do favorelles taste like this?

since mr fox took out all but 2 of my hens i really had no need for 4 roosters so last weekend my two favorelle boys got the chop - they were growing mean and tearing up my girls' backs.

my question is this:
the birds were both 1 year old and quite heavy but are their bones supposed to be so hard? the only equivalent i can think of is a lamb's leg bone! also, the meat was quite tough and 'gamey'. is this normal?

these were the 1st home reared chooks i've every cooked so i was expecting soft bones like the supermarket bird.

thanks

well i wasn't actually planning on eating them but mr fox decided their fate for them. he took all my favorelle girls plus a speckledy and rhode island red. which then meant i only had 2 girls, a maran cockerel and silkie x welsummer boy plus those 2 left. 4 boys covering 2 girls was terrifying for the girls and these 2 were tearing up their backs to the point where bare flesh was starting to show so they had to go.

i just wasn't expecting the bones to be quite so hard. sometimes they'd eat the layers pellets - could this have effected the calcuim levels?

no most cockerels eat the same as the girls. Often the chickens you buy from supermarkets are very, very young so their bones haven't developed fully plus the fact the supermarket ones are often pumped full of water and other things  .

thats what i thought. the supermarket ones are around 4 months old if that! so bones would be soft.

i only cooked one - the other is in the freezer. this one was slow cooked over 2/3 hours but the meat was still tough - bones still in.

i'm thinking of using the pressure cooker next time - maybe 10 mins max will do the trick.

i didn't think i'd have the heart to do away with them but once they started going for me too that was that  it wasn't too hard in the end. the maran might be next. hubby keeps defending him but he's more dangerous than the german shepherd!

now my silkie x welsummer - i'd never kill him. he'd get a state funeral if i had my way when his time comes!

Supermarket chicken is often culled at between 6 and 10 weeks old! They have put on weight so quickly that they usually cannot stand let alone walk around.

yes thats what i  did with both. the first curry was slow cooked and the second (last night) was pressure cooked. much better this time round. didn't have such a strong game flavour as the first and the meat was far more tender.

will definately do it this way in future.

i alway knew how poorly the supermarket bird was treated and thats why i have no problem culling a home reared bird - atleast i know it was well fed, free ranging and had access to the ladies 

i know i culled at a later age but if the fox hadn't been so successful they'd still be here. that said - they were definately getting mean. the maran is deadly but atleast he respects me enough to keep a distance. those 2 would even have a go when i went to collect the eggs!

thanks for all your suggestions guys