At the weekend, we killed one of the laying hens, and the first of the cockerels from our growers. Quite a contrast in size!
The growers are sixteen weeks old, so a little young to kill for eating, but the exchequer leghorn cockerels have been mature for some time now, and the three of them hooting away and Alvin our main cockerel answering is too much, and besides they are not a meat breed, it is a waste to pile more food into them, I doubt they will actually get any fatter now. The copper maran was massive in comparison, and fattier too. She has never been a good layer, and we have killed the two worst layers, to make room for up and coming pullets.
Other hens have had their cards marked – but will have another season to prove themselves, and the other cockerels will go soon.
The two we killed plucked very easily – I don’t know if we were just luck or its a time of year thing. And we cooked them overnight in the rayburn in my huge roaster (which is this one.. not a bad price either…).
The meat is actually tender, even more so on the old maran.. a factor of long cooking or the breed? And plenty of meat too. So a huge vat of chicken soup in the freezer (I am never going to make space in the freezer at this rate), and breast meat set aside for chicken and leek pie.
We still have one copper headed maran left, and she lays lovely dark eggs, but I might hatch some more next year.
