CX vs Freedom Rangers, my experience/observation so far.

[Everstuff]

I just watched a video where they used a gallon milk jug as a cone. Square bottom to fit those wide shoulders, and an opening as big as they needed to cut it.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I may have to try that.

 

[BCMaraniac]

The CX had less fat in the body cavity than I remember some of the FRs having. That may have been an age difference thing or a breed difference thing, or it may only be that so far all I've butchered of the CX have been roosters and when I get to the pullets I'll find similar body fat with the CX (no insults ladies but we do tend to store fat differently than the guys).

It is a rooster/hen thing. The hens have significantly more abdominal fat than the roos....at least that has been my experience.

 

[Percheron chick]

I'm curious to how the FR taste compared to the CX.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I haven't tasted one of my home grown CX yet...but I plan to cook one soon, so I'll let you know if I notice a difference.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Baked one of the CX roosters for Sunday dinner and he was moist and delicious. We've been enjoying him in salads and sandwiches during the rest of the week. Today his remaining carcass will go in the freezer for when I want to make a soup.

I butchered the three remaining pullets this morning. I probably could have waited another week or more, because they were all healthy and active, but I was almost out of broiler finisher. Plus I now have 6, 12 day old heritage chicks and 4, 4 week old turkeys in separate brooders in the garage as well as my 7 layers in their coop. 18 Red Rangers should arrive this coming Tuesday or Wednesday and I just wanted to simplify my morning and evening feeding routine (at least a little) before they arrived and complicated it again.

The pullets are in the ice-bath stage, and haven't been weighed yet, but I'll post my final cost comparison between these CX and the Freedom Rangers I raised last summer for those interested.

 

[BCMaraniac]

Baked one of the CX roosters for Sunday dinner and he was moist and delicious. We've been enjoying him in salads and sandwitches during the rest of the week. Today his remaining carcass will go in the freezer for when I want to make a soup.

I butchered the three remaining pullets this morning. I probably could have waited another week or more, because they were all healthy and active, but I was almost out of broiler finisher. Plus I now have 6, 12 day old heritage chicks and 4, 4 week old turkeys in separate brooders in the garage as well as my 7 layers in their coop. 18 Red Rangers should arrive this coming Tuesday or Wednesday and I just wanted to simplify my morning and evening feeding routine (at least a little) before they arrived and complicated it again.

The pullets are in the ice-bath stage, and haven't been weighed yet, but I'll post my final cost comparison between these CX and the Freedom Rangers I raised last summer for those interested.

They are delicious! I have my last 6 CX to process tomorrow, because I have 40 meat birds, Red Rangers, and white rocks, orpingtons, and giants(for caponization) that are coming Monday. Gotta make room!!

I will be very interested in your cost comparison. Are you adjusting your numbers to account for any difference in price of feed/supplies between last year and this year?

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I will be very interested in your cost comparison. Are you adjusting your numbers to account for any difference in price of feed/supplies between last year and this year?

Good point. Since except for the first little 10 lb bag of chick starter I've used the same brand from the same vendor, it shouldn't be a problem to make the adjustment.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

OK as stated above the final three CX pullets were butchered this morning. I forgot to mention one funny...well not at the time but stuff gets funny when you get to tell it to others...adveture in chicken butchering. The second of 3 pullets butchered today is plucked and sitting on a cutting board on my kitchen counter. You know that stage in butchering when you've carefully opened up the body cavity and inserted your right hand up and over all the squishy bits inside and tried to gently separate as much of the membranes holding stuff in place so that you can scoop it out all together without damaging it? Well, I reached that step and carefully hook my fingers around the innards and firmly and with confidence scoop it towards me, and was rewarded by her final revenge, shooting high pressure fecal material right onto the right side of my shirt and across the kitchen behind me. That has never happened to me before. I wonder if I somehow nicked the intestine or whether this is one of those things that happens every once in awhile. Gag!

Anyway, my pullets were 6 lb 9oz, 6 lb.6 oz and 5 lb 11oz at 9 weeks of age. Again, I probably could have let them go at least another week but didn't.

So, cost comparison. I calculated that my Freedom Rangers last summer cost me about $2.57/lb including the purchase price, the shipping and the feed they consumed. This didn't put any value on the lovely broth or organ meats that I also made good use of.

If I took out the postage (I'll explain why) the cost was $2.31/lb

So, moving on to this spring's CX: I calculated that if I included round tripmileage for the drive to Canon City to get them at $0.53/mile (I think that's the going rate), my actual cost per pound was about $3.35.

If I took out any mileage expense, the cost dropped to $1.85/lb. So, the moral of that story is, the postage isn't that bad a deal if you can't get your birds really close to home...or the alternate moral is, if you have to drive a long way to pick up your chicks, make sure you get a lot more than 10, because the cost is the same regardless of how many you get.

For the sake of a truer comparison, I recalculated the CX cost using last summers feed cost and the cost including mileage dropped to $3.25/lb and the cost with out mileage dropped to $1.78/lb.

I can't tell you whether feeding Fermented Feed had a big impact on the difference in the cost of raising the FR (which I fed regular feed) and the CX (which I fed the same brand of feed, but fermented) but I do plan on feeding the Red Rangers that should arrive next week fermented feed.

Oh, not much fat in the body cavity of these pullets at all...perhaps a bit more than the roosters from last week but still very little.

 

[BCMaraniac]

OK as stated above the final three CX pullets were butchered this morning. I forgot to mention one funny...well not at the time but stuff gets funny when you get to tell it to others...adveture in chicken butchering. The second of 3 pullets butchered today is plucked and sitting on a cutting board on my kitchen counter. You know that stage in butchering when you've carefully opened up the body cavity and inserted your right hand up and over all the squishy bits inside and tried to gently separate as much of the membranes holding stuff in place so that you can scoop it out all together without damaging it? Well, I reached that step and carefully hook my fingers around the innards and firmly and with confidence scoop it towards me, and was rewarded by her final revenge, shooting high pressure fecal material right onto the right side of my shirt and across the kitchen behind me. That has never happened to me before. I wonder if I somehow nicked the intestine or whether this is one of those things that happens every once in awhile. Gag!

Anyway, my pullets were 6 lb 9oz, 6 lb.6 oz and 5 lb 11oz at 9 weeks of age. Again, I probably could have let them go at least another week but didn't.

So, cost comparison. I calculated that my Freedom Rangers last summer cost me about $2.57/lb including the purchase price, the shipping and the feed they consumed. This didn't put any value on the lovely broth or organ meats that I also made good use of.

If I took out the postage (I'll explain why) the cost was $2.31/lb

So, moving on to this spring's CX: I calculated that if I included round tripmileage for the drive to Canon City to get them at $0.53/mile (I think that's the going rate), my actual cost per pound was about $3.35.

If I took out any mileage expense, the cost dropped to $1.85/lb. So, the moral of that story is, the postage isn't that bad a deal if you can't get your birds really close to home...or the alternate moral is, if you have to drive a long way to pick up your chicks, make sure you get a lot more than 10, because the cost is the same regardless of how many you get.

For the sake of a truer comparison, I recalculated the CX cost using last summers feed cost and the cost including mileage dropped to $3.25/lb and the cost with out mileage dropped to $1.78/lb.

I can't tell you whether feeding Fermented Feed had a big impact on the difference in the cost of raising the FR (which I fed regular feed) and the CX (which I fed the same brand of feed, but fermented) but I do plan on feeding the Red Rangers that should arrive next week fermented feed.

Oh, not much fat in the body cavity of these pullets at all...perhaps a bit more than the roosters from last week but still very little.

I am butchering tomorrow. 5/6 are pullets, so will let you know about the fat in mine. I have Red Rangers coming next week from Murray's I am planning fermented feed, and my CX has regular feed. I didn't do a cost analysis, but probably should have. I am hoping that free ranging and fermented feed will lower cost and reduce waste.