Colored rangers - video - *updated* with processed weights

[vermontgal]

Hey folks, I have a video on youtube showing my set-up for raising the colored rangers from J.M. Hatchery. They are now 10 weeks old and going to freezer camp on Thursday.

The chicks started out in a large plastic storage tub as a brooder. They hatched on May 13, and in my area we typically have frosts until ~ May 25-30.

They went into the tractor at about 1.5 weeks old. For the first couple weeks it was still fairly cold outside, and so I provided supplemental heat from a heat emitter. I moved the tractor around every 3-4 days near my house.

At age 4 weeks the chicks were old enough and it was warm enough that they moved over to my neighbor's yard, and I moved the tractor about every 1-2 days. However, it quickly became apparent that they were going to need more space.

I added a run when they were about 5 weeks old. This made it much more difficult to move the tractor & run, but gave them more space. Moving it once a week has worked out OK.

I like this set-up fairly well, but if I do this again I am going to see about an easier way to construct the run. It takes us about 2 hours to move the tractor and run, so we only do it about once a week. The run is a 50' roll of welded wire fence. With 12, this amount of space has worked out fairly well, but it takes longer to move it than I'd like. I wasn't ready to invest in the electric poultry netting for this round.

I'm raising them in a fairly dense neighborhood in Vermont - let's call it "Vermont urban." Most lots here are about 1/8 acre, many with multi-units (2-4 units). At 10 weeks, I have not hear anything like crowing, although some of the boys are making a rattley noise that might have a very quiet crow behind it. Our city doesn't have restrictions on roosters or number of chickens.

 

[scooter147]

Those birds just look so much more "attractive" then cornish x. They just give you the look of REAL chickens, not some overly genetically manipulated breast meat producer, that may have been raised 100 + years ago by people for their own use.

What color is the skin upon harvest?

Where did you get them?

 

[Bossroo]

I am glad that you can raise the birds in the housing that is shown in the video. However in my neck of the woods in California... they wouldn't last the first night as they would be dinner for the tons of coyotes, plus the racoons,bobcats, cougars, and all of the dogs that are being dumped by the city folk who had their homes foreclosed. I therefore have to raise my VERY ATTRACTIVE, non genetically engineered ( only selecting the best birds out of millions produced over the last 40 years) full feathered and clean with wonderfully full flavor tasting full breasts and legs butchered at 8 weeks old Cornixh X inside my horse barn.

 

[scooter147]

Bossroo, my VERY ATTRACTIVE, non genetically engineered ( only selecting the best birds out of millions produced over the last 40 years) full feathered and clean with wonderfully full flavor tasting full breasts and legs butchered at 8 weeks old Cornixh X inside my brooder house are DELCIOUS TOO!!!

 

[knittychickadee]

Thanks for taking the time to make a video. Do you have any idea what yours weigh right now? I'm thinking I might do at least some of mine at 10 weeks instead of 12 too. I don't need big carcasses and they are growing much faster than I thought they would. Mine are averaging over 5lbs and will be 7 wks tomorrow.

Bossroo, I would love for you to start another thread; show some pictures of your CornishX and tell us how you get attractive full feathered birds that stay clean, the type of bedding you use and how much of it you go through etc. Also give tips on how to make a bird raised in a stall taste better than a grocery store bird, since it seems there wouldn't be much difference. Your own feed instead of commercial?

 

[Bossroo]

I used to raise RIR, NHR, and PR for decades. They were ssatisfactory for dual purpose breeds and did their job fairly well for that time. I learned a lot. However I swithed to Cornish X and I found them to be with no peer. All of my birds are in freezer camp. I raise 25 of them at a time in a 12x12 horse stall ( 144 sq.ft. /25= 5.76 sq ft / bird) with 2" of pine shavings. I also use a road apple fork to pick up as much excrement as possible, and change it as needed. I only raise the birds in late fall /winter, winter/spring only as it gets way too hot in late spring/ summer/ early fall ( high 90's* to 100*+ [ 102*-117*). I feed them commercial 22 % proteen broiler feed 12 hours on feed then 12 hours no feed. then 1-2 weeks before slaughter (42 days, 6, 8, or 10 weeks of age) I top dress cracked corn. This lays down a nice layer of FAT between the muscle fibers, under and in the skin. As we all know, fat is where the flavor comes from in all classes of animal meat. Also it is very nice to have 5-6 months off to spend extra time with the grandkids ( in same town and out of State) instead of fending off copeous and varied predators and the drudgeries of poop patrol.

 

[vermontgal]

knittychickadee, I don't have a way to weigh them. When I get them back from the processor, I plan to weight them via the time honored tradition of -
Stand on the scale
Stand on the scale holding several birds.
Subtract.
Divide by the number of birds.

Unless the processor (mobile butcher) weighs them for me, which would be awesome!

 

[greyfields]

My latest batch of CRB's was hatched on June 24th and I'm at 52/52 survivability. I had them on grass at 18 days. I encourage you all to raise these chickens rather than Cornish X's.

 

[bearfretworks]

NICE looking birds! Let us know how much they weigh processed.

 

[Bossroo]

My Cornish X birds had a survivability rate of 75/75 this past winter/ spring in sets of 25 in 3 batches. When one reads and follows the recommended instructions for good husbandry one gets GREAT production results. After my experience growing RIR, NHR, and BR for decades, I switched to growing Cornish X a few years ago and found these birds to be simply the best. Since we have a huge number of predators and very high temperatures for the most part of the year that kills all pasture grasses here, free ranging ( or even movable pens) is just not an option on my ranch. So I chose not to raise the freedom rangers , currently known as the colored range broilers. They are great birds and may be great for some, but not for me. I am not going to bash them or any other breed but simply state that the Cornish X is the BEST producing bird. Fact not hype, as today's chicken meat industry utilizes this type of chicken by the millions. I heartily recomend growing the Cornish X for those people interested in getting the most yield of great tasting and tender meat in the shortest time of any chicken breed or type out there.