Chickens for the table
When you hatch eggs or buy day-old chicks (unless they are sex-linked), you will almost inevitably get male chickens. There is a limited demand for breeding cockerels, so the destination for most must be the table.
In 2007, we raised four Light Sussex cockerels for the table. The Light Sussex is a dual purpose breed with a good carcase. We did keep them separate from the rest of the flock and enclosed in a run for a while, feeding them grower / finisher pellets but I forgot to shut the run properly one day, so they became free range and I couldn't shut them in again. Their diet was, therefore, layer pellets and anything else they could find.
Even once free-ranging, the young cockerels didn't really mix with the layer flock - the stock cockerel, Hobbes, saw to that but there was much less strife than I feared. However, I don't think you could do this any other way than free range, since all the birds need to be free to escape from any aggression.
The first cockerel was about 25 weeks when we killed him. He was about 4lb and was very tasty. The killing was relatively simple but the plucking and cleaning took us ages, with a copy of "Seymour" on the table and a selection of blunt instruments. It took us so long that the bird was rigid and we couldn't get him folded up like a supermarket carcase so we had to roast him on his side, with the legs sticking out.
Since then, we have raised a small batch of five Hubbards for the table. The Hubbard is a meat strain and the dullest bird I have yet come across. However, they do grow fast (and eat a lot). We killed ours at 11 - 12 weeks and they were between 5 and 7.5 lb - compare that to the Light Sussex. We should probably have killed them earlier as they had obviously laid down quite a bit of fat.
We kill the birds first thing in the morning so the crop and gut is empty; the kill is made by shooting them in the head with the air rifle. It is very efficient. We bleed the birds, pluck them, then hang them for 24 hours in the garage (out of reach of cats and dogs). They are much easier to dress when they are cold.
So ends our brief guide to poultry keeping. We've endeavoured to give an honest account of our experiences and what we have learnt, but please bear in mind that these are only our experiences, and that yours may differ. For more information about poultry keeping see some of the excellent sites listed in our Links page. If you have comments, corrections or questions about these articles please contact us.