Colored Rangers Grow Out Journal/ Video Added pg 11

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

We actually sell broilers to our local market and we ship birds to others that would like to try some. We usually raise around 800-1,000 broilers a year.

This from post #25 on this thread, we noticed you don't ship any more? Any reason why?

Yes, Steve three reasons

1) The shipping costs are outrageous for overnight, plus packing supplies, we believe that people should not have to pay a high price to eat quality healthy foods !! It takes a 10 dollar chicken and turns into a 40-50 dollar chicken after everything !!

2) Earlier this year we had 2 turkeys and 1 chicken come up MIA, had to refund monies and still have not gotten my money back, too much of a pain

3) Our local market demands are high, we are sold out every month and needing to grow more next year to help fill demands !! With our local market being able to support us we feel their is no reasons to take the food out of our local area !!​

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

1) The shipping costs are outrageous for overnight, plus packing supplies, we believe that people should not have to pay a high price to eat quality healthy foods !! It takes a 10 dollar chicken and turns into a 40-50 dollar chicken after everything !!

2) Earlier this year we had 2 turkeys and 1 chicken come up MIA, had to refund monies and still have not gotten my money back, too much of a pain

Did you have any trouble shipping over state lines? just curious

Steve in NC​

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

Did you have any trouble shipping over state lines? just curious

Steve in NC

Nope None at all. Jump thru all the hoops and overnight them and pack them right and you are good to go.​

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Did you process, package them yourself? How did you keep them cold? I have heard some people using dry ice, others shipping in coolers.

Steve in NC

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

Did you process, package them yourself? How did you keep them cold? I have heard some people using dry ice, others shipping in coolers.

Steve in NC

Nope we had the shipped ones done at a USDA Inspected facility.

We use Styrofoam coolers and dry ice then in a box with some peanuts to pack tight.​

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Harp,

I'm curious, as the season is coming to a close with chickens and want to hear your overall opinion on these birds. How they compare with the cornish x's.

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

Funny you ask that as we are done with the CR's for the year as of now and we are doing a batch of CX's to finish up the season just to compare.

CX's are alot shorter bird and they go thru the water and feed faster then the CR's did. But I guess they do grow faster. The CX's do have alot more compact meaty carcass then the CR's do. The CR's remind me of a real meaty Roo. I don't know it would be a toss up in my mind as to which would be the better one. Of course the CX's would be the best for the meat ability, but the CR's do have a great flavor as they are older birds. Next season we will be doing a batch side by side to see the real difference in feed conversion and the whole thing, but until then......

I do know that we had real good feed back on the CR's this year. But we did have some bad ones as well. Mainly because the people were cooking them way to high and fast like one would with the supermarket birds.

Also one would have to charge more $$ for the CR's as they do eat alot more feed to get to that point compared to the CX's.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

According to greyfields it takes the same amount of feed.... just longer...

I found that a bit hard to believe...

So from a money standpoint the Cornish x's are the way to go. But with some cornish x breeds I don't get finished weights until 9 weeks and I've heard you can get CR's to growout in 9 weeks?

I too will be doing a side by side comparison next year to see the difference.

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

I have never had a CR grow out in no 9 weeks and be any size to it. Those are the people that are growing them in a confined space and stuffing feed in to them. No way can they range them at all and get thet result from my experience.

The CR's feed conversion is no where near the CX's.

I find the same thing that raising the CX's like I do it takes 10 weeks or so to get a 5lb dressed bird and the CR's take closer to 14 weeks to get the 5lb dressed bird, but I do also range them all day long so they are expelling way more energy then they would if i raised them in confinement.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
In my experience, the CR's have about a 20% difference in FCR in comparison to the CX's. Mine are also stuffed in a confined, though outdoor, environment, which makes them get larger faster. We had someone on here completely free ranging these last year, and they were not happy with the results, although I think they also misunderstood that these were a slower growing chicken. Even so, their dressed weights were very low.

An ideal situation might be to raise perhaps 100 of these in a 1,000 sqft electric netting enclosure, along with a tarp covered "house" to go into during rain and at night. Then the netting could be relocated about once/week, depending on the age of the chickens. Unfortunately, the electric poultry netting is quite expensive.