Buying meat birds...

[becky3086]

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I agree completely. I got tired of trying to figure out which is best and just decided to try the cornish this year and maybe if I don't think much of them I will try the rangers next year if I can. It is a good thread for learning but after several posts you just get lost in the arguement, lol.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

It's a forum with thousands of people and thousands of personalities....... what do you expect? It's what make it fun, you also get lots of free advice.

Your still exchanging money/time for their vigor. Not worth it to someone looking at it as a money issue. It's twice the labor to raise the rangers as the cornish x. Your saving x amount of dollars with the cornish in just your labor. You have to feed and water the rangers twice as long.

At least for now the rangers fit the back yard farmer. It's a niche product and nothing more.

Many also look at it as the amount of time they will have to deal with the broilers/rangers. They simply see the fact that they will only have to take care of them for 6 weeks instead of 12. Reguardless of how productive they may or may not be.

The colored rangers do not have leg problems, heart problems, breathing problems, or any other genetic problems that the cornish's have. They have awesome foraging instincts which make them great for pasture based programs/buisness. The flavor is amazing and they are great for backyard farms.

Basically they are everything the cornish are not. The only thing they do not have going for them is they are not ready to process at 6 weeks but instead 10-12 weeks.

If raised with a little TLC and some preventitive measures than you will have the same bird with the cornish as the Rangers.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
We have only raised one batch of each so far in addition to fryers,
extra standard roos, quail, turkeys, ducks, and even a few silkie roos.
We have both in our freezer now.

Taste-The Rangers had more texture. We do soak most of our chickens
in a mild brine to tenderize and age them. I've never done a side by
side comparison using the same recipe. Cornish have bigger breasts
and drumsticks where the reduced size of a Ranger means more even
cooking.

Behavior-Like chickens. I ignored mine for the first few weeks and then
started hand feeding treats.

Pastured-Our Rangers spent most of their lives in the barn. In fact
our Cornish and some Rangers lived together for a while. I'd let them
out when I got home from work along with my layers. They would run
for the woods and then hang out.

Health-The Rangers were the healthiest birds I have ever had. They
reminded me of a fat RIR.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
I agree completely. I got tired of trying to figure out which is best and just decided to try the cornish this year and maybe if I don't think much of them I will try the rangers next year if I can. It is a good thread for learning but after several posts you just get lost in the arguement, lol.

People raise both and love both. I had friends with Cornish so I sorta
knew what to expect. I ordered the Rangers based on what I read here
and they obviously exceeded my expectations, but that's me. Even
with this I still ordered my batch of Cornish and I'm glad I did.

I'm almost as new to this as any newbie here. It's cool to be in this
thread with so many people with real experience.

 

[greyfields]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Quote:
Greyfields:

I have seen you mention this several times. Do you have data to support this theory?

In my mind the colored ranger will have a greater total maintenance requirement due to the longer live span and greater activity, while the cornish should have less maintenance energy requirements and expend less energy due to a lower activity level.

Jim

I base this upon the published FCR's for the 'breeds'. They are all within fractions of eachother. We probably spill more feed on the floor than any difference in the FCR's would make.​

 

[greyfields]

The only difference in flavor comes from the fact the rangers are older in days and therefore closer to sexual maturity. This gives the meat a more distinct flavor.

Personally, I think everyone SHOULD raise CornishX first, as you then have your baseline for comparison.

Finally, regardless of which way you go, raising and eating your own backyard meat is a good practice. You will be very surprised at the texture of the meat, which will appear initially to you as "stringy" and "tough". This is because your own birds will not be brined to an artificial moisture content. You'll eventually come to crave it when compared to insipid, wet, flavorless grocery store meat.

 

[dancingbear]

Everybody looks at the world through the window of their own needs and experience. When I say everybody, that includes me. That's not a bad thing, it's just the way things are. We learn from what we see and experience.

We have different needs, depending on environment and what we are doing. If your livelihood depends on producing the maximum possible number of birds in a year, your needs are very different from the person producing meat only for their own household. If you have to satisfy what your customers want, that will be different than only satisfying yourself.

Bossroo, it sounds like you have an incredibly hostile environment to deal with, and have done so for many years. I can see why you have the opinions that you do. Most of us don't have to deal with such extremes, and I, for one, am grateful that my own environment is so much easier than that.

I seldom lose a bird to a predator. They run free most days, and are closed up at night. During the last year, I've only lost 2 chickens to predation, one was one of my own puppies when they hadn't quite caught on to the birds being off-limits, (they get it now, so it's no longer a problem) and one was a to neighbor's puppy that got out. I lost 3 that got hit by cars. Prior to this year, I'd only lost one to a car in the previous 9 years, so this was an unusual year for traffic losses. So the mental image you have of free-range birds being constantly under stress from being chased by predators, isn't accurate here. Many places are relatively safe for free-range fowl. Other places, like where you live, are not.

I don't know why I have so few problems with predators, they are in the area. I hear coyotes at night all the time. We have raccoons. Opossums, (which my dog Cleo has evicted from the hen house on occasion) that have never attacked my chickens, even when one was locked in with them by accident. I have barred owls all around here. I know there are some larger owls in the area, and an occasional bobcat, my neighbor's had footage of them from his deer cam.

The first year we lived here, we had some losses to raccoons, until we built a new coop. None since. That wasn't free-range losses, though, the raccoons broke into the coop at night. Two separate years, we had fox trouble, until the fox was killed, the first by my DH, the 2nd, (who showed up 2 or 3 years later) was first wounded by Cleo the Dog, then shot by a neighbor down the road.

So we've had it pretty easy, predator-wise, losses have been few and far between.

For your situation, Cornish X are just the ticket. For mine, not so much!

 

[Bossroo]

Quote:

 

[willheveland]

I agree that if you never have raised chickens Cornish-x wouldn't be the best thing to start with.If a newbie had alot of problems to start with of coarse they will be turned off by them.I think alot of this ranger thing is because people are falling on simpathy thinking it's more humane or "the right thing to do" because they are" more like chickens should be".What is that?They are a fairly new breed.
Greyfields is the biggest promoter of these and he never heard of these until 2007.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5524&p=2 (see post #11)
The Cornish have been out for more than half a century.At first they were great foragers too,ran around and acted like "chickens should"as it's said.But over time this is bred out of them.If the Freedom rangers are around in 50 years,it will be bred out of them too otherwise they will be considered dual purpose by then.
If you put the breeds of chicken on a scale with dual purpose on the left and Cornish-x on the right,Freedom Rangers would be in between.Of coarse the farther you go to the left your going to have less problems(cornish-x is an extreme meat bird),if you want even less problems you'll be back to dual purpose breeds and they even act more "like chickens should"
If you get cornish-x first,yes,there is a good chance you'll be turned off by them.They take getting use to and you need a good system down that will take a few batches.If you want the easiest route with little problems get dual purpose.I will promise very little problems with these.But you will not get the meat.
I know getting advise saves problems and makes you feel at ease,but you just got to do it a few times.Don't get discouraged. The rewards are worth it.But you got to do it for you.For your needs.
Get some of each and compare them,even raised each in their own favorable environment,and see what you think.Don't be fooled by fancy words any older chicken that ran around alot will have a different flavor,be tough and stringy. Will

 

[Brunty_Farms]

I agree with Will.

So many things go wrong with the cornish if your expecting them to act like normal chickens. You need to be prepared.

I had raised chickens for about a year before I got my first batch of cornish which was only 15 birds. It was completely different. I didn't have a book or a forum like this to learn from. I was lost and had no clue what to do, If it wasn't for Murray McMurray 9 years ago telling me that I needed to restrict their feed after 2 weeks I would have lost everyone to flip.

Take the advice as it comes, sift through the BS and take in what you can use to your advantage, as every little bit helps.