Sooo much pooping

[TAJ]

I'm glad we have no neighbours - our 5 were crowing at 4.30! - I think the fox was patrolling as Jazz kept barking as well.

 

I think this is why I need meat breeds - I cannot see me keeping a cockeral a few months to fatten up after it starts crowing with people living next door. These were supposed to be ready at 12-14 weeks and certainly were - they have started crowing from 13+ weeks. To be honest all that I have left are big enough they could now go, we just like to do them 1-2 at a time.

 

Tracy

[missuscluck]

Our cockerals have gone now. Someone gave me a fiver for one as they want to use it for breeding. They were lovley pure rhode island reds and Im glad one of them has been saved. The other two are now in the freezer.

I actually only have two chickens at the moment Never been heard of before.

[Griffin]

I despatched my first Orpington today. Not a traditional meat bird but I didn't want to waste him. He was eight months old, not crowing yet but took a fancy to one of my Silkies and being five times the size of her I feared for her safety Plucking wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, he was one of the easiest actually. He was a massive bird to look at but I knew there wasn't a lot under the feathers. No breast meat at all. I'll be interested to see how much he weighs dressed. Daisy is going to turn him into a chicken & ham pie

Edited January 12, 2010 by Guest

[missuscluck]

There is not much meat on my boys breast wise. They seem very thigh heavy and the legs seem large so hoping that this gives enough meat per bird to feed us.

[Griffin]

Just finished preparing Dino, he weighs in at 1.5kgs which is more than I thought he would. Very fatty inside his cavity, more so than the Dorkings.

[TAJ]

Just finished preparing Dino, he weighs in at 1.5kgs which is more than I thought he would. Very fatty inside his cavity, more so than the Dorkings.

 

That's about half the weight of my meat birds (whole one oven ready have been 6lbs 10oz & 6lbs 2 oz, the jointed one had breasts at 1 lb each).

 

Tracy

[Griffin]

I know, it's a shameful amount of meat considering the time, money and effort put in The price I pay for purebreeds And to be honest it was a complete and utter waste of time with the Orps because they're all boys!

[TAJ]

After a week of loud crowing at the weekend we did the three remaining cockerals. The first two (mid-Jan) were 6lb 10oz & 6lb 2oz oven ready weight, and we jointed a thirs one. The two whole birds we did this weekend were 6lb 7 oz & 7lb 6oz - it is only when you put one in the roasting tin you realy appreaciate quite how big they are! The third one this weekend we also jointed (taking skin & feathers off in one, so no plucking or gutting) again like the last jointed one the breasts were about 1lb each in weight, we left the skinned joints on the bone (wings, thighs & legs) - they were 3lbs, 3oz in weight, so without the carcus that one gave us 5lb of meat.

 

...so we thought 6 down 5 to go, but being they are all females (now 16 weeks old) we can now pace ourselves BUT I get up this morning and I hear crowing! I only commented yesterday that one of the white 'girls' comb was reddening before the others - OH said perhaps its a cockeral - 'don't be silly' I said, it is not as big as the cockerals.

 

so out of 11 we ended up with 4 girls & 7 cockerals and still continue to have crowing in the garden, but the freezer is looking rather full at the moment.

 

Tracy

[missuscluck]

We ate one of our rhode island red cockerals yesterday for lunch. There was enough for the four of us no problem but not a huge amount of breast meat. Heavier on the leg and thigh area and the meat was very dark and stronger tasting than your average bird. All in all ok.

[Griffin]

We ate Steve Speckled Sussex last week, lighter meat than on the Orp but one of the nicest birds we've had so far.

[TAJ]

A week without crowing has been great. However we still have 4 girls to 'do', two are so pretty brown ones and to make it worse the two brown ones make lovely chatty noises all the time and today one crouched for me and was very cuddly . Plain white noisy cockerals fine, but sweet cuddly, pretty girlies - I know this is going to be harder. It will be the two white ones first - they are now 19 weeks and were ready at 12 weeks so it is time I know.

 

Tracy

[Lesley]

Oooooh - do it soon, it's even harder once they start laying

 

(and the innards are full of eggs )

[TAJ]

Oooooh - do it soon, it's even harder once they start laying

 

(and the innards are full of eggs )

 

So now a white one as well as a brown one are crouching and there was an egg laid today - we are not around for the next couple of weekends, so they may be egg layers for a while first! At least you can joint them OK if egg laying without getting into the gutting bit. I will have to see what happens, particularly considering the 18 eggs in the inccy to replace the 1 departed egg layer.

 

Tracy

[Lesley]

considering the 18 eggs in the inccy to replace the 1 departed egg layer.

 

Tracy

 

Erring on the side of caution then Tracy

[TAJ]

Oooooh - do it soon, it's even harder once they start laying

 

(and the innards are full of eggs )

 

So now a white one as well as a brown one are crouching and there was an egg laid today - we are not around for the next couple of weekends, so they may be egg layers for a while first! At least you can joint them OK if egg laying without getting into the gutting bit. I will have to see what happens, particularly considering the 18 eggs in the inccy to replace the 1 departed egg layer.

 

Tracy

 

The two white ones went today - will be jointed so no issue about eggs when gutting - between the 4 meat birds I have been getting 2-3 eggs a day for the last couple of weeks. So just the 2 brown ones to go - I think this will be next weekend - by then the hatching chicks will be here, so 3 outside pens of chickens, plus chicks to look after will be too much, so the meat birds need to go.

 

Then it will be a case of any of the chicks that are cockerals becoming meat birds, but that will be 3-6 months away I guess.

 

Tracy

[TAJ]

A bit late I know, but the final 2 of the October 2009 hatched meat bird were dispatched a couple of weeks ago (the ones that were laying). They were so heavy and on warm days their combs sometimes went blueish and they clearly struggled for breath in the warmer weather (before this last hot spell). We decided they were built so heavy as meat birds it was not fair to keep them any longer. So there giant breasts (4 breasts) made 40 kebabs for a party last week and the rest of the meat made two curries for 3 people. Despite being 8 months (they were ready to go at 3 months) I was surprised how tender they were.

 

As I have said on here before I thought killing spare cockerals from a hatch of pure breeds would be harder and it has been Our Cream Legbar cockeral went 2 weeks ago as well - too much crowing at 15 weeks at 5 am, or when ever we were in the garden - he was far too pretty. From the same hatch I have a silkie and 2 SL dottes that I am convinced (know) are male, but now at 17 weeks all are quite so far so can stay until they start crowing, the trouble is the older they get the prettier they look ...it would be really nice to be able to keep a dotte so I have a breeding pair, it just needs to keep quite.

 

Tracy