Unlike the case for the egg industry, where only hens are required to lay the eggs that are sold for human consumption, both male and female meat chickens can be and are grown for meat and are equally valued by the chicken
Male chicks are killed for two reasons: they cannot lay eggs and they are not suitable for chicken-meat production. This is because layer hens — and therefore their chicks — are a different breed of poultry to chickens that are bred and raised for meat production.
A FEMALE chicken is called a 'hen'. You can in fact buy 'roasting hens', but MOST chicken at the grocery store are young roosters. Female chickens (young hens) will lay eggs.
The males have pointed feathers around the neck, back, and tail; in females these feathers have round ends. If the chickens are purebreds, the coloring patterns of the males and females will also differ. In addition, males typically have larger combs and wattles and large spurs on the back of the shank (leg).
A chicken's natural lifespan can be up to 10 years; but chickens that are raised for meat live for about 35-47 days.
Nearly all the chickens reared for KFC are fast-growing breeds that take just 30 days to reach slaughter weight.
Rotisserie chickens are also a loss leader according to retailers such as Rowe Farms. This means grocers actually lose money on them, and sell them below cost as a way to get customers into stores to ostensibly buy more items.
Because male chickens do not lay eggs and only those in breeding programmes are required to fertilise eggs, they are considered redundant to the egg-laying industry and are usually killed shortly after being sexed, which occurs just days after they are conceived or after they hatch.
Remember to compare between chickens of the same breed, because hens from different breeds can look a lot like a rooster, such as leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, and many commercial hybrid chicken breeds.
Hens are exclusively female, while chickens are either male or female. Even though most male chickens are called roosters, the word “chicken” refers to either gender of bird born in this family or genus.
Chicken sold in the grocery store most often comes from Cornish Crosses. This breed is a hybrid of the Cornish x White Plymouth Rock breeds. They are poor layers that are bred specifically for meat purposes.
Aldi gets its chicken from Tyson Foods. This chicken sells under the brand Kirkwood, and it includes breasts, thighs, wings, and drumsticks, among others. Tyson Foods supplies Aldi with chicken, who then repackage it using their private label.
Your local big-box grocery store gets their chickens from multiple vendors, warehouses, and distribution centers. These are birds often coming from faceless large-scale producers all over the country and even outside the country, with varying degrees of animal care and varying practices.
Roosters can be eaten, but they are not commonly found in the marketplace. The meat is much more challenging than hens because it hasn't been bred to grow fast and heavy like broilers or fryers. If you decide that rooster sounds tasty, make sure you cook them low-and-slow for best results! What is this?
As you've probably guessed, roosters taste like chicken. However, most people find rooster meat to be far more intense than hen meat — akin to dark meat turkey. This is due to the rooster's dense collection of muscle fibers.
Hens do not need a rooster in order to create and lay eggs. All they need is a safe place, time, and a healthy diet with enough protein and calcium to form healthy eggs. Of course, any eggs laid by a hen where no rooster is present are going to be unfertilized, and therefore will never hatch.
One last thought on this subject, there are rare cases of roosters reportedly also being able to undergo sex reversal — thereby becoming hens and even laying eggs. The cases of rooster to hen sex reversal is so extremely rare that it is not fully understood and is a topic that is still hotly debated.
Hundreds of thousands of chicks are born daily, and producers need to know the sex of those chicks so as to know what role they will have in the industry. This skill is pivotal to the sector's industrial growth. Today, chicken sexers can start at $60,000 a year, close to double what other workers make in a hatchery.
Crowing and the pecking order
Many studies on roosters confirm that one main reason a rooster crows is to assert dominance and territory. When a hen crows, the most common reason is because they are on a power trip. This crowing behaviour may also be accompanied by bullying behaviour in the chicken coop.
They've got two bean-shaped testes located against their backbone in front of the kidneys. Rooster testicles vary in size based on their age and time of year. If you butcher a rooster in the winter his testicles will be smaller than during the spring mating season, when they swell up considerably.
Did you know you can determine if an egg is fertile or not by looking at the germ spot? The germ spot is the white spot on the yolk. The non-fertile germ spot contains only the female's cells and looks like a solid white spot. In a fertile egg the germ spot contains both the female and male cells.
Hens will lay eggs with or without a rooster. Without a rooster, your hens' eggs are infertile, so won't develop into chicks. If you do have a rooster, eggs need to be collected daily and kept in a cool place before being used so that they won't develop into chicks.
Beyond the fact that it's a lean protein, rotisserie chicken also offers a variety of other important nutrients. The vitamins and minerals found in rotisserie chicken "play a role in everything from blood cell development to nervous system function, skin health, cognition and energy production," notes Stark.
Quality. Meat from a butcher is usually sourced from local farms, making the meat fresher and the journey from the farm to your plate considerably shorter. Supermarket meat is packaged in a factory and will sit on the shelf until someone buys it or the date runs out.
Rotisserie chicken (named because it's cooked on a rotisserie, or rotating pole inside a hot oven) is cheap and pre-cooked, making it a popular choice among shoppers. While it's generally considered healthy, it also comes with significant drawbacks—including high sodium content and some questionable additives.