Wildgrass
Chirping
- Aug 28, 2021
- 47
- 163
- 89
On, I believe, my 6th year of keeping backyard chickens, I decided I was ready to give larger-scale meat production a try. I ordered 40 Redd Rangers chicks 12 weeks ago, and as of today we have the birds butchered, weighed, and in the freezer. I collected a lot of data along the way to get an idea of what I can change in the future to make the endeavor more affordable and provide better husbandry for these birds in the future. I thought you all might enjoy seeing my numbers, and sharing what you've learned from your experience to help me learn a little faster. 
The Setting: I live in northern Colorado, far enough east from the mountains that our climate is extremely dry and windy in addition to having cold winters and hot, dry summers. Our last frost typically hits by mid-May. In my area, the main predator sources are coyotes, hawks, and my 2 year old husky mix, Wylie (AKA Wylie the Coyote). We have rattlesnakes and bull snakes but they rarely make it into the chicken run and have not caused losses. My chicken run is spacious and fully protects the birds from ground predators; we lost one to hawk strike in 5 years, and this year I'm putting some bird netting over the top of the run to see how it holds up through the weather. Since acquiring Wylie the Coyote, my birds do not free range, but with adequate predator protection I have grazable pasture in the spring. After a few weeks of growth it tends to be too tough for chickens, but it does host insect life.
The Setup: I typically start my chicks in a room in my unfinished basement, and move them out into their own section of the run, with its own small coop, when weather allows. My thought process in getting the birds so early this year was that they would be grown out and butchered before our summer got overtaken by work in the vegetable garden. I also did not want to purchase Cornish crosses, preferring to raise a bird that could, theoretically, grow out and become a normal bird that reproduces. I purchased 40 Freedom Ranger hatchlings and brought them home February 15th.
Here are some small details that factor into numbers not being absolutely perfectly accurate:
The birds were started on starter feed, which I began to feed as fermented mash between 4 and 6 weeks. I also food-processed every bit of waste food we produced and mixed it into their feed, although by the time they were 8 weeks old or so it was a drop in the bucket. At 6 weeks, I transitioned their food to meat bird crumbles which were 21-23% protein depending on brand. At this time I also started buying from a feed store that mills their own feed, though there were a couple other non-local bags that were fed afterward as well. I was REALLY trying to get those feed costs down!
I did not let them free range due to inadequate fencing/predator protection. We have fairly unsuitable grazing for chickens on my property, but in the spring there's a lot of tender growth that they can eat at the start of spring. They were moved out of the house at...6-8 weeks? But they needed a lot of heat support and were in the coop full time when the weather was chilly, which was often.
They were slaughtered at 12 weeks, by which time they had used up 12 8x8 bales of pine bedding, and had eaten around 710 pounds of food (a number inflated, at least slightly, by 4 egg birds, a meat bird granted clemency, and an early cull not represented in final data...but still!). Here's the data I gathered from 12 chicken-obsessed weeks:
Weight tracking from purchase to slaughter date. I didn't weigh them on purchase and guessed at an average from googling around.
Initial reference for Redd Ranger slaughter weight and age, and final weights pre- and post-processing. Some birds were taken home un-processed, and some managed to skip being weighed in all the hubbub, so the averages are put together from the data I did have, and the estimated totals are using that average and multiplying it by 37. "Carcass weight" refers to a gutted bird with feet, wingtips and neck removed. "Total weight" includes head, neck, feet, wingtips, internal fat, and all organs except the intestine and gallbladder. We have spoiled dogs who will eat the organs and bony off-cuts, and humans will eat the carcass and rendered fat. With these totals, the feed ratio of bird food to human food is an uninspiring 6:1, double what people suggest is possible for Rangers. The feed ratio of bird food to human-and-dog food is a bit better, 4.4:1, and I mention it mostly to make myself feel better. It seems there's a lot of room for improvement here.
So, what do I take from this? Clearly, a 3:1 feed ratio is not possible without access to pasture. I have pastured chickens here before using portable electric fencing, but our soil is sandy and shallow, and the poles were breaking and falling down a lot by the end of the summer/autumn we used it. I have not trained dogs or chickens to the actual electrified fence, and now that I'm thinking about it, Wylie could absolutely jump a 4-foot temporary fence if it meant eating chickens. So, the solution to that problem may mean a lot more capital investment, or it may mean letting the birds graze while I'm at work and Wylie is inside during the week - which has its own drawbacks.
Additionally, by week 10, I was noticing roosters with soundness issues. By week 12, most or all of my roosters were limping, slow, and lying down most of the time. I had no idea until I started googling about it that it is not, in fact, perfectly safe and advisable to feed birds food with 23% protein. So, on the next round I would need to factor in slower growth, more food with a lower protein count, and the possibility that the hatchery I purchased from is producing birds that grow, by my standards, too quickly. So, how expensive is the bird I want to eat going to be?
(I don't know if this is a too-much-protein problem or a bad-genetic-combo problem, but it's hard not to feel bad for this bird.)
So, to wrap it up, I would love to hear what you think about raising Rangers, feeding Rangers, and what goes into the feed ratio you're working with. I didn't make a penny raising these birds, and the labor of cleaning, weighing, and hauling fermented feed was pretty absurdly high, but I did it for love, and I don't regret it. Up until some of them started having soundness issues, these birds had an amazing life, and I feel connected to and proud of the meat that's now in my freezer. But it was a BIG investment, and I have a lot to think about before I set out to do it again.
The Setting: I live in northern Colorado, far enough east from the mountains that our climate is extremely dry and windy in addition to having cold winters and hot, dry summers. Our last frost typically hits by mid-May. In my area, the main predator sources are coyotes, hawks, and my 2 year old husky mix, Wylie (AKA Wylie the Coyote). We have rattlesnakes and bull snakes but they rarely make it into the chicken run and have not caused losses. My chicken run is spacious and fully protects the birds from ground predators; we lost one to hawk strike in 5 years, and this year I'm putting some bird netting over the top of the run to see how it holds up through the weather. Since acquiring Wylie the Coyote, my birds do not free range, but with adequate predator protection I have grazable pasture in the spring. After a few weeks of growth it tends to be too tough for chickens, but it does host insect life.
The Setup: I typically start my chicks in a room in my unfinished basement, and move them out into their own section of the run, with its own small coop, when weather allows. My thought process in getting the birds so early this year was that they would be grown out and butchered before our summer got overtaken by work in the vegetable garden. I also did not want to purchase Cornish crosses, preferring to raise a bird that could, theoretically, grow out and become a normal bird that reproduces. I purchased 40 Freedom Ranger hatchlings and brought them home February 15th.
Here are some small details that factor into numbers not being absolutely perfectly accurate:
- Out of 40 purchased meat chicks, one was weak and being trampled on pickup. I separated it from the mob but it died as I got home.
- I also bought 4 hatchlings to add to my laying flock, who grew up alongside the Rangers and whose diet is included in feed costs.
- One hen developed a serious limp at 8 weeks and was culled at 9 weeks after crate rest did not improve it.
- One hen, for now, survived harvest day and is living with the laying flock. She's naturally tame and pleasant and pretty, but I suspect I may need to cull her down the line due to structural issues.
- All in all, 37 birds total were raised to "full term", and feed costs include 42-43 birds.
The birds were started on starter feed, which I began to feed as fermented mash between 4 and 6 weeks. I also food-processed every bit of waste food we produced and mixed it into their feed, although by the time they were 8 weeks old or so it was a drop in the bucket. At 6 weeks, I transitioned their food to meat bird crumbles which were 21-23% protein depending on brand. At this time I also started buying from a feed store that mills their own feed, though there were a couple other non-local bags that were fed afterward as well. I was REALLY trying to get those feed costs down!
I did not let them free range due to inadequate fencing/predator protection. We have fairly unsuitable grazing for chickens on my property, but in the spring there's a lot of tender growth that they can eat at the start of spring. They were moved out of the house at...6-8 weeks? But they needed a lot of heat support and were in the coop full time when the weather was chilly, which was often.
They were slaughtered at 12 weeks, by which time they had used up 12 8x8 bales of pine bedding, and had eaten around 710 pounds of food (a number inflated, at least slightly, by 4 egg birds, a meat bird granted clemency, and an early cull not represented in final data...but still!). Here's the data I gathered from 12 chicken-obsessed weeks:
Weight tracking from purchase to slaughter date. I didn't weigh them on purchase and guessed at an average from googling around.
Initial reference for Redd Ranger slaughter weight and age, and final weights pre- and post-processing. Some birds were taken home un-processed, and some managed to skip being weighed in all the hubbub, so the averages are put together from the data I did have, and the estimated totals are using that average and multiplying it by 37. "Carcass weight" refers to a gutted bird with feet, wingtips and neck removed. "Total weight" includes head, neck, feet, wingtips, internal fat, and all organs except the intestine and gallbladder. We have spoiled dogs who will eat the organs and bony off-cuts, and humans will eat the carcass and rendered fat. With these totals, the feed ratio of bird food to human food is an uninspiring 6:1, double what people suggest is possible for Rangers. The feed ratio of bird food to human-and-dog food is a bit better, 4.4:1, and I mention it mostly to make myself feel better. It seems there's a lot of room for improvement here.
So, what do I take from this? Clearly, a 3:1 feed ratio is not possible without access to pasture. I have pastured chickens here before using portable electric fencing, but our soil is sandy and shallow, and the poles were breaking and falling down a lot by the end of the summer/autumn we used it. I have not trained dogs or chickens to the actual electrified fence, and now that I'm thinking about it, Wylie could absolutely jump a 4-foot temporary fence if it meant eating chickens. So, the solution to that problem may mean a lot more capital investment, or it may mean letting the birds graze while I'm at work and Wylie is inside during the week - which has its own drawbacks.
Additionally, by week 10, I was noticing roosters with soundness issues. By week 12, most or all of my roosters were limping, slow, and lying down most of the time. I had no idea until I started googling about it that it is not, in fact, perfectly safe and advisable to feed birds food with 23% protein. So, on the next round I would need to factor in slower growth, more food with a lower protein count, and the possibility that the hatchery I purchased from is producing birds that grow, by my standards, too quickly. So, how expensive is the bird I want to eat going to be?
(I don't know if this is a too-much-protein problem or a bad-genetic-combo problem, but it's hard not to feel bad for this bird.)
So, to wrap it up, I would love to hear what you think about raising Rangers, feeding Rangers, and what goes into the feed ratio you're working with. I didn't make a penny raising these birds, and the labor of cleaning, weighing, and hauling fermented feed was pretty absurdly high, but I did it for love, and I don't regret it. Up until some of them started having soundness issues, these birds had an amazing life, and I feel connected to and proud of the meat that's now in my freezer. But it was a BIG investment, and I have a lot to think about before I set out to do it again.
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