CornishXs vs Freedom Rangers

[CarriageStone]

Renee' :

Quote:
You will be pleased with your Schlect's birds. I just processed 26 of them yesterday. A few weighed 5 pounds and one weighed 7 pounds (processed)! I would say the average was 6 pounds (straight run). They were 8 weeks and one day old. I didn't lose any and there were zero leg problems. One started whistling, when he would breathe, about a week ago but he hung in there and processed normally (I think his heart wasn't keeping up). They were started on 50 pounds of starter mash then two 50 pound bags of starter crumble then finished with several bags of flock raiser - all non-medicated.

Good luck!

How many pounds of feed did you go through per bird? As of this point, four weeks along, I've not gone through 250lbs. They are growing well, though. If they get cranked up on feeding, as I expect they will shortly, I should be needing another 20-23 bags to finish them out. That's assuming 20# of feed per bird to eight weeks. If everything works out that way feed-wise, and I get the growth of yours, the net costs would be around $0.86 per pound. Not bad at all! Again, these have been pretty easy to deal with to this point as well. We'll see how things finish out, but I am pleased so far.

Once again, I was very pleased with the interaction and service from Etta at Schlecht's. You could tell almost immediately on the phone that you were dealing with honest folks. That goes a long way for me.​

 

[mrsteiner]

Cricket, I live in Michigan too and am raising my first flock of CornishX. I concur that they are stinky and messy, and I suspect too lazy to forage outside. My Freedom Rangers come next week, and I'm looking forward to comparing the meat after I've had both of them butchered. I got my first flock too early, and have been keeping them in my tractor in the garage. I am hoping to move them outside to range a bit for the next couple of weeks before I have them processed. This has been a fun experiment!

 

[ChikeeMomma]

Quote:
mrsteiner -- mine do free range. I start them out at about 4-5 weeks. I let them out in the afternoon and let them forage until they come in for bed. I do have a run that they have access to. Once they are old enough to be outside, I only feed them by throwing their feed on the ground -- so that they have to scratch for it (and they do). This keeps them from laying around and eating feed. They have to work for it. The only time I put their feed in a feed container is when it is a rainy day and it stays inside for the time that it rains. Last years birds averaged out at about 5ish lbs dressed out.

 

[CricketYang]

I believe that the people at the Freedom Ranger hatchery and JM are related to one another, it's like their daughter and her DH. I know I'm not due to get the chicks till the 13th but I'm already getting the brooding room ready! I'm excited

 

[Renee']

Quote:
You will be pleased with your Schlect's birds. I just processed 26 of them yesterday. A few weighed 5 pounds and one weighed 7 pounds (processed)! I would say the average was 6 pounds (straight run). They were 8 weeks and one day old. I didn't lose any and there were zero leg problems. One started whistling, when he would breathe, about a week ago but he hung in there and processed normally (I think his heart wasn't keeping up). They were started on 50 pounds of starter mash then two 50 pound bags of starter crumble then finished with several bags of flock raiser - all non-medicated.

Good luck!

How many pounds of feed did you go through per bird? As of this point, four weeks along, I've not gone through 250lbs. They are growing well, though. If they get cranked up on feeding, as I expect they will shortly, I should be needing another 20-23 bags to finish them out. That's assuming 20# of feed per bird to eight weeks. If everything works out that way feed-wise, and I get the growth of yours, the net costs would be around $0.86 per pound. Not bad at all! Again, these have been pretty easy to deal with to this point as well. We'll see how things finish out, but I am pleased so far.

Once again, I was very pleased with the interaction and service from Etta at Schlecht's. You could tell almost immediately on the phone that you were dealing with honest folks. That goes a long way for me.

They will definately ramp up. At the end, my 26 would eat 50 pounds in 3 days!

I got out my recipts:
1 bag- 50# starter mash
2 bags- 50# starter crumble
6 bags- 50# flock raiser
(total 450 pounds of food in 8 weeks - or 17 pounds of feed per bird)

The price figures to $8.27 per bird. My average weight was 6 pounds which is $1.39 per pound. Not too shabby.

 

[CarriageStone]

Renee,

Thanks for the info. We're paying $14 for a 50# bag of 20% Grower. With that, and figuring our cost per chick and shipping, I should finish out at $1.03/lb if we get a six pound net per bird. Not bad at all. That's comparable to the supermarket.

Entering into this, we weren't really looking to compete price-wise with the supermarket -- within reason. We really just wanted to raise meaties as a natural extension of our layer hen "hobby." It was as much about personal satisfaction of raising them ourselves as it was knowing the birds were healthy. No hormones, no filthy conditions. To find the costs being within line of the supermarket is a bonus.

What really disappointed me about the Freedom Rangers was spending all the money, putting out all the effort, and eating a bird that tasted NO BETTER than what we could buy at Costco. It makes me think that all those people who wrote reviews glowing about their taste were fooling themselves. It's like when my egg customers say my eggs taste better than any others they've tried, I just smile. To me, they're not a lot different in taste to what we used to buy at the store. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of raising my own. However, it has to be within reason economically. I have to be able to justify the effort and expense. If we pay a bit of a premium to raise our own, that's OK. To pay twice as much, or more, than what we would buy at the store makes ZERO sense.

Hopping off the soapbox now.

Happy Easter.

Don

 

[Sundown_Farmer]

Quote:
We also buy from Schlecht. Many of our customers are empty nesters who won't buy a 6# bird. We kill on their 7th Saturday (46th day). Normally that's 15# of feed per bird...in part because I feed in a 4" PVC tube cut in half and a fair amount hits the ground...only to be recovered by my clean-up layer flock.

When calculating cost, don't forget to consider electricity (heat lamp), water costs, equipment, land use and labor. You may credit fertilizer value. We need 2 minutes from start to finish when killing/eviscerating a bird and maybe 3 minutes per bird to feed, water and move the chicken tractor for them over the 6 weeks. I'm above $1.03/lb. But I'm making a bird that can't be bought for $1.03/lb. Compare apples to apples. Make a trip to some local markets and stop by Whole Paycheck to see what a true-blue, in fresh grass daily, hand-processed chicken sells for. You're not raising just any chicken.

I know I keep beating this drum but I watched feed costs go down and animal health increase when I switched them to the Fertrell broiler mix. Maybe it's just the probiotic but they really seemed to get more out of the feed.

 

[Peruvian]

Quote:
Quoted for truth! Give your birds organic feed and now there's a product you literally can't buy in the store! Folks around here pay $4.99/lb for (get ready for it...) organic, pasture raised, hand processed, whole chicken.

 

[DenverBird]

Quote:
Quoted for truth! Give your birds organic feed and now there's a product you literally can't buy in the store! Folks around here pay $4.99/lb for (get ready for it...) organic, pasture raised, hand processed, whole chicken.

Lack of this awareness is what amazes me when I see people talking here about how cheaply they sell their meat birds and eggs for. Sure you can get factory farmed meat and eggs a lot cheaper, as you can tomatoes that seem like they were manufactured at a facility in New Jersey. But there's nothing like a good home-grown tomato...

And you know where it came from!

 

[CarriageStone]

Quote:
Where in my quote did I say I was trying to sell at a price comparable to a supermarket?

I was comparing my costs for the birds I raise to what I had been buying at the grocery store. If I were to sell my processed CX's, I'd be somewhere around $4 a lb. or better. I'd love to be around the $5.50/lb that D'Artagnon gets.