[Lizziechick]

Does anyone raise birds for meat? I don't, but since I have a hen that goes broody a lot I sometimes give her some fertile eggs to sit, and some of these inevitably turn out to be boys. You can't always rehome these (I can't keep them, they'll be too noisy for the neighbours!) so I usually eat them myself, at least I know they've had a happy life and been killed humanely.... but sometimes they taste weird.  I've heard that farmers castrate the bulls they're raising for meat because bull-meat apparently tastes weird if you don't, something to do with testosterone? So I'm wondering if its the same for chickens. Does anyone know?

[kegs]

I don't think so.  Is it something to do with breed?  I've eaten Hubbards which are a table bird anyway, and a Light Sussex.  Home reared birds do taste different to supermarket rubbish birds and will have a juicier denser meat similar to turkey.

Please don't be offended by this next question but when you've prepared the bird are you making sure that you've cut out the preen gland and vent area correctly?  I had some duck breast recently where the meat tasted tainted.

http://www.poultry.allotment-garden.org/Chicken_a/dress-home-killed-chicken.php

[Sassy]

It may also depend on whether or not you bleed your chickens following culling

[richyrich7]

Try freezing it first, I'm sure I read somewhere on here years back it changes the flavour.

[Spana]

I may be wrong here but do you withhold food from the birds for 24hours before culling.

We eat all our own cockerel and sometimes i've noticed a funny taste.  Its always the one that have been free ranging right to the end.  We wait until they roost at night and just take them from the perch and cull so they will have food in the crop and gut. I think  food in the gut is what taints the flavour.
If i've had them penned for a while theres no taint. They have water but no food on the day they are going to be culled.

[bood77]

They do taste diffrent from the chicken you bye at the supermarket it just might be the taste of them

[trinamc]

The difference is that they tast of ckicken not the bland stuff we get in the supermarket, I always let them hang for 24 hours in the cold shed before we eat them that way the blood drains and the meat is nice and pink.

[Squibbs]

I haven't noticed a lot of difference in the ones who didn't get properly drained of blood, Hanging for a few days does make a difference (leave the guts in) and if I do that my missus won't eat them because she regards them as tainted - I regard them as flavoursome - each to their own

But regardless home raised chickens do have a different taste, just like the eggs.

[Tony H]

Hi like supermarket chucks its what you feed them on ie corn fed will tast diferent to layers fed, my freind whos got a farm seperates the cockerals when they get to about 15 weeks and changes there diert to corn and sunflower seed, he says the sunflower seed has a lot of oils in them and that makes them more jucy i must say they are wether thats down to food or that they are alowed to mature at a normal pace i couldnt say but tast yummy 

[Markw]

This is an interesting topic, not to mention what Tony H said about changing their feed before culling.(high oil)  I was just thinking at how many weeks does a cockerel start to crow. And could you get them up eating weight by this time if the diet was changed.

[Tony H]

A high proteen diet will lamp on the calories i think they start to crow at around 17 weeks but someone who breeds will give you a better idea 

[joyfull]

I have had cockerels start to crow at around 9 weeks and another start at 26 weeks. Also culling age will depend on the breed. Specific meat birds are ready from 8 - 14 weeks but others such as pure breeds may not be ready until they are 26 - 30 weeks old.

[splash101]

i had some rhode island cockerels from chicks and they still hadnt crowed by 7months. They were gone soon though because they were starting to get very aggresive and i knew it wouldnt be much longer before the crowing started.
Yes we ate them, didnt know what else to do with them to be honest.
They had the biggest legs / thighs. They wern't tough or stringy (like to think that was more to do with the culinery skills).
I'm not sure what is the best age to eat a cockerel, they were massive by this age but if they had crowed earlier the outcome would have still been the same (but with less meat on it)
The dark meat did taste different to what i am used to, not unpleasant just different, more like turkey dark meat than chicken i thought).
i didnt hang them after draining and i did it first thing in the morning after it had done its big poop and before it had access to food so there was no food in the crop.
I have one in the freezer so i will see if freezing them makes a difference to the taste.

[GrannieAnnie]

Freezing doesn't alter the taste that I've noticed, but what you will notice is that a frozen commercial chicken has a more mousse like consistency in the meat because of the water that has been injected into it with the emulsifiers and polyunsaturates.

That changes the molecular structure of the meat. 

Defrosting a home reared chicken is different because the only water in it is the natural water which is in the bird, even more so if you have dry plucked them.

Cockerels will have more meat on the thighs, whereas hens have more breast meat!  Naturally!   

Always try to stop feeding for 24 hours before culling as like Splash said, empty crops are better.  But we do hang them for a day or so after plucking, but before gutting. This allows the muscles to relax more, and gives a tastier meat.