Freedom Ranger Nerd Out Thread

---FINAL UPDATE---

Ok so the final numbers are in. I went a couple days over 9 weeks. So in summary:

Largest bird live weight 9 pounds, dressed weight, 6 pounds.
Smallest bird live, 5.25 pounds, dressed weight, 3.61 pounds.

Average bird live weight, 6.93 pounds, dressed weight, 4.72 pounds.

USDA inspector condemned one bird for a clear fluid found during processing. Processor did over 300 birds on my day, and there was only 1 other condemned bird. Pretty good I would say. Has anyone ever experienced a clear fluid during the processing? I did injure chicken a few days before processing, however he was walking around fine after I freed him from under the pen, maybe related? They said it was between the thigh and ribs under the skin. The rest of the carcasses looked great. I do notice the ratio of dark to white meat leaning towards dark meat on these carcasses. The breasts are still decent sized, just not your giant cornish breasts.

Price per pound dressed weight to raise the birds was $2.02. I'd like to get that number down a bit by running larger batches. The price per pound including the processing was $3.39 if I remember correctly, not doing anymore math today lol.

Average carcass yield was 68%.

Total Feed consumed/given was 550 pounds, average consumed/given per bird was 21.15 pounds of feed over 9.5 weeks while the average carcass weight was 4.72 pounds.

Feed conversion ratio on this batch was 4.48 pounds of feed given per pound of carcass.



If I missed anything or if you have any questions, let me know!
 
I'm going to do fermented feed for my CXR I'm starting next week. I really want to see if it cuts down feed comsumption, runny poo & how thirsty they are constantly. I'll post just a finally opinion/observation of how it goes when I get done
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Thanks for following yours with such detail!
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I'm going to do fermented feed for my CXR I'm starting next week. I really want to see if it cuts down feed comsumption, runny poo & how thirsty they are constantly. I'll post just a finally opinion/observation of how it goes when I get done
1f44d-1f3fc.png
1f60a.png
Thanks for following yours with such detail!
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I look forward to it! And I was expecting mine to drink a lot more water. They never drank more than 5 gallons a day, and I kind of expected them to drink more.
 
My freedom Rangers didn't drink anything like my CXR
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Ha! I think at most the 26 FR went through 4ish gallons in a day at their thirstiest on an 80 degree day.

Side note for all, I did a taste test tonight. Cooked two leg quarters.....WOW! Such a difference from the store bought cornish birds. (I won't knock the home raised cornish because I can't compare yet!). It wasn't overpowering but they had such a full flavor, pretty cool. I'm excited to try the white meat.
 
I just read this thread, and loved it! I raised the Freedom Rangers several years ago (from the Penn. hatchery), and was very pleased. Since then, I tried another hatchery's red rangers, not as nice. And I can't deal with the Cornishx birds, pathetic little guys. Thanks again for the chart, very helpful. Mary
 
What are you feeding? I like to feed Flock Raiser to my other birds, but do you use a meat bird feed? Mary

I found A LOT of varying information out there on feeding the freedom rangers. I started with a 24% starter until week 3, bumped them down to a 20% crumble until week 7 and then bumped then down again to an 18% crumble. All feed from a local mill here, pretty cheap compared to the TSC and other chain type stores in the area.
 

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