room limit before you start. But it sounds like your question is how early can I butcher them, you want to get it done before it is an emergency.

This is what I’d do. Wait as long as I can to get the most out of them. I waited until six months to butcher an EE cockerel. He had just started mounting the girls. Wowza he was the tastiest chicken I’d ever had!