Chickens at Five Months
This is probably our most handsome rooster right now. We have a couple that are awfully pretty. We bought 25 straight-run day-old Speckled Sussex chicks at the beginning of May. Straight-run means it's random luck as to whether they are male or female; we just get whichever chick was grabbed when our order was being filled. We actually got 26 Speckled Sussex chicks plus a free "mystery chick" for a total of 27 chicks. We ended up wth 13 hens and 13 roosters, plus the mystery rooster.
One rooster died a couple of weeks ago. He was standing by himself with his tail feathers down when I went to let them all out of the chicken house for the day. I isolated him and gave him electrolytes in his water, but he didn't pull through. He died after about three days of illness. We figure he ate something he shouldn't have. I dug a hole and buried him.
It's odd how something is a certain size when living, then when dead it's reduced and seems smaller. Then when you go to dig a hole to bury it, it magically grows to be even larger than it was in life. That's what the rooster did, anyway.
The hens should start laying eggs any day now, or maybe a month from now. They don't have nest boxes so that's a project I need to do pronto. As soon as I process the last of the tomatoes and dig up the potatoes (if they're still worth digging after all this rain). Maybe the hens will hold off egg laying for another week or two. Fingers crossed.
Labels: chickens
posted by Leslie @ 2:56 PM
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2 Comments:
leslie,
roosters are soup material, to be good fryers they need to be less than four months old. Also, slat and hang your fresh killed fowl for a few hours, upside down. They'll taste a lot better. Old hens ditto on the soup, don't forget, you can make soup and then use the meat for tacos, salad, etc. Chickens are cannibalistic and will be more than happy to eat their own, this I don't see as correct, best to bury the intestines and you can cook the other innards for pets if you have dogs/cats. Easier way to kill, tie the legs together at the feet, tie the wings to the sides(or use old pantyhose to slip over the wings, hang the chicken on a hook or large nail driven in a tree, hold the head cut the throat or behead. No struggle, running, or chaos.
Anonymous,
I appreciate your comments. As you know if you've read much of this blog, we're totally new to all of this so input from experienced folks is quite welcome.
I've read varying comments on the proper butchering age of chickens and I think in part that's due to the fact that different breeds mature and age at different rates. Ours were still pretty tiny at less than four months; the ones we butchered at five months were good but they're going on six months now and I think they might be tough due to our procrastination. Soup it is!
I agree I wouldn't want chicken eating chickens - too much unease about that due to the mad cow problems. We tossed the guts way down south of the barn where the chickens don't go (yet). Their range is ever expanding though. Good idea on burying waste products.
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