Crossing my Red Ranger Hens.

[Molpet]

On a serious note, that's actually a really good result for a a feed that is double what I pay for feed.

https://www.southernstates.com/catalog/product/p-9950-southern-states-all-grain-meat-bird-maker-50-lb?category=horse-livestock+poultry+poultry-feed Not exactly certified Organic but its a decent feed brand. If I could get them to consistently eat worms I can produce enough worms to feed a small flock but only some chickens will eat them but the ones that do will eat an awful lot of them.

The mulberries and grasses were ripe, so they ate a lot of that too. I was feeding , fermented 20% grower when I paid attention to the cost the first year.... a non gmo cx at the farmers market was $5 a lb that year. So I quit paying attention to the cost.
This year I have a bunch of poults everywhere .... found a farmer who mills non gmo 28% turkey for $20/ 50 lbs.. so everybody gets turkey,,, last year everyone got turkey and everyone did fine.

 

[Parront]

On a serious note, that's actually a really good result for a a feed that is double what I pay for feed.

https://www.southernstates.com/catalog/product/p-9950-southern-states-all-grain-meat-bird-maker-50-lb?category=horse-livestock+poultry+poultry-feed Not exactly certified Organic but its a decent feed brand. If I could get them to consistently eat worms I can produce enough worms to feed a small flock but only some chickens will eat them but the ones that do will eat an awful lot of them.

Cull the ones who will not eat a worm! Just my opinion, but they might not deserve to survive!

 

[Parront]

The mulberries and grasses were ripe, so they ate a lot of that too. I was feeding , fermented 20% grower when I paid attention to the cost the first year.... a non gmo cx at the farmers market was $5 a lb that year. So I quit paying attention to the cost.
This year I have a bunch of poults everywhere .... found a farmer who mills non gmo 28% turkey for $20/ 50 lbs.. so everybody gets turkey,,, last year everyone got turkey and everyone did fine.

Do you put out another feeder with just corn, so that they do not have to have all the protein if they don't want/need it?

 

[Molpet]

Do you put out another feeder with just corn, so that they do not have to have all the protein if they don't want/need it?

no ...The milled feed the chicken hens pick out the corn specks. I am sure they would just fill up on corn

 

[Compost King]

Update: going to be a week or 2 before I start weighing more Nake Neck Red Rangers, I have about 20 or more running around at various ages and sizes. Some of the females started laying and I am only eating the males.
Crossing my Dorking Rooster with his Daughters he had with the Red Rangers has turned up this interesting anomaly.

There is a very noticeable size difference at week 2. I am not sure if its because one is male and the other is a female. This size difference was not noticeable with The dorkings, the Red Rangers or the the first crossing. When they get old enough to tell the gender maybe I can start putting the pieces together. I have no idea if I should select for pattern first or size first. I just select the best of both categories. This is new to me. oh well, these are meat birds so I can always eat them if I end up with too many.

 

[Compost King]

Update on the next Naked Neck to be consumed... I grabbed one real quick and weighed it... 4 pounds, I am guessing this one was from the 11 and a half weeks ago batch (Easter Sunday Hatch) I have a lot from that batch and plenty in later hatches. a week or 2 away from that magic 5 pound mark. I had stopped paying attention to them and they snuck up on me in size.

 

[Kris5902]

Speaking of sneaking up on size... I had the remaining 7 Ranger cockerels processed at 13 weeks, and they averaged 7 lbs dressed! I had an almost 8 lb bird... the “featherless wonder” of all the birds, but he* (wasn’t a pullet after all!) was getting “mated” by the other cockerels and they were tearing up his back with the near complete lack of feathers... I rushed them into a different plant than the one my husband works at, and they didn’t do quite as nice a job bleeding and plucking as the first one. These birds definitely got too big for what I’m looking for!

I tried to place an order for 100 chicks, now that the weather is better for my outdoor brooding setup, but they are “sold out of all broilers” for the rest of the year! So I’m going to be looking at other hatcheries and trying to find one with some stock, as my one ranger girl is going to be hard pressed to support my entire meat program all on her own!

My birds are netting about $16 of profit each at $13.90/kg for whole birds, which are my best seller. Somehow I’m going to have to keep my number of birds at less than 150 at any one time for “insurance purposes” so I’m trying to figure out a hatching schedule that will be workable with those numbers. My remaining 4 female meat birds (3CX and the Ranger) look like bowling balls despite their restricted feed and are coming up on 15 weeks old now.

 

[Compost King]

....
My birds are netting about $16 of profit each at $13.90/kg for whole birds, which are my best seller. Somehow I’m going to have to keep my number of birds at less than 150 at any one time for “insurance purposes” so I’m trying to figure out a hatching schedule that will be workable with those numbers. My remaining 4 female meat birds (3CX and the Ranger) look like bowling balls despite their restricted feed and are coming up on 15 weeks old now.

I am wondering if keeping female meat birds for reproduction is going to cost too much. Big appetites that we have to feed even when we are not hatching their eggs. I do not have a business as far as chicken production goes and I need the manure for my actual business so its not an issue for me however I am using this as an educational exercise in case I get sick of the production nursery business and go into the meat or egg business. Likely I stick to landscaping plants because its easily profitable and food production profitability seems stressful and risky. As it sits now if I was raising chickens for profit I would struggle to break even. I barely sell enough chickens and chicks to pay for feed. I spend money to build coops and fences and its actually costing a lot even though most of my materials are recycled discarded junk. Screws, latches, foundation blocks, hinges and hardware cloth add up fast. I am not complaining because the money spent is not just an education on how to do these things but it brings so much joy in my life. I also do not buy soil by the ton anymore and my composts are speeding up plant growth and improve plant quality.

 

[Kris5902]

I too wonder about that, and with the growth rate if I’m going to get these girls to reproductive age before their size becomes terminal, even with the diet and exercise regimen! I used to be quite successful with composting in the city, but haven’t been able to do it on the farm, ironically.

I may have mentioned I worked at a large high end grocery store chain for the ten years prior to my life here on the farm? Well as a cashier manager I noticed many customers asked to have their carrot or beet tops removed from the bunches. I enlisted the entire department of cashiers to collect these unwanted greens for “Fluffy, the fictitious Bunny” I dressed up my black bin composter with construction paper ears and eyes for a photo shoot, wrote up a little backstory, and in next to no time my imaginary rabbit was producing all the compost I could dream of! Especially once I started adding in garbage bags full of coffee grounds from the coffee bar! That I don’t miss hauling home on public transit though! I never fully convinced some people that I didn’t actually have a rabbit, just a gardening hobby!

 

[Compost King]

I don't even put much effort into my composting, My chickens break down the carbon materials with their scratching, then they drop their nitrogen pellets in it. I just make a pile Since Bamboo is a staple in my construction (free from neighbors) I end up replacing old poles and composting them providing oxygen to the depths of the compost because the poles act as pipes.... I do not even concern myself with nitrogen to carbon ratios because I do not need to kill weed seeds, in fact I want weeds because chickens weed my pots which is free chicken feed. I only grow plants they do not eat but on occasion they will kill a tree or 2 by dust bathing in pots with a fresh cutting in it or sample an evergreen tree and up rooting a fresh cutting. I figure I can suffer a couple losses in exchange for all the free labor they provide me. If I was selling compost or using compost in a traditional way I would need to measure my nitrogen and carbon levels as well as checking temperatures in my compost and turning the compost constantly to where every single bit of it spends at least a month in the center. to kill any weed seeds.