People still give away roosters?

I would have to say much the same towards unconvinced Uno.

Though I haven't been in this very long, I have to say I've been impressed with the meat, and I've eaten everything except home-raised meat birds (turkey's excluded, I'll go into that in a second).

The first roo we killed and ate (or as I fluffily like to call it, harvested), was a little mongrel rooster with lopsided wattles and so on, my very first Roo, as it were. He was at least over a year old and had been breeding everything that would stand for him. His meat was gamey, but I put him in the slow-cooker and he turned out nice and tender. I was really impressed, and didn't mind the gamey flavor at all (and it usually makes meat sour to me).

From there, I did a butcher of 20 some odd birds, half of which came from a friends farm. She gifted me roosters (and thus meat), and I was happy about it. The best tasting bird we've eaten was her old-old bantam frizzle. His meat was so tender and buttery it was just stupid to enjoy it so much. His carcass also cleaned up the nicest. The other roosters ranged from 6 months to a couple years, all mixed, non-meat birds. Some of them don't have much on them, but I like to slow cook them because I can plop them in frozen and by the time I get home from work TADA, meal. I can then turn it into soup and stew the bones for broth.

I have yet to try the actual meat variety of chickens. We, however, had standard white turkey's (Ditz and Numbnuts, you may remember some pictures of those 2 dolts). Now, I don't know if we grew them out too big, but I was completely unimpressed with the blandness of their flavour and the texture of the meat. I feel like I may have expected too much, mind you. Chicken from the farm tasted so much better than chicken from the store, I assumed that turkey from the farm would be the same. It just... well it wasn't, it was very store bought-ish. Again, we may have grown them out too big, as they DRESSED to 30lbs each, but never the less.

Any one giving away rooster? I will take them. (they will just die anyway) You may remember from a previous post I raised meatys they were dog food. I like roosters and home raise food. I still have my teeth and would rather eat so called roast boot then some chemical injected mush. When my fancy shmancy friends visit they all ask for canned chicken because it is so good, and yes it is old hens and roosters.

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.

Avert your eyes, my snobbery is showing again. This is the magic formula as far as I am concerned. Especially keeping them away from the girls! I don't like the flavour or texture of cockerel that is not virgin (see, picky! ). They need room too, confined enough to grow and put on weight but not confined so much that they don't have the personal space to be comfortable and laid back. I think this was some of my trouble this past year and I will change it for this one. I also don't free range too much. I don't want muscley athletic birds, I want lazy, couch potatoes.......

So I have to say, back on the topic, that I have given cockerels away. Some very good ones too. If someone is buying some breeding birds from me I will sometimes throw in a free extra for them, nothing worse than having one male and losing him. If someone is stuck and I have a male I am through breeding with, I will offer it to them. I have also given some to neighbours that just want pretty boys for their girls to run with. I suppose I am helping to undervalue the birds a bit.

coopslave wrote:
So I have to say, back on the topic, that I have given cockerels away. Some very good ones too. If someone is buying some breeding birds from me I will sometimes throw in a free extra for them, nothing worse than having one male and losing him. If someone is stuck and I have a male I am through breeding with, I will offer it to them. I have also given some to neighbours that just want pretty boys for their girls to run with. I suppose I am helping to undervalue the birds a bit.

I don't think that's undervaluing the birds really. It's a gesture, you're not saying "I don't want this so I'm dumping it on you." If you are saying that, you're saying it nicely and I got fooled



It also occurred to me, I'm not so certain it's that people don't value roosters anymore. I think the topic is more broad than that, I think it's a matter of people don't value FOOD as much (not a dig, I promise). Whether meat bird or not, some people are just content to have their pre-packed taquitos.

I won't sell them anymore. I had 3 really nice easter egger roosters I brought to auction and was so annoyed when they sold for 2, 3 and 1 dollar respectively. One of my ugly, 2 year old laying hens that had all it's back end feathers ripped out by whatever attacked them while they were out went for $20. Everyone else was smart and paired any rooster they didn't feel like killing with a hen.

Some people don't want that connection to the food cycle.

Lazyfarmer is in support of eating boiled boots, but not store mush. Sweetened is unimpressed with her turkey. And Coopslave insists on sacrificing only virgin roosters for the dinner table. What a picky bunch we are.

a roaster is a roaster they all taste like chicken to me

This is indeed a most interesting thread. I am in agreement with some things, some things I am not. Uno, you said some interesting stuff, as you always do. I am pretty sure that it is more cost effective to raise the meat birds that take such a short time to mature, than a cockerel that takes say, 6 months. No doubt. And I bet the meat birds taste good in certain ways. But there are studies shown that if you want a really nice tasting bird, the older it gets, the better the meat tastes. It has to do with food I am sure...now some people don’t like the taste of the long aged bird, the preference is for the bird that does not have as strong a taste. My Son-in-Law is a prime example of this. My Daughter, his spouse, on the other hand, loves the taste of the cockerels. Maybe it is all in his head. We live on their farm and I am sure that he is turned off by the chickens free ranging and rummaging through stuff, especially horse poop. Heard him talk about how the chickens run like there nary was a tomorrow when they see a tail of a horse lift and they spread that pile far and wide. I am sure that he realizes that all this stuff coming out the back end of a horse is hay and grains and such, but I think it has turned him off. Probably a city boy, turned country, who knows. Anyways, he loves chicken, but just not our farm raised. That’s OK, his loss, smiling. I like the taste of the birds grown here, for a long time, I think they taste strong and I like that flavour, smiling.

Ya, so where was I? Right. Grew on a good many cockerels last year. And had them processed at the abbatoir, two different occasions this fall, a few days apart.

The first lot to go was a whack of cochin cockerels. At the age of 20 weeks. The average was about 4 pounds dressed. The one year and a bit old cockbird was just over 5 pounds. 5.2 to be exact. These are coming from the cobwebs of my mind, so are not precise.

The next group of processed birds was the buff orpingtons. I had two that were of the age of 25 weeks and a whack the age of 20 weeks, same age as the cochin cockerels. The cochin cockerels and the buff Orpington cockerels were the same age, as indicated, and they dressed out to be about the same weight.

The two buff Orpington cockerels that were 5 weeks older, dressed out to be about a pound more than their counterparts of 5 weeks younger.

Prior to the big day of the processing of either of the two groups. It was a lovely day and I was outside looking at the massive difference between the 25 week old buff Orpington and the 20 week buff Orpington. I cannot speak to other breeds. But let me tell you, there was a huge amount of maturing that took place sometime after the age of 20 weeks old and before the age of 25 weeks old. When I was reading this thread, I had recalled that day when I was outside taking pictures of the cockerels. And I am glad I did.

I can remember that I always thought that a cockerel should be processed around the age of 20 weeks old. And then I also remembered that Coopslave said something about not processing her cockerels until they were the age of 24 weeks. Sometimes life gets in the way, and things must be done.

I had so many cockerels running free range around here this fall. I am speaking to the buff orpingtons. The cochin cockerels of the same age free ranged too, but did not have an over interest in mating with the buff orpingtons. And well, with two big roosters, they didn’t stand a chance to get in with the buff flock, smiling. I love the cockbirds, they do take care of their gals, in every way. From showing them tidbits to eat, to watching the very heavens above for things that might hurt their gals. They even sound the alarm that makes everyone hit the road when they see a plane fly overhead. Smart dudes...

Right, where was I? OK. Back to that day, think it was like October 23, last, 2012. A beautiful day, warm, blue skies, the cold had begun, but still nice enough to be outside mingling with my birds, camera in my back pocket, where it lives.

There was a need to take all these excess males off to the processor. So I could not wait until the cockerels had matured more. Would have been nice, but girls were getting very stressed with so many young males attempting to give them attention (yes, after the boys all left, it only took the girls about 2 weeks to begin to begin laying their hearts out. Was down to 2 eggs a day, and those were probably from the girls that were smart enough to stay away from the boys. Or then, perhaps it was the initiation of turning on the timed lights for 15 hours a day. Both were performed at the same time, so really, no clue, but I am leaning towards just the honky boys bugging girls, despite the cockbirds’ work to keep them away). Ya...

I will provide a short narration to try to explain these pictures, which are actually very self-explanatory, but I like to say things, so look, watch and listen. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

Out in the horses’ paddocks, probably kneeling in a bunch of crap. But hey, that is me, knees always dirty with one thing or another. Get really nice pictures of things when I am kneeling down.

This is a picture of a 25 week old cockerel, buff Orpington, probably, smiling, and to his right, the less mature one of 20 weeks old. To me. There is an amazing amount of maturity that occurs after 20 weeks to the age of 25 weeks. There were four males of the 25 week old, one of which I kept on for the breeding group this year. All four of them looked similar with maturity. Of the 20 week old cockerels, I think there were about 7. They all looked the same too. Look closely.....huge difference. I actually do not know exactly how long the difference in maturation takes. But I do know there is 5 weeks difference in age between the two.

That is not dirt on the nostrils, that is something that has come from scrumaging in brown stuff that comes out of the horses' butts

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Just another shot of how the birds look....

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Closer single view of the 20 week old buff Orpington cockerel. Look how gangly he still looks!!

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Out in the alfalfa field. The youngsters, at 20 weeks old are way off there. In the forefront, again, you can see the 25 week old and the 20 week old. Quite the difference eh?

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Ya, that was when the alfalfa was still growing free and wild....a huge field to the east and a huge field to the west of our property. This year was a pretty high year for grasshoppers, but nothing like 2011!! Lots of protein in our birds with alfalfa and bugs!! Wonder if this makes the meat taste even better, smiling.

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Oh and just a cool picture of a big, beautiful pullet, had to throw this one in. We did not eat her, smiling that big smile.....

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I wonder why hens always get annoyed with another hen after she has been mated? Seen that time and time again that they watch intently and then go over and peck that girl on the head. Go figure!!

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Now that is a great illustration of the amazing rate of growth of those big Orpington boys. I found the same thing with mine! The first batch of roosters I took in at 20 - 22 weeks of age...mostly White Chantecler and Buff Orp. They were a nice enough table bird. I shared some with family and kept some for our own use. And they were good tasting, but just not as plump and meaty as I expected. But I was worried to keep them longer in case the meat become tough and boot-like. (See Uno's post above) hehe...
My parents (old farmer folks and no strangers to growing chickens) said "Why do you worry so much about their age?! Leave them alone till September. Then pick them up, check out their breasts and drumsticks and butcher them when they are ready."

I have to admit they were right.
With the next batch of roosters, same breeds, I waited until they were at least 24, some even 26 weeks old. The difference was amazing in the carcass size, and no tough, stringy meat what so ever.
Then I read an interesting bit on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy website that seems to support this, at least as far as the Chantecler goes...
This is in the description of different breeds pdf file:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Winter Hardy,
Can be Eaten at
Any Age, Winter
Layer

I also enjoyed the more mature Orpingtons and Cochins, athough I have not been brave enough to try anything over a year old. Well, except some old hens, but we canned them, which makes anything tender.

Anyway it makes me wonder if the age to slaughter is not such a concern as we tend to believe. After all, these slower maturing breeds are still young and growing at 25 weeks old, and I do also believe the amount of sexual activity, as coopslave stated makes quite a difference too. But still, a young rooster, like less than a year is not the same as, say killing an old bull that has been through a decade of breeding seasons.

BTW, cooking style is important too. When roasting a bird, I use a very heavy-weight covered roasting pan, so none of the juice can escape while they cook. Mmmm...yummy!

By the way...GORGEOUS Pullet in that last pic, Cynthia!!