Can You Eat Roosters?

Don’t despair if your straight run chicken count includes more cockerels than you’re inclined to keep.

article image
by Carrie Hardie
The author keeps her cockerels in “bachelor tractors” so they can forage for greens and bugs.

Can you eat roosters? Don’t despair if your straight run chicken count includes more cockerels than you’re inclined to keep. With the right care, those often overlooked birds can become a valuable source of homegrown food.

If you buy or hatch chicks, there will likely come a time when you get more males (cockerels) than you need or want. Maybe you live in an area where you’re not allowed to have roosters, or maybe you don’t want fertile eggs; or maybe you’re worried a rooster will become aggressive. If you find yourself in one of these situations, there’s no need to panic! With a bit of planning and perspective, surplus cockerels can become a valuable source of humanely raised meat.

Determining Sex

When hatching eggs under a broody chicken or in an incubator, the probability of males is approximately 50 percent, meaning roughly half the hatchlings should be male. With unsexed (“straight run chickens”) from a farm store or hatchery, the ratio of males to females could be lower or higher, but at least 50 percent males is a realistic expectation. (Remember, some of the chicks from the original hatch might’ve been purchased already or been removed for other reasons.) Even if you think you’re buying female-only chicks (“pullets”), vent sexing has a margin of error. Hatcheries claim an accuracy rate of roughly 90 percent, so some of those “pullets” may still turn out to be cockerels.

young cockerels looking at camera
  • Updated on May 9, 2022
  • Originally Published on May 3, 2022
Tagged with: Congee Recipe, poultry processing
Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368