Jul 19 2008
All Grown Up
Well the days of the little chicks are just about gone. I just purchased my last bag of grower feed and starting next week I will put them all on layer bits. The culling of the roosters went great and I learned a lot. We ended up slaughtering five Roosters which gave us an abundance of meat for seven people. I ended up giving away a whole chicken to my brother in law.
The plucking was not bad and I learned that between 142 degrees and 145 degrees was the ideal for scalding. One of them we scalded at 132 degrees and we ended up with a lot of pin feathers to scrap out. The meat was very tasty. It was a little on the tough side but we think that was from the muscles because our roosters are free range and get lots of exercise.
Getting rid of the five roosters have calmed down the flock a lot. There is a lot less fighting and when there is a scrap, it is just minor and not deadly. I have about ten more roosters that I am going to either sell or cull because I am only keeping the hens for eggs. I might keep Rooty (the wimpy rooster) because he is not related to any of the rest but I am not sure.
Well that is all from my chicken raising for now. Have some chicken stories to share? Please drop me a comment or two.
I have so enjoyed reading your blog. I don’t have as many chickens as you do, but have had some of the same experiences. My new chicks have finally grown up and just began laying last week….they are so proud of themselves. You are right….now that they are laying and our older hens continue to lay…we have enough eggs to supply the neighborhood!!!
We, too, had to get rid of a few roosters. We kept only one, to protect the hens (or so they think).
I will definitely come back to hear more about your chickens! Thanks for sharing!
Juri