I had planned on getting some Hubbard White Mountain Cornish Xs in the spring. Big ugly white bird that grows like crazy but now after seeing your Rangers I am going to order those instead. I wasn't looking forward to looking at a tractor full of white birds. Thanks for posting
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We have 50 Cornish coming tommorrow. Plus we have 45 rangers left (between 3 of us)
and 50 fryers. The Rangers don't smell anything like a Cornish Cross. They don't
grow as fast but they are so much cooler.
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Mine free range. They don't go far, but i let them out every morning. It'll be quite interesting to compare our various raising differences for the same batch. I barely look at mine in hopes of not getting attached. I'm starting to feel a little weird about letting them free range ALL DAY while I'm work. My problem is I'm in the education field so the birds had total freedom all summer and I'm wimpy about caged animals...but when it comes to their safety and my investment, i think it's time to start keeping them in the dog pen.
Cornish x smell like sour milk. They are hot to touch (though you probably shouldn't touch them it leads to attachment). they poop constantly and constantly need to be moved. i've had my rangers in the same spot for the longest time. I don't even know how long. the poop is piling up under their roost, but i don't smell it and it's too far into the dog pen for me to truly care.
oh and rangers really will roost if you give them a roost. cornish will when they're younger, but I don't think it's too comfy as they get fatter...not that roosting or not is an issue, but when you think about the amount of poop the cornish produce and how little they move...they sit in their funk a lot...so they're hot, stinky, fast growing freezer fillers. I really liked my cornish, i shouldn't talk so harshly about them--it just honesty though. I'm looking forward to the new batch coming in.