Posted on 05/21/2021 11:31:14 AM PDT by Red Badger
Hens develop faster. And mature rooster meat is stringy with a slightly gamey taste. You have to put them in a slow cooker with stew.
That or leave them out for the foxes and hawks.
We have used some roosters for meat, but I can’t say if I’ve had one. We do get some roosters with our laying hens now and then, and we’ll keep them as they can help keep the girls in line.
I don’t remember the roosters being any worse, but by the time it got to my plate, I didn’t know which was a rooster or a hen.
We quit using the laying breeds for meat as there’s just not enough meat and the meat is just not as good from the laying breeds to make it worth the trouble, so we don’t any more.
I suppose the age of the birds could have something to do with the meat not being as good. We keep our layers for two years before rotating them out, so I’ve only had layers that old.
So now we only eat the broilers, which have to be slaughtered at 8 - 12 weeks. I’ve never had a 12 week old layer to compare the flavor.
We haven’t gotten them since because they’re more expensive to buy and raise than a store bought bird. We did let ours go a week or two long because of not thinking about hunting season Coming along at harvest processing time and if we did it again, we’d process them in two batches, males one day and females a week later. I like a 4lb bird but our choices were 3lb hen and 4lb rooster or 4lb hen — 5 lb rooster. I think we ended up with 5.5-6lb roosters since we ran late and they were a little tough. We got brown meat birds — red ranger type birds too though. Good thing I suppose though because you can’t go a couple of weeks over on the Cornish Cross. They’d all drop dead by then.
I should have taken a video of my plucker. Not sure I even got a picture. I took the gear box off my finish mower, ran it in reverse to slow it down and bolted a round piece of thick aluminum to the 16” pulley and had plucker fingers mounted into the plate(The moving/spinning part). Had most of a 55 gallon plastic drum, with plucker fingers facing in, mounted stationary. It ran off of the PTO and 800rpm on the engine was just the right plucking speed. Cleaned them up quick and only broke one leg out of 25 birds. I raised the birds when they were 1 day old until they got feathered out and then brought them to my neighbor’s because he had an 8 foot tall dog kennel. When processing day came, I just drove my chicken plucker to his place.
There was one meat bird hen who had different markings and the only bird I found with similar markings is the Buckeye dual purpose breed. Daughter said she’s pretty, we can’t kill her so I stuck her in with our laying hens. She never did fit in personality-wise but she started laying eggs, 2 every 3 days or so. Big pinkish brown eggs. She grew just as fast as the meat birds, kept eating like one but never got oversized. Weird. Coons finally got them all one night. I got the coons though.
That will eliminate one of the dirtiest jobs in the poultry industry. Sexing a chick involves probing its gastrointestinal tract, but I won't go into detail because FR is a G-rated site.
This is fine and dandy, but do they still allow abortions based on the gender of the child?
A dingbat on tv once said she doesn’t eat eggs because they’re aborted chickens.
Pretty much. They will kill them before they are born instead...
Not really sure what is being saved here..
Yes. If you want it fertilized to make a chick, you’ll need a rooster.
We have designer humans so why not take that technology to livestock. Of course, we’ll be paying more for it.
They can legalize cockfighting, then there will be a market for roosters 🐓
This won’t affect broader hens as without a male rooster around they lay unfertile eggs which are male and female but they never get past the yoke stage so it matters not and those eggs meant for consumption will remain unsexed there is no need to. Only breeder chickens who have a rooster for reproduction need the eggs sexed.
Yes chickens will get broody and lay without a rooster around just like human females have periods with or without a man in the house. Chickens produce an ova every day to two days and that becomes an egg regardless of if it is joined with male chicken sperm.
I worked in the chicken hatchery industry years ago. Males were not discarded unless they were deformed culls. All were kept and many growers preferred males as they grew faster.
At many of the farm stores chicks are for sale. often the “straight run” are males after the females have been taken out.
If you want laying chicks you chose “pullets”. If you want fertilized eggs you chose a few “straight run” to go with your “Pullets” and there will be enough males in it to fertilize the eggs. Get too many males and they will fight each other.
Send it to Asia, or Africa. They never even had chicken over there. What are these guys doing? Do I have to think of EVERYTHING?
Cheep trick
Yes the will still lay eggs, but they will be unfertilized.
Maybe they could arrange a rescue to ship some of those male chicks over here as pets.
AW, BULL!
Hey I made a funny! Most of the beef for sale is from steers, castrated bulls.
And I thought Europeans liked Capons! Castrated roosters.
***estrogen required to bring a chicken to the optimum weight in the shortest time.***
Years ago US feeders used Sodium Arsenate to enhance growth in chickens. It is a derivative of arsenic. I remember seeing it on the ingredients label on chicken feed. I believe it is no longer allowed.
You just pick up the chick, aim it’s butt at a waste can and giver a quick squeeze. It will squirt poop. Then look for some type of formation in it’s butt hole.
We had a crew of Japanese sexers come in and do the work for us. They tried to show me what to look for but I never could catch on.
In Mexico it’s legal...
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