When do you butcher buff orpingtons when you have too many males?

[QUAILHILLFARMS]

We got 25 day old chicks and have around 15 males (we think). We want to get down to around 9 females and 2 males. (Sadly, our favorite male, Chester, disappeared last week - we think owl as they are in an electrified yard). They will be 13 weeks old and we have read conflicting reports on when to butcher. They are buff orpingtons so they grow slowly. Has anyone had any experience with this?

 

[Auntie]

I have different breeds, but we wait at least until 6 months. But depending on the breed, the meat can start to get tough after that.

 

[TomGallopavo]

We killed ours when they began to fight over and "bother" the hens too much. We free-range so they were big enough at that point...or close to it...about 4 months. We were able to weed out the most aggressive cocks this way and ended up with a true gentleman (1 cock, 15 hens). Unfortunately, like yourself, he was killed. We then traded a hen for a cock and have the nicest cock, another true gentleman. Of course we have two little girls so aggressiveness was a concern. Anyway, by killing the most aggressive 1 or 2, it bought another week or so until the next "weeding" out of cocks. We started with 51 chicks. BTW, the BO's make excellent table fare as I'm sure you know