Heritage Roos ready for cooking

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Last week I processed my extra roosters. These were hatched sometime in May, so were around 5 mos old, give or take. Out of these the 2 largest were a Chantecler weighing 3 lb, 12 oz, and a Buff Orpington at 1 oz less, 3 lb, 11 oz. This is strictly carcass weight, no heart, gizzard etc.

The Wyandottes were considerably smaller, but were also hatched later, so it is hard to make a fair comparison on weight. One thing I do know, they taste wonderful!

I was at a ladies night out fundraiser after cooking one of my heritage roos and the subject came up about what we'd all had for supper that evening. I had some blank looks when I mentioned our family had enjoyed a gourmet meal of seasoned, slow baked Wyandotte!

Wow. Those look so professional, all vacuum sealed like that. Mine look like they were shot in the act of running for their lives. THey are not neat and tidy, but legs and wings sticking out in every direction. It has always been a mystery how anyone gets their birds looking all neat and co-operative.

THe legs on htat last bird, he must have been very tall! I find with roostrs, that's where most of their early growth goes, into bone structure. TOo bad it'd not easier to make them into steers. You have an impressive product there. Good job!

oops, that was a bit misleading when I said "I" processed them! I should have said I took the easy route this time and got them professionally butchered at Messinger Meats.
They do look nice, so clean and nicely packaged. Last year I really did butcher my own and it was an all-day job. I remember I did not even get around to raking up feathers till the next day. In my mind it is SO worth the $4.00 each.

Those do look lovely, they are posed so modestly. And isn't vacuum packing just the best?

Joe does do nice work there! However, I was not impressed that I didn't get the hearts or gizzards back from my birds! He said he didn't have anyone there to do them that day.