People still give away roosters?

I noticed a posting on a forum recently where someone was offering large breeds of roosters for sale for $5.00 each. Yes, I know that this is nothing new. People often give away extra roosters for free. They don't want to be bothered with keeping them over the winter, or having to butcher them. I guess I have started to view this a bit differently now that I don't raise "meat" chickens anymore. The extra roosters we raise feed our family, and they are highly valued.
I priced out a Mapleleaf Prime Cut, grain fed whole chicken in Safeway not long ago. I can't remember the exact price, but it was around $8.00 per kg! That sort of hits home when you stop to think about it. Those extra roosters do have food value and can go a long way towards keeping down the grocery budget. Just some "food for thought!"

During the last month we butchered 19 grain fed Wyandotte roosters. They take a bit longer to cook than the monster chickens, but they are tasty. They were a product of our Wyandotte hatches last spring that saw 2/3 rooster and 1/3 pullets. Our Cochins went 6 pullets and 1 rooster. We likely will sell the occasional rooster in the future, but a lot more are going to our freezer.

We have about 20+ bantam Cornish cockerels plus a bunch of pullets headed for butchering this weekend as we are sorting though them on Saturday. Looking forward to chicken and dumplings. Poor little footballs but they have been well loved while they were here.

Heather

I agree that roosters are great for in the freezer, unfortunately many people that raise chickens do not have the means of butchering them, the knowledge or the want. And with so few poultry processors around it is hard to get for many to get them to a processor to get them done for them.
I know a fellow right now giving away ducks, nice rouen ducks, because he had knee surgery and cannot get them taken care of, nobody around here to butcher them for him so he is stuck. And unfortunately we are just not set up for winter butchering ourselves or we would have taken them from him.

free roosters are how we get a lot of freezer meat for winter

Our spare roos go in our freezer and are greatly appreciated for their food value. Occasionally someone will want a grown rooster from me for a little bit of nothing. I simply won't sell them for less than $10 because, as I tell potential buyers, it would cost me at the very least that much to go to the store and buy a replacement one to eat. They don't always appreciate that but that's the way it is - and really I think $10 is a bargain as it would usually cost more than that to replace the meat value of the bird.

Today I was again skimming through a 1914 issue Farm and Ranch Review. I posted some pics in another thread, but unfortunately the print came through a bit too small to read much of it. But speaking of rooster prices, I found these interesting:

*For Quick Sale - 25 Pedigree Bred to lay Barred Rock and Buff Orpington cockerels $2.00 each.

*Rose comb Brown Leghorn Cockerels April hatched, Kulp's 242 egg strain $2.00 each

*Rose and Single Combs - Stock for Sale! Rhode Island Red Poultry Farm. The breeding season now being over we have a quantity of Hens and Male Birds for sale, to make room for our young stock. Roosters: $3.00 each. Hens $2.00 each. Pens $25.00 (1 Rooster and 12 Hens) Strathcona, Alberta.

So, using the handy online Inflation Calculator, I got the following:

What cost $2.00 in 1914 would cost $44.24 in 2011.

What cost $3.00 in 1914 would cost $66.36 in 2011.

What cost $25.00 in 1914 would cost $553.03 in 2011.

So according to this, roosters would be selling for an average of $55.00 if people still valued them the same as they did in 1914.

So why do you think roosters are not valued today? From a buyer's perspective, is it because all food is cheap and easy to buy now?
Is it because typically, people in this society don't feel they have the time to do their our own food preparation (butchering)?

And what about the sellers? Do we have too much disposable income and don't care if we make any money selling livestock that we worked hard to raise?
Sorry to keep harping on this topic, but this issue of cheap roosters is becoming a real bee in my bonnet!

interesting Kathy!
Well always seems like you never have enough hens but too many roosters however if you have a breed of hen you like but no rooster you are hooped!
So really, even if you have 12 hens and 2 roosters those two roosters are one half of your breeding group and ought to be valued as such.

I think you nailed it asking if it's because we're such a throw-away society.

I'll tell you what...
I will sell you all my surplus 8 month old roosters (8 in total) right now for the very low valued price of $100.00!!! That's a savings, according to your inflation calculator, of over $4300.00 for these birds!

What do you say, deal? If not, then there is your answer as to why there isn't a market for roosters! No one wants them!!

TO be even more evil that Dark Wing Duck (and who would have thought that was possible!) I can't imagine why anyone wants to eat a surplus rooster at all? IT's a form of self inflicted torture. There is no way, NO WAY that a stringy, thin, rangey 8 month old rooster is going to compare to a 10 week old meatbird. NOt going to happen, people.

Yes, yes, I read all the posts about those who raise and eat their surplus roosters, by George, the West wasn't settled by sissies and it's time to man up and eat your rank old rooster with a side serving of gravel and tree bark. Yum.

THis is my opinion, as unpopular as it is. MOST roosters are waste. Those who insist on eating them do so as a novelty way to feel that they have done someting to save the planet. BUt is a rooster quality meat? Not even close. All a rooster is is surplus meat, meat that's there, accidental meat that showed up in your yard and well gee whiz, since you found it you are obligated to eat it.

THe food that it takes to raise a rooster for 8 or 10 months would be better put into a meatbird for 10 weeks and then you can actually cook the thing without the use of high pressure pulverizers or flame throwers.

Can you eat a surplus roo? Yes. You can also eat a boiled boot or barbecued work gloves if you are so moved. BUt are you compelled to? No. SO why would you? Because it's there? If all your friends jumped off a cliff....?

Kathy S, I think we do not eat surplus roos like they did in 1914, because we don't drive the same cars we did in 1914. THe design has been improved. There is no way that a surplus roo of any breed can compare to the freakish growth rate of a meatbird. THe finished product cannot compare. I know many, many people who DO eat their roos and more power to you. BUt it is done purely out of a stubborn idea that they have to, not out of any reality that they don't have other options. Frontier mentality. I both admire it and am glad I don't suffer from it.

Do you wash your laundry by hand? No, now there are washing machines? Do you cook on a woodstove? NO, now there are electric ranges. Do you still use a party line? No, you text on your cell phone. Do we have to eat old, skanky roosters? No. We do not. If you want to, okay, but better options exist.

LOL!!! I'm not evil! I speak no nonsense!
And hear it comes. Can you hear it coming uno? Get ready!!

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I shall process all your free roosters and take them to Quebec. There I will sell each processed rooster for $10-$20. I kid you not.

By now Uno's eyes are bugging out of her head and she is sputtering gibberish in shock.

"What? Why? Those crazy Qubecois!" She cries.

Well they know and I know that an old rooster makes the bestest broth! An excellent base for the finest of French cooking.

He is the secret. Roosters are lean and gamey. Perfect for soup. Plunk the whole bird into a pot of water and bring it to a boil. Boil it for a couple, three hours. Remove the rooster and peel the tender meat from the bones. Serve the meat in casseroles, chicken salad, with taters and gravy, whatever.... Throw the bones and skin back in the pot. Boil a couple three hours more. Strain out the skin and bones and throw them away or grind them into mush for your dogs. Put the pot outside or in the fridge. When cool, skim off the fat. There won't be much. The remaining stock will be a jelly. The best flavourful base for many recipe WITHOUT much added salt.

Oh, R. Roo, you are such a scoundrel. Now tell me how you like grass fed beef. BA ha ha! Grass fed beef...that makes me laugh. (yes, I hear all of you groan and roll your eyes, you do know I said that just to get the groan and eyerolling )

You're right DWD, here it comes... bad, bad, wasteful Uno. It's true. I will not eat those pitiful, lunatic, oversexed, bug eyed roosters! My farm should be called Coyote Acres, because that's who gets my surplus roos! Circle of life and all that stuff.

I would never tell anyone not to eat their roosters if they want to. Go ahead! And I hear KathyS's struggle over the value of a rooster, and I support her agony. I guess my take is that the value of a rooster and the edibility of a rooster are two different things, although directly linked, which makes no sense.

A breeding quality rooster that is going to add quality to a breeding pen is worth something very different than an ordinary surplus rooster. They can not be judged the same I don't think.

Ok, I see where you are coming from Uno. With your gift as a wordsmith, there is no mistaking your views on eating roo!

I too, bought into that belief for years...thinking that pure breed roosters might as well be tossed into the bush rather than try to transform them in to something edible. The introduction of meat hybrids really changed the way people think about chicken.
I would like to believe this old misconception is slowly changing as more people are introduced to the culinary delights of a plump and juicy heritage bird cooked to perfection. We had another incredibly delicious meal for New Year's day and the guests agreed they had never had such wonderful, tasty chicken.
But food is a personal preference. I don't think you can compare it to machines or cars.
Lets instead compare apples to apples.

Lets take Wonderbread. This is a marvel of modern technology. You buy it already baked, sliced and ready to eat. The slices are so white and attractive and it practically melts in your mouth. You can store it in the cupboard for about 8 months or so with no mold! Some people think it tastes fine.
I am old fashioned. I still prefer a slice of home-made, whole grain bread. But that's just me. Many will prefer the new and improved type of bread. At least until they are introduced to the real thing.

Since I am in the mood for kicking around an idea...

Maybe one could view eating surplus roosters as snob eating? As wasteful?

If a meat bird can go from egg to carcass in 8 weeks, but it takes a surplus rooster 8 months to acheive the same, which food item has made better use of the world's food (grain) resources?

If one wanted to get really extreme you could say that it is elitist and White Western Excess to even consider feeding a bird for 8 months, instead of 8 weeks. That only those who are wealthy and not truly hungry would consider such an extravagance. If your feed costs are part of a budget you have to carefuuly manage, an 8 week bird is way better for you than an 8 month bird.

About Wonderbread...I have been going through a bread baking phase lately. (I am not good at it). But the energy I spend to produce a loaf produces a loaf that is never the same twice. Has too much salt or not enough. Dries out in two days and is more suited to being a boat anchor than toast. After having sweated over and produced a mediocre product, the guaranteed springy freshness and uniform taste of Wonderbread looks like a better use of my personal resources.

As I have said before, surplus roosters CAN be eaten, just like a workboot CAN be eaten. But euww.

Disclaimer: do I beleive any of the above extremely crazy talk I just posted? Mostly no.

All right, what if that rooster were totally raised free range. None of your precious grain or feed went into his mouth. He ate bugs, grass, waste material. It cost you nothing to feed him. Would that help you get past your claims of snobbery as you dine upon your Vichyssoise?

I think it may be snobbery in my case. I do not raise the roosters to eat, it is a by product of my breeding program. I grow them out, choose my breeders and eat the others. I am actually surprised at how much I like my home grown guys, I can be pretty picky!
If I just wanted meat I would probably go with a version of the quick ones, but I am growing them out anyways, so why waste them once I get there?

coopslave wrote:
If I just wanted meat I would probably go with a version of the quick ones, but I am growing them out anyways, so why waste them once I get there?

Despite my joking I feel the same way. To me, breeding chickens is just like breeding dogs. I am working toward achieving a standard. The only difference is....I like to eat the chickens that don't make the cut!

Our practice is the same as Coopslave, but we are tired of buying 50 CGs and butchering around half after pouring expensive food into them. We may try some rustic broilers this year.

Aha! The chicken snobs reveal themselves. Well! Who knew. To be honest, I've always suspected SoSnobSue...but was far too polite to say. I'm nothing if not tactful.

I also raise roosters. For an average of 6 to 8 months. At that time, when they are all yelling, punching each other and annoying the girls non-stop, we butcher them. And throw them in the bush. Local scavenger population would agree with many of you that surplus roos make good eats. I am glad we are all on the same page.

I cannot go to bed at night with this thread hanging over my head. I have made light of KathyS's point, but in fact I agree with her. Yet, our experiences with butchering surplus roos were so horrifying that we vowed to never do it again.

But there is more to the story.

Not all surplus roos are created equal. A roo is a roo is NOT a roo.

Some members here keep large, heavy fowl, or carefully select for this carcass type. Some go out of their way to separate the boys from the girls so they don't spend all their time running themselves bone thin chasing the ladies or fighting with each other.

I think to have a GOOD surplus rooster you have to start with a bird that has some potential towards that in the first place. Then you have to raise/feed him right under optimum conditions that allow for maximum growth without fighting and too much sex. Even better if this can be done without an added burden to the pocketbook because let's face it, feeding these boys daily for 8 or 10 months is not free and not tax deductible.

But if free range means that coyotes and bears are going to pick them off, then free range is not an option. Some of us have a heavier predator threat, birds are confined, feed costs go up. And in my case, I start with mutt birds of mostly AUstralorp (biggish) with a heavy dose on Ameruacan tossed in (not so biggish) and I think a wild vulture or tow has found his way into the pen and at the end of the day when I say these boys are not worth eating, I am not joking. When I produce a long, thin carcass that looks like a rubber chicken from a joke store, forget it.

SO this discussion cannot be black or white unless it takes into account the differences in breed and raising technique. I am still skeptical about the edibility of surplus roos, yet I must acknowledge the very convincing evidence of others on this site. But I know that the goofy mutt roosters I raise will appeal to no one, and no one would consider them a good investment foodwise. They are just the wrong kind of bird to begin with.

I kid you not, Uno, they will still make a delicious soup. All those salty store bought broths that taste like the chicken walked through the pot will be no more. Try one next time you feed the predators.