Rooster Had a Heart Attack

So I let my chickens out this morning and they all come running and flapping out like they do every morning. The Buff Orpington rooster takes off chasing one of the hens, and as I was watching it stopped mid stride and laid down on the road and started flapping like he was taking a dust bath but it was wet mud.

I walked up and he was taking his last gasp, then no more.

It had to have been a heart attack. Has anyone ever heard of this before ? He was a big fellow about a year and a half old.

Luckily I hatched some chicks and have a young rooster that stepped right up to the job.

I was also wondering can a rooster be eaten ? and if not why ? and what age do they need to be to get a good eating bird?

Thanks

He's playing possum trying to get the hens to crowd around him.

Moosetrot

I dont know about the heart attack,maybe do an autopsy on it(check the innards),and if its clean(no obvious disease) make a stew.

most people raise Cockrells for meat...so Yes.

Theres an old joke about buzzards that comes to mind

That's what I thought at first. He always tried to trick the hens into thinking he found food so they would come close for him for the dirty deed....

Not really exited to eat him ,but wondering if he would be good, I might, I have others that are about of age too.

This is no spring chicken. Its a year and a half old, does it matter ?

I butchered 4 roosters once and ate a couple bites of one. Nasty! They look nasty and taste nasty. Never again. Roosters walk my yard now. If they die, they die.

Thanks that settles that lol

Was it tough or gamey ?

In my 'Cowboy Poetry writing days' I wrote a poem about "Brewster the Rooster" that describes that very event.



Charlie

nope...roast him if you're worried he'd be tough.

Oh Ok Thanks
I have a pressure cooker that will make him tender if needed. As long as it don't stink I am good. I cant eat rutted meat.

It was like rubber. And before we cooked it the body reminded me of those yellow rubber chickens you see once in awhile sitting in a store or something. Hardly had any breast meat on it.

i remember brewster the rooster too. you guys must be old farts too?

I butchered a rooster once..... the horor that was the toughest, thickest, nastiest skin I’ve ever seen on Gods green earth! Yet I still cooked it... tastedlike it looked

age shouldent matter i had a jersey giant live to be 8 years old and he could have probaly lived longer if my moms dog did not get him. would i eat him probaly not you dont no what he could have got into exspecily if he was free range. i would cut him open and check. somthing dont seam right.

What Jurassic I guess is talking about is that adult layer breed roosters don't look like cornish cross meat birds. As he said, compared to a cornish cross grocery store chicken, there is very little meat on them. About like comparing a wild turkey to a 20lb thanksgiving bird. And yes, if you don't slow or pressure cook them, they will be tough.. just like a 4 year old squirrel lol. Make them into soup or stew, or pressure cook them and they actually have better flavor than store bought birds though!

That said.... I don't like eating anything that I don't know what it died of.

I have seen 2 roosters and 1 transsexual rooster die of apparent heart attacks. The first two were cornish rock crosses around 8 months old and a year old. Both rolled over on their backs with their legs more or less straight up and turned blue. The third looked like a brahma hen and likely laid eggs and then at around 18 months old it started to look like a rooster. I saw it jump up on a bunk of wood, crow and fall over dead. It was the first and only time I saw it crow.

Old hens and roosters have more flavor. Most Asian, African, Hispanic and Middle Eastern immigrants greatly prefer the flavor of old fowl, especially old roosters.

I like the flavor of old roosters. They are good when cooked slow, with lots of water and become very tender. They make good chicken and noodles. Since I can sell old roosters for 5 or 6 times what I can buy a processed chicken for, I usually sell them and buy the chicken I eat instead.

Now is a great time to buy old hens. Most of the big free range egg farms are dumping their old birds. You can get them for 25 cents each if you buy thousands. They are $2.00 each in smaller numbers. I just killed 100 tonight and they weighed 4.34 pounds on average, live weight. They'll end up as pet food.

Keith

Thanks guys.
I honestly believe it was a heart attack. I cant imagine anything coming on that fast. It has a lot of meat on the breast ,very fat and healthy rooster ,not skinny at all. I eat wild geese that are probably 15 years old.

I will chop it up for the dogs since I cant be sure, but good to know I can eat them. I have a few more coming of age but will butcher them before they get old. Glad I had a couple roosters hatched this spring or I would be out of luck, no other chickens here for fertilized eggs.

Man I wish I could get them for two dollars a bird, that's cheaper than shells for hunting geese.

And JP I can picture you cooking your rubber chicken in the pot lol

Roosters are plenty good eating Jeff.....killed hundreds.

good trapping bait for sure

He must have been pretty special to you for you to clean him up like that after his death flop in wet mud.

Sorry for your loss.

i routinely kill and eat roosters that become more of a pain-in-the-arse than they are worth. Also, older hens that slow down or stop egg production. Prepared properly, all are good eating.

Chickens that die on their own are tossed on the bone pile for the fox and other critters to eat.

we use too have a rooster every Sunday , grandma would make chicken an dumplings, always good an tender . she would cook it all day

Pretty tough bird, ma would scald, skin, and pressure cook that bird and take the meat off the bones and can it. Or stew it. She canned all the large old hens.

When I was a little kid, like 3 or 4 yrs. old, my grandma"s big white rooster beat the (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) out of me! That following Sunday, we had chicken and dumplings for dinner. He was delicious!

I'm new to the chickens and rooster thing. I have a 6 or 8 month old rooster. How much behaviour correction or modification can you expect to get with a rooster. I'm beginning to think pretty much nil.

I'm with JP on this one.

Don't get mad at your dog if he won't even eat it Jeff !!! LOL

This^

Make soup or pressure cook it if your worried about it being tough

You can stew anything....

I recently processed 14, 4 month old young roos. A buddy of mine cooked up 2 of them. Tastes great.

wife and I butchered 60 roosters a yr along with 6 turkeys and ducks. Ate every one!!!

Crock pot cures bad behavior

i don't think you can change them.

We had one that was truly evil. We had sticks sitting at strategic locations all over the place so we could defend ourselves from his attacks. You could beat that thing half to death and he'd still keep attacking.

The wife liked to hear him crow so we couldn't kill him, no hits in the head allowed. One winter evening my youngest came in and said she thinks she killed the rooster. He was attacking and she inadvertently (or not) hit him in the head. I went out and saw him lying in a heap, told my daughter we'd butcher him after supper.

Went out after eating and the "dead" rooster was standing at the foot of the deck stairs doing that nasty growl he did when he was ready to attack. It kinda made the hairs on my neck stand up. Apparently my daughter had only knocked him out. She didn't knock any sense into him though.

A few months later it attacked my son-in-law and spurred him in the face. That was it''s death sentence. It had attacked me and my three daughters multiple times and had gotten a reprieve but one attack on the SIL and the wife says, "kill it." I said, "I see how it is." LOL I was dead a few minutes later. We ate it a few nights later.

On the other hand, I've also had very docile roosters.

Theres an old joke about buzzards that comes to mind

If I remember that rooster had been plucked clean by the farmer for a previous offense.

Sorry for your loss....

At least he died doing what he loved......!

Pete

Coyote bait.

X2,,, used to do up 150 Rhode Island Red roosters every year.Darn good eating.Hens were saved for egg laying.

Still laughing about the tranny rooster

Year and a half old ones?

I used to sell hatching eggs of pure bred chickens and needed to see which roosters looked the best before butchering the extras. I would usually butcher them at 1 year old. They were either used for soups or stews or canned.

Theres a real old rooster joke, i better not tell him it here lol.
I thought maybe it was a trapperman member lol

Bait.

I forgot to mention, he had a bad attitude, and would attack anyone that came around. I live out of town so not a big problem, but all the kids come out to see him. (they never saw a chicken before) and I am afraid he would get one in the face. He must be famous on Facebook they all take pictures and selfies with it.

So his demise is not all regrettable. In fact I almost did it myself several times.

But there is a lesson for all you old roosters that are still chasing young hens

Had a rooster die the same way before ,figured it was heart attack, and just like you mentioned he was aggressive.

If you eat that rooster , you might want to pressure cook him , because if he's 11/2 years old , he'll be tough as shoe leather. Young roosters need to be butchered around 5 to 6 months old , I've butchered some around 7 months old and they're starting to get tough.

My grandparents would kill older chickens and make chicken and dumplings with them, delicious
I eat a many roosters when I was younger, need to pressure cook them till tender tho.