When to slaughter my chickens

[jmshanzer3]

This is my first year raising chickens, so I really don't know much about when to process them. I currently have about 12 roosters about 13-14 weeks old that I am hoping to process for meat. They are Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, and Barnevelders. However, they still seem to not have a lot of meat on their bones. They are free range during the day and fed scratch in the evening. We have tons of grasshoppers, beetles, lizards, ext. that they eat during the day. My question is, at what age do I process them? and do all chickens feel bony when you pick them up? What process do you do to prepare your chickens for slaughter?

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can eat any chicken at any age but you are right, there is not going to be much meat on cockerels of those breeds at that age. The older they are the more you have to adjust your cooking techniques, cooking slower and with more moisture the older they get.

Some people would butcher about 12 weeks old so they are still young enough to fry or maybe because they are starting to hit puberty and starting to act up. There is extremely little actual meat on those.

I like to wait until they are a minimum 16 weeks old and much prefer 18 weeks to 25 weeks. 21 to 22 is about just right for me for most of them, but they develop at different rates. Some are ready at 18 weeks. Some won’t ever really be ready as far as size and meat goes.

They will never have the growth and size the broilers specially bred for meat production develop though they will eventually mature to a pretty good size. But you are talking a year or so at least for most of them to get that big. I find they grow pretty well up to the early 20 week age then really slow down on getting bigger though they will very slowly continue to grow.

 

[LindaB220]

This is my first year raising chickens, so I really don't know much about when to process them. I currently have about 12 roosters about 13-14 weeks old that I am hoping to process for meat. They are Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, and Barnevelders. However, they still seem to not have a lot of meat on their bones. They are free range during the day and fed scratch in the evening. We have tons of grasshoppers, beetles, lizards, ext. that they eat during the day. My question is, at what age do I process them? and do all chickens feel bony when you pick them up? What process do you do to prepare your chickens for slaughter?

x2 on RidgeRunners thoughts.