Thanks everyone for helping me in my odyssey raising chickens.

Yesterday, I butchered my first rooster.
He was the biggest one.
When dressed out, I doubt he weighs 2lbs.
Certainly not enough to have Sunday dinner for 3 of us

They were hatched the end of April by my neighbor. He asked me what kind I wanted and was told Barred Rocks.
I don't think there's a BR in the flock

With feed, I bet I have $7 or $8/bird in them.

Tempted to call him up and just give them all back to him since they're not worth the effort to butcher

Keep 3 or 4 hens for the few eggs

Your thoughts are always appreciated

altho this is a prepper site mostly..I believe that chickens are waaay more than meat and eggs. at least for me they are..entertainment ..chicken tv..but i wouldnt be spending tons on feed just for entertainment..I would just have a few..and a 2lb chicken mite not be roast diunner for 3 but it can be chicken and dumplings for more, or chicken stew for a bunch.. sometimes ya gotta think outside the egg..

at present i raise seramas..smallest chicken in the world. as well as, a buncha large fowl..buff orphington, jersey giant, australorp, oeg silver duckwing. australian spotted dux

cheers

AP, I feel for you! Next time, get your chicks for meat from a store or mail order. Get the broiler type which are leghorns. After growing them from May to late July, mine weighed in at 6 pounds. I had the butcherer just cut them in half and I could feed my family of 5 on one half. I never let them run or even out of the coop/pen. Feed them broiler crumbles and I had about $6 in each bird. The breast meat was all white and about 1 1/2" thick easily. I wouldn't do any other type for eating. Now, my egg birds are a total disappointment! I'm down to no eggs. I guess they were older layers when I got them. We're going to have to start all over again.

Thanks, Zeker and Herbalpagan.

What a great bunch of folks here with willingness to give.

Zeker, we do like chicken and dumplings but was hoping for some nice roasters for Sunday dinners. I grew up with that kind of bird 50 years ago.

They are also entertainment for me and a good teaching tool for my daughter. She loves the chickens and is almost totally responsible for them. From the beginning, I've called my daughter "Mother Hen"
She did help with the butchering yesterday

Herbalpagan, I didn't know you could get leghorns that big. Size is the reason I wanted Barred Rocks. They were supposed to be a decent size.

Problem is there were no barred rocks

Definitely, will order from a hatchery in the spring

I think what I'll do with this guy today is roast him, clean the meat off and make some gravy and biscuits.

That's as good a meal as can be made to me

Over the next few weeks to month, I'll reduce my flock drastically

Here's some of my chicks

Yje first is a typical hen, the second is a typical rooster. I have 6 or 7 of them

The last looks like a Rhode Island Red to me
I only have one of them and he's my daughter's pet

We do enjoy watching our chickens! Who knew they were such fun?
I'm pretty sure that was the kind of chicken, they were big, huge and white...and sorry Zeker, but these were stupid and mean! They started out cute as anything and by the time they were ready to be butchered, we all had one we wanted to "go first". But they were only around for up to 12 weeks. They are bred special for fast growth and just for meat.

We have some mixed breeds for egg laying. I'm thinking if I can, I'll get Rhode Island Reds for the eggs in the future.

ROFL, those arent barred rocks. Australorpes are a good choice, they tolerate confinement well and take over crowding pretty good too if you choose to keep them in a coop. they also are huge bodied and lay enormous eggs. A couple of my older hens lay eggs bigger than my ducks do. My Austra roo is easily a 10lb bird, as big as a jake turkey.

$7 a bird in feed? wow! I grow my own corn and spend $7 every 2 months on commercial layer crumbles to mix in my own feed mix and I'm feeding 40 chickens and 28 ducks. I butcher mine at 115 days from hatch.

Thanks, mmpaints.

I figured out pretty early they weren't Barred Rocks
Mine are a little more than the 115 day mark
I got, maybe 1# of meat after roasting and cleaning all the meat off the bones

Have to do something fast, though. Roosters killed one of my hens

Everyone we have talked too...raves about Buff Orpington breed.

I keep both layers and meat birds.

The layers vary depending on what kind of color I want to look at for a year. The meat birds tend to be the cornish x. They grow fast and taste good.