125 Freedom Rangers start to finish March 2012

I seem to have this nasty habit of jumping into things with no experience and just doing.

I have a contract to raise 100 Freedom Rangers.

I ordered and received 125 of them 2 weeks ago tomorrow, received 2 weeks ago Friday.

I am a professional Chicken man (said tongue in cheek)... After all, this is my 3rd summer with chickens, I have 51 layers getting a whopping dozen eggs per day.... that I can find... need to close that stall in..., I have hatched 5 or 6 batches of chicks, have gone through predator loss, but... more importantly, I have a contract for 100 Freedom Rangers and so went ahead and ordered them with the realization that if it is profitable and I like it, the buyer wants another 400 or so.

Some of you will sadly shake your head and laugh at me which is fine, it means you will be leaving someone else alone.



For those of you who have never raised this many or this type.... They will eat you out of house and home. The first week they went through 50 lbs of feed. That was Friday to Friday. Saturday to today, they have eaten another 50lbs. They are drinking nigh onto 5 gallon of water per day. The above pic was taken Friday when I received them. I will update pictures soon. Off to buy feed.

Beautiful...What breed?

Quote:
That's pretty funny and a great way to look at life.

Does anyone have real numbers on these birds? We are thinking of getting 25 red broilers of some variety two times this year (for 50 total by fall). We want a breed that is not going to break the bank. But we're having trouble getting a half-way true cost estimate. If we go by the above, at 25 chicks, that would be 1/5th of what he is going through. That would be 10lb's of feed per week for at least the first 2 weeks. I'm thinking something along the lines of 1 50lb bag for 3 weeks. But where would it go from there? How many bags of feed would you theoretically go through to grow them out to 12 weeks?

That is actually why I started this thread, for my own information and to share as I learn. Someone said somewhere in my searches that it works out to about $3.75 per bird but then proceeded to say that that was if they could find feed at $.25 lb. I buy by the 50lb bag for a little over $10.00 bag. Look there, my math is bad....$.25lb x 50lb = $12.50

Way I am calculating right now is 150lb 1st 2weeks. Next 7 weeks at 200lbs per week, figuring they will get up to 30% from the pasture.... maybe....

That's $30.00 roughly the 1st 2 weeks, then $300.00 to finish them or $330.00 feed. $178.75 for the birds delivered, $1.95 to process and $.95 to vac seal.

That will roughly give me a cost of $362.50 processing
$330.00 feed
$178.75 cost of birds
$871.25 total investment or $6.97 per bird.

I have mine under contract so I just hope nothing catastrophic happens.

That extra $290 you'd spend getting them process will buy a nice vacuum sealer. But not the plucker. A batch of 400 would though.

Not going to make fun of you here. The more I am made fun of, the harder I try. Something to ponder: Some very successful business men were once made fun of, now they hire those who made fun of them.

Keep the pics updated and check back regularly. I love watching progress.

Very true, and I have a lead on a whiz bang for $300.00. That said, I already own a vac sealer, and I am sure I could buy labels. BUT.... I wouldn't have that state stamp or federal or whatever it is and quite honestly, I have cleaned chickens.... at 15 minutes each to gut, de neck, wash, process.... even 10 minutes.... 125 x 10= 21 hours of work not including breaks. 21 hours at $10.00 hr plus materials... I'll pay lol!

hydroswiftrob said:

Not going to make fun of you here. The more I am made fun of, the harder I try. Something to ponder: Some very successful business men were once made fun of, now they hire those who made fun of them.

Keep the pics updated and check back regularly. I love watching progress.

Click to expand...

Reminds me of the Big Ten school Northwestern University, usually sports wise in the basement of the standings. Their motto: You may beat us now, but you will work for us later.

loanwizard said:

That is actually why I started this thread, for my own information and to share as I learn. Someone said somewhere in my searches that it works out to about $3.75 per bird but then proceeded to say that that was if they could find feed at $.25 lb. I buy by the 50lb bag for a little over $10.00 bag. Look there, my math is bad....$.25lb x 50lb = $12.50

Way I am calculating right now is 150lb 1st 2weeks. Next 7 weeks at 200lbs per week, figuring they will get up to 30% from the pasture.... maybe....

That's $30.00 roughly the 1st 2 weeks, then $300.00 to finish them or $330.00 feed. $178.75 for the birds delivered, $1.95 to process and $.95 to vac seal.

That will roughly give me a cost of $362.50 processing
$330.00 feed
$178.75 cost of birds
$871.25 total investment or $6.97 per bird.

I have mine under contract so I just hope nothing catastrophic happens.

Click to expand...

I think that might have been me that said "assuming you can find feed for $0.25 per pound" How in the world and what brand of food did you find for $10 for a 50 lb bag??!! I need to know! I use Dumor 20 percent from TSC and it cost me $0.38 per pound.