Small non-meat breeds - getting what I can, efficiently

[puddleglumWI]

Hi all,

I have a question about raising non-meat breed males to get some meat from. I have 5 Cream legbar hens, and am planning to get 5 more hens and a rooster. The breeder I got my hens from says she breeds for mellow males, so I should have a low chance of a jerk that isn't worth the trouble. I don't have specific plans to raise chicks, but would like the option. Since they are sex-able by down at hatching, I could sell the female chicks as layers and possibly keep a few to add to the flock, but what to do with the males? They are a small framed bird so I won't be getting great carcasses out of them and probably are not worth the work of scalding and plucking.

What if I just fillet out the breast meat, cut off and skinned the wings and legs and called it a day? Seems like they probably would be tasty, and shouldn't be an absurd amount of work for a little meat. I love a good barbeque sauce delivery platform: maybe crock pot pulled chicken sandwiches?

Is there an age where they would be big enough to get a little meat out of them and are still growing somewhat quickly? Do they slow down, at a certain point, to where they really aren't worth the feed?

Thanks for any input
-pg

This question is specifically about legbars, but could apply to other smaller framed breeds also.

 

[MROO]

 

[FunClucks]

Hi all,

I have a question about raising non-meat breed males to get some meat from. I have 5 Cream legbar hens, and am planning to get 5 more hens and a rooster. The breeder I got my hens from says she breeds for mellow males, so I should have a low chance of a jerk that isn't worth the trouble. I don't have specific plans to raise chicks, but would like the option. Since they are sex-able by down at hatching, I could sell the female chicks as layers and possibly keep a few to add to the flock, but what to do with the males? They are a small framed bird so I won't be getting great carcasses out of them and probably are not worth the work of scalding and plucking.

What if I just fillet out the breast meat, cut off and skinned the wings and legs and called it a day? Seems like they probably would be tasty, and shouldn't be an absurd amount of work for a little meat. I love a good barbeque sauce delivery platform: maybe crock pot pulled chicken sandwiches?

Is there an age where they would be big enough to get a little meat out of them and are still growing somewhat quickly? Do they slow down, at a certain point, to where they really aren't worth the feed?

Thanks for any input
-pg

This question is specifically about legbars, but could apply to other smaller framed breeds also.

I've processed / dealt with production red roos, Cream crested legbars a bit, CX, New Hampshires, and small bodied roos. For the small bodied CCLBs you're talking about, skinning, gutting, and spatch-cocking might be your best approach. You're right, there may not be much there, but folks do all that and more for quail, which are 1/4 of the size at most.

Spatch-cock and cook over the grill, with a good basing sauce should do it. You can pressure cook a skinned or skin-on bird for pulled chicken, roast in the oven in a covered container, etc. I regularly slather my skinned chicken with BBQ or Italian sauce, then cook at 275F in the oven until about 190F meat temp. Older birds, like 1 years plus, I make sure to pressure cook them with some water and chicken soup veggies. Makes great egg drop soup base, chicken soup, pea soup veggies and broth (just add peas and ham later), etc. Older flavorful birds can be pressure cooked and then treated like pulled pork - I've found the flavor similar, and it goes well mixing with BBQ sauce.

You can do what you just describe, shave off the breast, take the wings and legs, but by the time you do that you've pretty much done the bird. It's really no challenge to skin the body - the tricky parts for me are making the first cuts around the legs where the scales meet feathers, the initial side cuts down the legs to get the flap of skin you can pull, and then skin removal from the wings - you'll cut the pin feathers off as part of the skin. There's an area well attached on the back just in front of the tail, but it's not that hard to do with a sharp knife. Removal of the skin around the vent can also be a bit tricky - I like to leave some skin present to keep any mess away from the meat when gutting.

Usually you want to process roos before sexual maturity for optimum tenderness. Anywhere from 9-14 weeks is the window. For many birds about 12 weeks is an optimum age/size. Just try things out and see what your personal optimum age/size turns out to be based on amount of meat, flavor, and tenderness. The genetics of the bird determine how much meat is present at what age. If you keep a bird for a year or more, you can eat it no problem, but unless you're super talented at low/slow cooking methods, pressure cooking is the best choice to make sure the meat is tender enough to eat. You can almost always eat chicken, the question is what cooking methods you are willing to use, and how flavorful you want/can stand for it to be.

Roos will continue to grow slowly as they mature through at least a year old, and may grow a bit more as they approach two years, but the most rapid period of growth is that first 15 weeks. By about 15-16 weeks, you start to see male specific saddle feathers grow, which means hormones have started kicking in and making the meat more flavorful and less tender.

If there really isn't enough meat to bother with it, you can try and sell them live on craigslist to recoup your feed costs, or you can fertilize your yard, or feed the wild animals out in the forest. Some critter would find a tasty treat. Composting or raw feeding your dogs are valid usage choices. Also, it may sound weird, but chickens like chicken. They are very dinosaur in their thinking and think nothing of eating unalive flockmates. Fresh raw chicken would be very nutritious for them. They will also happily eat feathers, bones, etc, which are good sources of calcium for them. You would need to make sure to remove whatever is left after a few hours so it doesn't go bad and get anyone sick. Chickens love protein.

 

[puddleglumWI]

Usually you want to process roos before sexual maturity for optimum tenderness. Anywhere from 9-14 weeks is the window. For many birds about 12 weeks is an optimum age/size. Just try things out and see what your personal optimum age/size turns out to be based on amount of meat, flavor, and tenderness. The genetics of the bird determine how much meat is present at what age. If you keep a bird for a year or more, you can eat it no problem, but unless you're super talented at low/slow cooking methods, pressure cooking is the best choice to make sure the meat is tender enough to eat. You can almost always eat chicken, the question is what cooking methods you are willing to use, and how flavorful you want/can stand for it to be.

I have heard a lot of people say it is time to process when they all start crowing. I am sure the first few days of a bunch of young roosters in crowing duels would be funny, and then not.

 

[Ridgerunner]

probably are not worth the work of scalding and plucking.

We all have our own goals, desires, and preferences. Some people on this forum aren't happy unless they can feed an army with one bird, I can get two meals out of a small pullet. Some people do as you mentioned, just cut out the breast and legs and toss the rest away. Easy and quick. When I butcher I skin them. I part out the meat sections, but also use the neck, back, feet, gizzard, wings, and heart for broth. I keep two buckets and toss certain stuff that will get buried in one and put bits and pieces I will feed back to the flock in the other bucket. The stuff that is buried goes in my garden or orchard so it feeds my plants.

There is nothing wrong with your proposal, we all approach this differently.

Is there an age where they would be big enough to get a little meat out of them and are still growing somewhat quickly? Do they slow down, at a certain point, to where they really aren't worth the feed?

I don't raise Legbar, more of the Sussex, Delaware, Orpington, Rock size. Each cockerel will grow at different rates so giving definite ages is a bit risky. Your results will vary each year, even with the same parents. With mine, I like to wait at least until the cockerels are 16 weeks old before I start butchering and want all of them butchered by 23 weeks. By 16 weeks mine are big enough for me and by 23 weeks the growth rate tends to really slow down.

Thanks for any input

Glad you asked. One important consideration is how you want to cook them. I don't try to fry or grill mine, by that age they might be a bit tough. I bake mine. Put the serving pieces in a tightly covered baking dish with some herbs and veggies like onion, garlic, carrot, and/or celery and bake it for 2-1/2 to 3 hours on 250 F. I carefully use a slotted spoon to take it out of the pot as the meat might fall off of the bone. I use a slotted spoon as you should have a half cup to a cup of some great broth. There are plenty of other methods to cook it. But you need to match the cooking method to the age of the bird you butchered.

My main suggestion is to try whatever you want and see how it works for you. It doesn't matter what I like or what works for my, it is your preferences that matter to you. I learn a lot by trial and error. Especially error.

Good luck!

 

[puddleglumWI]

When I butcher I skin them. I part out the meat sections, but also use the neck, back, feet, gizzard, wings, and heart for broth.

Glad you mentioned this. I remember my uncle made pickled chicken gizzards, livers, and hearts once and I enjoyed them greatly.

 

[FunClucks]

I have heard a lot of people say it is time to process when they all start crowing. I am sure the first few days of a bunch of young roosters in crowing duels would be funny, and then not.

Once I hatched out 21 chicks, 12 of which were roosters. Around 2.5-3 months they started crowing, but they were super scrawny (IMO). I wanted to grow them out another month or so before processing, but it was hot outside (my processing environment), they were getting really loud (neighbors), and my life was going to be super busy in a month or so, so I sold them. Recouped feed costs and then some, and didn't have to spend hours in the heat processing birds for not that much meat when I was done, so I was happy with the decision to sell them. I'm not the fastest when it comes to processing, and have no helpers, so this worked for me.

Eventually, you get used to the noise and don't really hear it any more if you are far enough away. But whenever a new rooster starts to crow, you hear that because it sounds different than what you're used to. We kept our roos in a bachelor flock so they wouldn't fight each other over the hens.