Roosters have a purpose, they protect the flock. I recently was taking some food scraps to the chickens, it was pomegranate (pictured with the cooked turkey on the last post) , something we do not use often. The hens all stayed away until Big Dawg (Rhode Island Red)took the first peck and made a sound then the girls dove into them. There is a hawk that nests across the road on another hobby farm, when the hawk is circling, he will make another sound and all the girls will go either in the coop or into the woods, which ever is closest. I have written before about Rhett (Silkie) he raises chicks; currently Scarlett is taking care of a 3 month old Americana who was stepped on by a goat and had broken bones, thus walks funny. Rhett is currently taking care of three 5 week old silkie chicks.
There is also another very valuable reason to have roosters because extra roosters are made of chicken. Not those things packed full of hormones to grow to processing size in 6 weeks. That is one of the reasons we raise our own.
These big fellows were about 6 months old when they were processed. Yes that is quiet a bit older, but what does that mean? You probably don't want to fry them, but anything else is a go.
Nana (my mother-in-law) took one and made fresh dumplings, WOW. Without hormones these fellow averaged 8 pounds a piece; after processing. That means the same way you would get one in the grocery. Have you every found an eight pound chicken at the store; didn’t think so. If you did, it probably cost quite a bit, especially if he was organic.
Everyone has asked what have you been feeding them. Mostly nothing, they find their own food; besides, we do not have a lot of bugs, ticks, etc. Chickens take care of them. They do love their food scraps, popcorn, fruit, etc as well.
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