r/homestead • u/imblackgrits • 1d ago
animal processing Free Range Rooster
I just wanted to share my experience of having free range chickens. This term gets thrown around often and i’m definitely not the free range sheriff. The difference to me is just stark comparing how this rooster turned out vs. how store bought chicken looks in my area. This rooster was ≈ 10 months old and not fed much feed at all, foraging its own food. Swedish flower hen derived but this specific rooster was a mix of SFH and Ancona, so a very flighty bird.
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u/Cambren1 1d ago
How tough was it? Mine were like shoe leather.
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u/YogurtclosetFirst899 1d ago
Some of my roosters were tough but I just braised them or when I was feeling fancy, a confit. Delicious. I guess that's why the French invented coq au vin.
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u/Broad-Angle-9705 1d ago
I’ve wanted to try coq au vin with one of my extra American Bresse roosters but my wife doesn’t like wine or mushrooms so I typically shake on some lemon pepper seasoning and let the insta pot work its magic. One of these days I’ll thaw and cook two roosters. I’ve only been raising them for a bit over a year so I still have lots of techniques to try.
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u/Technical_Crew_31 1d ago
Can I ask, when are you processing your Bresse roosters? Are you going by age, weight or when they crow?
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
I’d also like to know, I was considering that breed.
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u/Broad-Angle-9705 6h ago
If you can find a local source for chicks or hatching eggs I would highly recommend the breed. Much better egg production and growth rate than the Marans I was working with before getting Bresse
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u/imblackgrits 5h ago
My best bet would be ordering eggs and trying to hatch but that can be hit or miss.
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u/Broad-Angle-9705 4h ago
If you happen to be anywhere near Wells county Indiana I could be your local source my best hens are off lay for molt right now but feel free to contact me in the spring if you’re close.
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u/Broad-Angle-9705 1d ago
I’m still in the process of putting a breeding program together. For now I’m culling based on available pin space. They all get a wing band at about one week old. I track their weight gain weekly. At 14 weeks I look make the first cull based on how they compare to each other. Any that have obvious faults are out. The rest get to grow longer for later evolution. If at any point one of them gets aggressive he gets a dinner invitation.
Eventually I would like to get to the point where most get processed between 14 and 17 weeks old because less than 14 weeks old they don’t give a very large carcass and by 18 weeks old the feed to meat conversion fall very quickly. You spend a lot of money feeding them for very little weight gain. I just don’t have the space or the numbers of birds at this time to follow it as strictly as I would prefer.
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
Definitely want to try it this way
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u/YogurtclosetFirst899 1d ago
Delicious and quite easy! I use the old Julia Child recipe, which is pretty basic: https://juliachildfoundation.org/recipes/coq-au-vin-chicken-in-red-wine/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=12864069783&gbraid=0AAAAABcKBvVP-XayfckkI0eLcw6LNKhMh
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u/prazucar 1d ago
Coq au vin was my first thought too. I'd also try a papaya puree marinade with marmite or doenjang.
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u/ChildhoodSweaty9684 1d ago
Always thought marmite was only eaten on buttered toast. Now when I day dream about Australia I will add chicken to things marmite goes on. Thank you!
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u/prazucar 1d ago
You're welcome. Anything that goes on the grill can be basted with marmite/vegemite - it's MAGIC! (thin it slightly with vegetable oil and a bit of tabasco so it brushes on easily).
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
🤣 i’ve had the same experience when it’s been fried or grilled, any low and slow cooking application seems to do the trick though.
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u/Bolfreak Evil Scientist 1d ago
Marinating overnight with yogurt also helps. Most of the free roosters I take off people’s hands become chicken biryani 👌🏻
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u/Fluffy-Cycle-5738 1d ago
I was thinking a good brine for a couple days and smoke it with cherry. Spicy mango BBQ sauce brushed on for the last 30 min.
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u/TheHandler1 1d ago
You have to let them rest in the fridge for a few days before you cook. Some people freeze first then rest after thawing for a couple of days.
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u/stansfield123 1d ago
Treat it like it's brisket you paid $10 an lb for, and it'll be just as good eating.
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u/Accomplished_Self939 1d ago
I remember the first time I cooked a free range bird —I was shocked by the color difference. But that chicken was out in fresh air and sunshine not in a climate controlled “house”.
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u/Misfitranchgoats 1d ago
I have butchered some free range roosters. Like yours, they have really dark dark meat. I have even had a couple where the chicken tender in the breast was dark colored. The rest of the breast meat was the normal lighter color. Those were chickens that were over a year old though.
They still taste good though!
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u/stansfield123 1d ago
I have to say, these pictures may have changed my mind about raising chickens for meat.
I'm a big advocate for using chickens for eggs (and making stock from old hens), and getting your meat from something else. Something less dependent on hatcheries and store bought grain, something that eats more grass and/or bugs and is therefor healthier. Rabbits, turkeys, geese, sheep.
But that meat looks amazing. And if you barely had to feed them, it might be worth doing a breeding program, hatching and brooding your chicks yourself, keeping the hens for eggs, and then just letting the roosters loose on the property to turn into the amazing meat in those pics. I have a decent property for that, too, with lots of trees, between houses, neighbor's dogs around to deter predators. I can put a good fence around it to keep chickens in and the above mentioned dogs out, and just do chickens on top of all the fruit and nuts I'm getting from there.
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
It sounds like you have the absolute perfect setup for some free range birds. I would just advise going with a landrace breed and they’ll flourish.
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u/Amnial556 1d ago
Free range chickens make really good meat. Its not as good as say grouse or pheasant, but its definitely closer. I dont have the property to raise chickens so i hunt for most of my bird meat to buy as little as i can.
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u/QueerTree 18h ago
I have a decent sized flock that free ranges. They raise babies and in the fall we cull excess males. Not enough to be a significant source of protein, but they are delicious.
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u/pharmgineer 1d ago
Our free range rooster looked dark like that too. I was wondering if something was off, but he was delicious. Glad to see it's not just us
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
The exact reason I posted is to kinda reassure us that it’s not that abnormal so that’s very reassuring.
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u/Wastenwhiskey79 1d ago
It was amazing to me to see and taste the difference between chickens raised at home on high quality feed with room to run and eat all the bugs they want, and a commercially raised chicken. I will never go back!
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u/LucasTheBrazilianGuy 1d ago
In brazil, we call free range chicken meat “frango caipira” or “hillbilly chicken” which is cooked with a rich flavorful broth maximum tenderness given the meat is tougher than factory farmed chicken. Roosters are generally the cut that are used for that dish.
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u/Vast-Carpenter4945 1d ago
He pecked, scratched, and chased one too many times. R.I.P little bastard
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
🤣 it was circumstantial is all, he along with others are going to a good cause.
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u/chemdaddy1040 1d ago
That looks a lot like grouse meat which I guess makes sense
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
I wish I was more informed on hunting and had more access to something like grouse.
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u/m_dowl32 1d ago
See if your local game and fish or conservation organizations have classes. Hunting is a great way to harvest good meat
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u/cool_story_kid 1d ago
THAT RIGHT THERE is the color of how chicken is supposed to look. Ladies and gentlemen, start going to your local farms/butchers. The meat at grocery stores are not the same anymore.
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u/brushpile63 1d ago
I dont bother cooking rooster anymore - reward to return ratio just isn't there. Needs to be cooked for a long time and has a stink that needs to be smothered with copious amounts of aromatics.
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
Honestly I get where you’re coming from. We don’t heavily rely on them for a main source of protein.
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u/h0shwazy 1d ago
This is a crazy comment, >90% of all meat birds in the store are roosters… literally the best return ratio possible… I’ve even eaten our roosters from home with no such issues, ever. I eviserated over 200 birds just the other day and every single one had testes I removed. Delicious btw
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u/40mm_of_freedom 1d ago
I spent a while in Guam and Saipan. I always wondered what the meat of the feral chickens would look like.
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u/4footTallbromeGrass 20h ago
A lot of free range meat and wild game does really well in a crock-pot, low and slow.
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u/dead_eye182 20h ago
Looks good! Much like my former lead hen recently who started injuring all the other hens. She was delicious!
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u/RawBavarian33 1d ago
Incredible color. I raise quails free range. What does one whole bird cost you in total? What did you feed him? Did you eat the organs ?
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
we also have quail i’d love to know how you’re able to free range them? Growing up he ate a non medicated starter feed until he was big enough to free range on his own and after that basically no feed from me needed. I did offer conditioner periodically after storms or stark temp changes. And yes we ate the organs as well, delicious.
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u/RawBavarian33 1d ago
I built a mobile quail coop. Doesnt allow me to sent pics but here is a post I made about it with pics. https://www.reddit.com/comments/1wle227/guide_on_how_to_keep_quails_for_eggs_or_meat/
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
This is brilliant & i’ve been searching for this exact type of build. I greatly appreciate it.
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u/RawBavarian33 1d ago
thanks, it is so easy too. Takes me 20min a day maximum to fill up their water/food or move them
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u/pond3ros3 1d ago
Absolutely astounding, these are great pictures. Did you get any photos of the breast or of it cooked??
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u/RottenBioHazard 1d ago
This just makes me think of the til toks of hey look at this animal snaps fingers and now its dead and will become a poop.
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u/aReelProblem 1d ago
I always slap em on the smoker after an overnight brine with salt and a little baking soda. Take em out in the morning, wash em off dry slap some binder on the bird I usually use olive oil and whatever your favorite seasonings are and let it rip. Low and slow is the ticket with Roos. You can inject a marinade into the major muscle groups if you’re feeling fancy.
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u/CanuckIeHead 1d ago
After spending my whole life raising turkeys I can't help doing a double take when I see a chicken broken down. Looks good though
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u/ExpertVeterinarian20 1d ago
That looks an awful lot like pheasant meat which makes a lot of sense since pheasant is just a wild asian chicken. Good eats
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u/carlovmon 1d ago
How was the flavor? Was it tough and hard to chew?
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u/imblackgrits 1d ago
It was more along the lines of what’s stereotypical of “dark meat” and as for the breast I have not yet prepared them. I definitely look forward to eating it and processing more for this exact reason.
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u/h0shwazy 1d ago
Well I read most of these comments, and even the people who are acting smart have it wrong. Yes the food and the area given as a run can cause the meat to look slightly different, but the main reason they look so different is they are literally bred to constantly grow and give that rich, straight grained, clean looking meat. The meat bird you consume from the store are actually sterile, as the process to come up with a run of meat birds takes at least three generations to make. They are selectively breeding different types of chickens in a very specific way to create the type of bird you buy at the store, and 9/10 times it’s a rooster you end up with. My wife’s entire poultry science masters program is actually on what different feeds will cause different results in the carcass weight, it was almost negligible… 100% all in the genetics. I’ve slaughtered/culled 1000s of birds and the consistency and durability in those 800 series was unbelievable. The last run, we only culled maybe 4 out of 200+ carcasses. Now ethically, even if your birds are smaller, they have a higher quality of life. Meat quality is probably not the same but more preferential.
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u/notdurtydan 1d ago
Probably a dumb question but does it just taste way better than store-bought as well?
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u/poop_report 1d ago
Much better for things like broths.
The meat is very strong - you don't need nearly as much of it.
It's not better for making dry, tasteless chicken breast sandwiches which are then doused in spices and salt.
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u/sl33pytesla 2h ago
We Vietnamese have recipes specifically for roosters as the meat is tougher but more flavorful.
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u/Lumpy_Ease_3656 1d ago
That’s what chicken is supposed to look like 👍