Last year we raised Buff Orphington, Speckled Sussex, and Columbian Wyanndottes, kept the pullets and butchered all but 2 of the cockerels. We butcheed them at about 5-6 months. Average weight was about 4 pounds. They were not fat and plump--rather lean--not a lot of breast meat, more dark meat. I have only slow-cooked/stewed them. The taste is great but at butchering time they almost seem like a different species than the COrnish X.
Re keeping a rooster--we kept 2 and have had two hatches this year (one due in 2 weeks). Letting the hens raise the chicks has been an awesome experience.

Thanks, claraserena. Re: roosters - did you keep your brooding hens separate, or can they be with the rest of the flock?

I separated them.
The first time it was February and I brought the broody and her eggs in the house.
The second time was June and I partitioned off an area in the coop (so no hens could add to her nest)Âa couple of days after the hatch I put them all into a separate brooder pen. This time, the broody was on a nest in a hay bale outside of the coop. Last night we bought her and the nest indoors (in a large plastic crate) to protect her from raccoons. We should be able to put her in the brooder pen in a couple of days.

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll wait a year so we can have a "proper" place for the broody hen and chicks. It would be fun to raise our own. And now I'm not so worried that my chickens aren't big enough - it sounds like they need another month or two to grow.

i have turkens and reds and i butchered a couple and ate them , but the taste was strong . is it i am used to store bought chicken or can i feed them something to mild them up?
these were young chickens
any body out there know ?

'Strong' as in really yummy and chicken-y perfection, or 'strong' as in gamey and odd?

Home grown birds are going to taste far and away better than store-bought any day of the week, we just aren't used to it. After you eat a few of your birds, try a supermarket chicken again and I'll bet they disgust you. :) I'm that way about my hens' eggs vs. supermarket eggs.

If the meat tastes bad or odd, first make sure that it isn't spoiled somehow--either by a refrigerator failure or possibly piercing the birds' organs during the processing and contaminating the meat.

If that isn't it, possibly something they foraged for on their own flavored the meat...? Also, birds that have had room to roam may be a little bit stringier than caged, store-bought chickens, so the meat texture may be different.

That's all I can think of for now, hope it helps. :)

Velvet ~:>

thanks velvet , maybe thats it ,and you are right they are stringier in texture, but thats nothing a presuure cooker cant fix. but , is there a particular feed that fattens them up and maybe , in addition , milds there taste?

A meat builder blend probably has alot of protein in it. Try something like a regular chick starter which should have more fat in it. Protein feeds will build muscle fast, but fat feeds will build an animal that tastes better. The protein feeds are more for tukeys and broiler crosses that grow very fast.

Hello, all. I had a similar problem with the first and only chicken of ours we've tried to eat. He was only a few months old and a free ranger, and was so tough I couldn't cut him with a knife, before or after cooking. Does it matter how they're slaughtered? or do I just need to buy a pressure cooker???

The main difference we've found, for cooking a home grown chicken, instead of store bought, is to cook it long and low: long on time and low on heat. The chicken farm down the street from us ships their birds to be processed at 8 weeks old. Our chickens are about the size of a coffee mug at that age! We butcher ours at about 5 mos. Plus, our birds have been out developing muscle. Theirs didn't. But the flavor of our birds are great. It's a REAL treat when we retire an old rooster. He gives more meat and wonderful flavor. But,... we have to do him in a Dutch oven, long and low.... When cooked this way the meat will practically fall off the bones. In order to do barbequed chicken we pre-cook it in a Dutch oven before doing it on the grill. This not only cuts down on the the grill time, but produces a much more tender result.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I've found that brining the chicken at least 12 hours makes it much juicier and has a great flavor. And I would slow cook an older bird and cut it up for chicken pie.

hey macmex , sounds like you have eaten quite a few in your day , got any recipes for old roosters? i got alot of those , or any good recipe from anyone out there ... hope to here from soon
PharmerPhil