Table birds

[Birdie Wife]

Me too - almost all my birds are dual purpose and I've eaten spare boys. It's an inevitability about hatching your own that you'll have spare cockerels and it's next to impossible to find homes for them all. I don't think it's cruel (though MIL would disagree), I think it's far more cruel and not a little hypocritical to buy your £2 chicken shrinkwrapped in clingfilm and ignore the fact of how it's been reared. But that's just me, no offence intended to anyone.

[Hilary B]

Me too - almost all my birds are dual purpose and I've eaten spare boys. It's an inevitability about hatching your own that you'll have spare cockerels and it's next to impossible to find homes for them all. I don't think it's cruel (though MIL would disagree), I think it's far more cruel and not a little hypocritical to buy your £2 chicken shrinkwrapped in clingfilm and ignore the fact of how it's been reared. But that's just me, no offence intended to anyone.

Totally agree. I am not a vegetarian, and in the past I have eaten home-growm pork, bacon, chicken, turkey, goose, mutton and goat (but not able to keep anything here...). These days I pay a little extra for meat that has at least some chance of having had a good life. I only buy the 'bargain' stuff if it is so reduced in price that otherwise it might be thrown away.

[KimT]

I think more and more people are turning to rearing their own birds. I run a monthly chook club in our village and I have to say that most members want to rear their own table birds. You do need time and space to it and if things go to plan I maybe able to offer land to those in the club that don't have the space at home.

[sheena]

I maybe able to offer land to those in the club that don't have the space at home.

Kim, please don't say things like that!!!

I've just had an experience and a half on my other thread, little garden here but having been shown for the want of a better word a big fat juicy "easter egg", i am now gonna have to start looking for a new home myself!

I need more room!!!
More room = more chooks

OMG, i'm gonna be the chicken lady... and worse still the murdering chicken lady!!! Oh the shame!!!

But I agree with the majority, better to know what goes in your own chicken than eat the one's from the shop which you have no idea (not to mention the extra water in them). I'm scared of culling them, and don't think that I could even do it myself. But OH previously worked in an abatoir so he would be able to do it no problem (I say that now, but I see the bond going on between them now.. lol)

Ok, now i'm waffling.. sorry

[Snadger]

.......................................... They are best kept together in the "cock pen" without ladies' company, otherwise they squabble, but well worth doing as the meat is far superior to anything you get in the supermarket.

Now thats a cracking Idea!

[Snadger]

I have seven dual purpose chicks that I hatched purposely with the intention of being able to knock any cockerels on the head for eating purposes if need be.
Not sure but out of seven chicks I think I have 5 cockerels. Good job I had a contingency plan methinks!

Mine are 4 weeks old LS and faverolles (both Faverolles I fear are cockerels) and will be going outdoors to their specially made coop in two weeks time.

Never killed a chook.....but needs must and I'm not usually squeemish!

Love the idea of a cock pen so will have to get cracking on yet another coop! (Won't need nesting boxes for this one though!)

[sheena]

Oh I forgot to ask...

I asked OH this the other day... Why do they kill baby cock's when they could be used for the table?
He said that the meat tastes different, I don't know how true this is of course.. but if they were to start using cock's as a meat source, wouldn't that bring down the price of chicken in shops?
My next question... does it taste any different?
(had to re-word it... lmao, didn't wanna get kicked out).

[Snadger]

Oh I forgot to ask...

I asked OH this the other day... Why do they kill baby cock's when they could be used for the table?
He said that the meat tastes different, I don't know how true this is of course.. but if they were to start using cock's as a meat source, wouldn't that bring down the price of chicken in shops?
My next question... does it taste any different?
(had to re-word it... lmao, didn't wanna get kicked out).

If you are referring to the killing of cockerels when the hens are to be used as battery fodder........the simple answer is that they would make scrawny cockerels as they were bred as laying machines not as broilers!
The birds bred for meat production don't differentiate between cockerels or hens methinks, and both are used?

[KimT]

Our table birds are both hens and cocks and there is no difference in taste at all.

[PoshCloche]

Hello,
We keep chickens and have just started dispatching the cockerals for dinner. My husband does the deed (with a branch lopper) and I do all the rest. I have to say it has nearly turned me vegatarian. I still really struggle with the taking of a life bit even though I know the drumsticks I buy from the supermarket were not donated by a generous chicken which has gone on to enjoy a happy life.
The processing and preparing however gets easier with practice and I feel a certain amount of pride each time I do it a bit better.
We also hatch at home and it has made me realise how grotesque the true 'commercial meat birds' are. They are genetically selected to have huge appetites and grow at an enormous rate so that they are ready for the table at just six weeks old. My current batch of chicks are just four weeks old and are about the size of a baked potato (could not think of a better example!) They are still indoors and will not be ready for at least 20 weeks.

[Hilary B]

Oh I forgot to ask...

I asked OH this the other day... Why do they kill baby cock's when they could be used for the table?
He said that the meat tastes different, I don't know how true this is of course.. but if they were to start using cock's as a meat source, wouldn't that bring down the price of chicken in shops?
My next question... does it taste any different?
(had to re-word it... lmao, didn't wanna get kicked out).

Like Snadger says, it is the breeding, not the gender.
Commercial 'meat breed' chickens grow fast, so the total amount of food needed to get one to a suitable weight is a lot less than it would be for a Warren cockerel chick. The feed (and other) costs of rearing the brothers of POL Warrens would be considerably more than the price they would fetch in the supermarket, so they gas them and sell the bodies as food for assorted small carnivores in captivity (mongooses and meerkats, hawks and falcons, occasionally snakes).

[sesa]

I've just ordered 15 cornish X chicks I plan on raising for the table, if those work out I will do probably 3 or 4 batches each year. I was given a home raised chicken by a friend that just started raising them and after that bird I'll never get chicken from the store again.

[Snadger]

I've just ordered 15 cornish X chicks I plan on raising for the table, if those work out I will do probably 3 or 4 batches each year. I was given a home raised chicken by a friend that just started raising them and after that bird I'll never get chicken from the store again.

I watched one of HFW's programmes where they did a taste test for chicken. The Dorking cross (hybrid vigour?) seemed to be the best. I presume a Dorking crossed with any other meat bird ie a LS or similar?

Thats' why I fancy a few Dorkings!

[MaureenHall]

I've just ordered 15 cornish X chicks I plan on raising for the table, if those work out I will do probably 3 or 4 batches each year. I was given a home raised chicken by a friend that just started raising them and after that bird I'll never get chicken from the store again.

It's nice to hear stories and experiences from "the other side of the pond" Are the costs of rearing table birds in USA comparable with those here? Not that it makes any difference, there's nothing we can do about it, I'm just interested.

[KimT]

Kim, please don't say things like that!!!

I've just had an experience and a half on my other thread, little garden here but having been shown for the want of a better word a big fat juicy "easter egg", i am now gonna have to start looking for a new home myself!

I need more room!!!
More room = more chooks

OMG, i'm gonna be the chicken lady... and worse still the murdering chicken lady!!! Oh the shame!!!

But I agree with the majority, better to know what goes in your own chicken than eat the one's from the shop which you have no idea (not to mention the extra water in them). I'm scared of culling them, and don't think that I could even do it myself. But OH previously worked in an abatoir so he would be able to do it no problem (I say that now, but I see the bond going on between them now.. lol)

Ok, now i'm waffling.. sorry

Go and speak to a local farmer and see if he would be prepared to rent you some land.................you never know your luck.