Colored rangers

[duckidaho]

I was thinking of trying some "colored rangers" for meat birds this fall and I was wondering, how long to keep them on chick feed before switching to a broiler feed of some sort?

Any good/bad experiences with this breed?

How do they taste? Tender? We'd let them range some.

We aren't too concerned with the feed/weight/cost ratio. Just want a meaty bird that's not a cornish X.

 

[UncleHoot]

I'm only aware of two places to get decent colored broilers: JM Hatchery and S & G poultry (www.jmhatchery.com, www.sandgpoultry.com). Anyone else claiming to have various colored slower growing broilers are probably actually selling the roosters of layer breeds, or at best, they are selling a lesser hybrid.

Now that that is out of the way, go here to read all about the Colored Range Broilers from JM Hatchery: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=122611
Many of us have raised these birds with varying degrees of success. Just understand that these are 11-12 week chickens. Don't plan on processing them at 6-8 weeks, or they will be very small. This aspect has led to confusion in the past, with more than one poster expecting that they would be as large as a 12-week old cornish cross, but with much better livability, and that's simply not the case. At 12 weeks, they will probably be about the same size as a 7-8 week cornish cross, depending on how they are raised.

If you let them free-range very much, they will grow even slower. I'm currently growing 150 of them in 2 separate 10x12 pens.

I believe the taste is superior, but you'll notice that the legs are a bit more stringy than you're probably used to, simply because they are older. The meat is also less tender, but I don't think it's a huge difference. In fact, you may not even notice the difference unless you're eating it side-by-side with a cornish cross.

When I started these, I didn't have ANY chick feed (crumbles), so I just dumped some of the regular broiler feed (mash) into a feeder, then figured I'd pick up some crumbles after work. I kept the crumbles in a separate feeder, and they preferred the mash by about 3 to 1. Both were 20%, but since they didn't eat the larger corn pieces in the mash, I'm sure the actual consumed percentage was a little bit higher.

Here's why I wanted to raise these again:
They eat grass. Yes, cornish cross chickens will also eat grass, but these guys REEEAAAALLY eat grass! I put them outside at 16 days, and was amazed to see how many of them were content to munch on the grass, even when new feed was dumped into the feeder. If you believe, like me, that grass-fed animals are better for you, then these are the ideal pastured meat chicken.
They're also more visually pleasing. In fact, it's almost a shame to have them processed, because they are such nice looking bird. Cornish Crosses get ugly fast, and stay ugly until about 6 weeks, when they take on the typical "bowling balls with heads" features.

Downside: They start to crow somewhere around 10 weeks. I only raised a handful last year, so I don't know how bad it's going to get this year, having 150 of them, and with roughly 75 crowing. I won't have an answer to this question for another couple of months.

 

[zephyrcreek]

My guys (J&M Hatchery) are going to be 12 weeks old this week, and the only one crowing around here is my Del roo. I'm very pleased with the size. I processed a few last week at 11 weeks and they were all between 4-5lbs. I fed mine grower the entire time, and had them out on pasture at 3-4 weeks. They free ranged most of the day from 4 weeks - 9 weeks, and then I confined them to the hoop house the last three weeks to grow out. They graze while in the tractor, but not as much as they do when they free range.

We will be eating our second one tonight. The first has very tender without being mushy. There was nothing stringing or tough about the meat at all. The main thing that I did notice is that the breast meat is a little smaller than a CX, and that the thighs and legs have much more meat than the CX. That works very well for our family of 4.

 

[duckidaho]

Thanks for the thoughts, any more ideas would be great too. Originally we were going to do a fall batch, but we are both teachers and we didn't know if we wanted chick raising/processing during the beginning of the school year. Plus we have a good laying flock that we might need to cull a few from.