2009 Omlet cube and run for sale

[captaincollins]

I know some people wouldnt like the idea of this, but when my girls who are only 6 months old get too old so we are talking years here, I plan to eat them. I am now thinking about building a new run and hatching (or buy chicks) to rear for meat and was wondering if anyone did this and could help with some ideas as to how they do it and the best meat birds?

 

Thanks

Sharon

[laurmurf]

there are a few of us who have reared meat birds and there are a few threads discussing this on the 'self-sufficiency' forum. Have a look there

[ISCA]

when my girls who are only 6 months old get too old so we are talking years here, I plan to eat them

Would they be worth slaughtering for meat? I suspect ex-layers would have tough and stringy meat that was largely inedible unless slowly stewed for hours to break down the skeletal muscle fibres, and even then may be rather unpalatable. I certainly would not think they would be edible after roasting. Meat birds are usually slaughtered at about 12 weeks of age if I remember correctly from my childhood days when we kept some animals for meat. Old layers were simply discarded.

 

Keeping younger birds for meat sounds like the way to go if you want meat birds. The Cornish is popular as a meat bird. Sussex were traditionally a dual purpose bird. If you reared these you could hatch your own, keep the pullets for eggs and eat the cockerels at 12 weeks?

 

Edited for terrible spelling/typing- well it was the crack of dawn!

Edited May 19, 2010 by Guest

[Egluntyne]

Your layers won't be worth eating. Very little meat on them, and it will be tough and unpalatable.

 

You'd be better off raising some table birds, or dual purpose, and keep the girls for egg laying and raise the boys for the table.

[Griffin]

Keeping younger birds for meat sounds like the way to go if you want meat birds. The Cornish is popular as a meat bird. Sussex were traditionally a dual purpose bird. If you reared these you could hatch your own, keep the pullets for eggs and eat the cockerels at 12 weeks?

Both Cornish & Sussex need much longer than 12 weeks to grow to a worthy size. We use Sussex & Marans for meat here and we usually cull them around 24 weeks. I'd give them longer if I could but I can't keep anything that crows. Our cuckoo Marans were lovely for dinner, the best pure breed we've tried yet.

[ISCA]

Keeping younger birds for meat sounds like the way to go if you want meat birds. The Cornish is popular as a meat bird. Sussex were traditionally a dual purpose bird. If you reared these you could hatch your own, keep the pullets for eggs and eat the cockerels at 12 weeks?

Both Cornish & Sussex need much longer than 12 weeks to grow to a worthy size. We use Sussex & Marans for meat here and we usually cull them around 24 weeks. I'd give them longer if I could but I can't keep anything that crows. Our cuckoo Marans were lovely for dinner, the best pure breed we've tried yet.

Ooops! It was a LONG time ago!

[moochoo]

I agree with the other posts that your old layers will make terrible eating. We've grown meat birds from day old chicks. We've tried mainly the organic commercial breeds both gold and white varieties. I also hatched some Indian Game chicks which were a much stronger tasting meat with more texture to the meat.

It's good to know where your food comes from and to appreciate the life your chicken has.

[Madchook]

Moochoo, out of interest, were your IG chicks very flighty?

[moochoo]

No they were really cheeky and tame. They didn't really jump around or try to "fly" much. All in all they were a really nice chicken. I did contemplate keeping a couple of them as layers if they turned out to be hens but only one was.

[HENthusiastic]

HI.

Ive eaten my own chickens, but not exactly bred them purely for eating. When I have done a hatch, I hatch a variety of hybrids and pure breeds. I keep the hens for eggs and coz they are lovely and eat the cockerels when I can no longer keep them ie when they start fighting. I dont keep them differently, or feed them different food.

 

I find that they are much smaller than shop brought chickens and the meat is darker, legs a bit tough. But 100 times more lovely because they've had a good life.