I did the other Biel crosses at 20 weeks. There was a little less meat, but not by much.
The plucking went far more easily than I expected.
It won't hurt to try a few and see how you like them that early.
I cooked one up last night. The taste is really good but it was pretty tough, probably because of age (10 months) and the fact that these were free range birds. The meat was fine, but lots of sinew and tendons. I am going to make chicken soup tonight with the rest.
The flavor was a little...
I just did 2 Biel x Dominique cockerels, 10 months old. I used a kill cone, but you can easily make one or hang the bird by its feet. Same result in the long run.
The feathers came out far more easily than expected. Plucking both birds was probably a ten minute job. The whole process took me...