# Hatcheries and male chicks



## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I guess males are not desirable and get tossed in a bucket. What I want to know is why they are not utilized as meat? Instead of killing them all, they can't be sold cheap to grow and be processed?


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

Nothing like feeding a roo for 5 months to get 2 lbs of meat.
Have you been watching them videos again?


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

We don't have the meat!!


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

Laying specific breeds give terrible meat too - pretty much nothing. My Brabanters can be outdone easily by a bag of frog legs when they're fully grown. My leghorns are even worse.... They're skin and bone, not an ounce of meat on them! (And they're supposed to be that way - makes feed to egg conversion so much cheaper when you're not paying for them to pack on weight!) I grow mine out until they're big enough to make a single serving for a cat and sell them processed as raw pet food. Works in my area although I honestly don't know if brings back any profit or throws me in the red. I know raising them to people eating weight is definitely throwing me in the red!! (But those are for personal consumption and I think it's worth it to know they were treated right in life so I don't care.)


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

...........................


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Nm156 said:


> Nothing like feeding a roo for 5 months to get 2 lbs of meat.
> Have you been watching them videos again?


No, once was enough. I guess I thought about it because of the machine they "invented" and the testing, males get picked out at 9 days of incubation. Better that way.


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

I am referring to laying specific breeds (leghorns for example but you could proably lump a lot of banties in here too) versus dual purpose breeds (Orpingtons, Rocks, Dorkings, etc).... there really is an enormous difference.... And of course the Cornish Crosses will always have the most meat and fastest growth making the rest pale in comparison. Though I have never bothered with those.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

So what do you do with a 15 week old roo who has terrorized the hens so bad that they won't go in their coop?


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I have the same problem. I finally separated the boys and only let them to get their jollies for about an hour a day until they starting picking on the girls again.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

I put him outside of the run,he has 2 1/2 acres of 60 year old established pasture grass so he can do what a "wild" chicken would do.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

NM, you're right. He can live a wild chicken life!


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## lem13 (Dec 15, 2015)

Hatcheries sell the male chicks as food for reptiles and stuff. I used to buy for my snakes


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## lem13 (Dec 15, 2015)

Not alive BTW


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Dead and refridgerated sounds fine.


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## zamora (May 26, 2015)

seminolewind said:


> Dead and refridgerated sounds fine.


In the herp world (reptiles and amphibians) we like to say F/T or frozen/thawed.

lem13, I have a few snakes as well.


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

I thought chicks were like junk food for reptiles? No meat, all bones....?


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