Crossing my Red Ranger Hens.

[Compost King]

I at week 14 with my 2nd batch of Silver Grey Dorking x Red Rangers. I weighed one male (I believe male) and he was at 3.5 pounds. Tomorrow the first one reaches 20 weeks, I would have eaten him already but he is going into a breeding program because his pattern is so far the best. I will be weighing him at 20 weeks, the previous weighing he had only gamed 0.1 pounds in that week so the peak time to dress these out for males is 18 weeks or sooner. 18 was my target week but its possible sooner is better. We shall see.

 

[Compost King]

Today is the 20 week mark for the oldest Silver Grey Dorking x Red Ranger and I was surprised to see he is 8.4 pounds. I believe I must have made a mistake last week when he came in at 6.6 pounds only gaining 0.1 pound that week, and then this week he gains 1.8 pounds. So he is still growing out and is a pound heavier than his father. in 2 weeks he grew a full pretty close to a full pound. I am guessing last weeks weigh in was an error in reading the scale. The Scale is a little funny and if I stand on it leaning forward or backwards or to either side the weight is off by up to 5 pounds. I am getting better at it and coming up with consistent readings every time now. I don't really care how much I weigh but started weighing myself daily just to get used to the scale. If I have time I will weigh one from the 3rd batch that are 11 weeks old tomorrow. that batch has a runt and a very large on. So far I have been just weighing the males I know with other crosses and with the original Red Rangers the females were smaller about 2 weeks behind the males in Development, I haven't had time to observe and take note with these because its been a very busy spring with the Nursery.

 

[Molpet]

Today is the 20 week mark for the oldest Silver Grey Dorking x Red Ranger and I was surprised to see he is 8.4 pounds. I believe I must have made a mistake last week when he came in at 6.6 pounds only gaining 0.1 pound that week, and then this week he gains 1.8 pounds. So he is still growing out and is a pound heavier than his father. in 2 weeks he grew a full pretty close to a full pound. I am guessing last weeks weigh in was an error in reading the scale. The Scale is a little funny and if I stand on it leaning forward or backwards or to either side the weight is off by up to 5 pounds. I am getting better at it and coming up with consistent readings every time now. I don't really care how much I weigh but started weighing myself daily just to get used to the scale. If I have time I will weigh one from the 3rd batch that are 11 weeks old tomorrow. that batch has a runt and a very large on. So far I have been just weighing the males I know with other crosses and with the original Red Rangers the females were smaller about 2 weeks behind the males in Development, I haven't had time to observe and take note with these because its been a very busy spring with the Nursery.

thanks for the update

 

[Compost King]

Picture updates! I used my lunch break to take pictures and post this.

This is a good look at the Silver Grey Dorking x Red Ranger Pen (with 4 Dorking's added 3 of which are to the right. The Rooster is my oldest that I weighed last night. The rest are 3.5 or 7 weeks younger than him. The Dorkings who just happened to be here is 3.5 weeks younger. I am short on time and do not know their ages off the top of my head and may edit this tonight after dark when I have time to look it up.

Blast from the past, the black Chickens are the Ayam Cemani X Red Rangers with mom in the pen too, Crossing them with the Naked Necks currently. Nothing new to report about them but I thought I would take a picture of the 2 females I didn't eat so I could breed them.

New Addition Cornish X and the Naked Neck X Red Ranger. They are on lunch break where I give them 15 minutes to eat as much as they want (3 times a day) when I eat, they eat. This way I remember to feed them. It would probably be better to just give them 45 minutes at night and they will likely free range a little better. I always have to do something off the wall and wacky or I wouldn't be me. My next breeding experiments will be with the Cornish X and also 4 slow white broilers I picked up from TSC straight run. They aren't as slow to grow as the name indicates just slower than the CX.

The Slow White broilers are still in the Brooder, and just to be deceptive I made sure to get the picture of them I took standing near my 2 Seramas just to make them look like giants. The Seramas are quite a bit older too and they spend 2 cycles in the brooder. They will get stepped on if they are the same age as Slow White Broilers or any of the meat birds. Being a few weeks older they can are quick to get out of the way. Now I have a lot of meat birds to play around with and cross and learn a little bit. If I gain enough Skills maybe I can make a sustainable meat breed. If I do that it will be a Naked Necked bird with the largest Single Comb I can get so they can be heat tolerant.

Lunch break over... and BTW the Cornish X already stops eating at 15 minutes without me there to take the food away, I am watching her from my window!

 

[Molpet]

Picture updates! I used my lunch break to take pictures and post this. View attachment 1716245
This is a good look at the Silver Grey Dorking x Red Ranger Pen (with 4 Dorking's added 3 of which are to the right. The Rooster is my oldest that I weighed last night. The rest are 3.5 or 7 weeks younger than him. The Dorkings who just happened to be here is 3.5 weeks younger. I am short on time and do not know their ages off the top of my head and may edit this tonight after dark when I have time to look it up.

View attachment 1716247
Blast from the past, the black Chickens are the Ayam Cemani X Red Rangers with mom in the pen too, Crossing them with the Naked Necks currently. Nothing new to report about them but I thought I would take a picture of the 2 females I didn't eat so I could breed them.

View attachment 1716246
New Addition Cornish X and the Naked Neck X Red Ranger. They are on lunch break where I give them 15 minutes to eat as much as they want (3 times a day) when I eat, they eat. This way I remember to feed them. It would probably be better to just give them 45 minutes at night and they will likely free range a little better. I always have to do something off the wall and wacky or I wouldn't be me. My next breeding experiments will be with the Cornish X and also 4 slow white broilers I picked up from TSC straight run. They aren't as slow to grow as the name indicates just slower than the CX. View attachment 1716249
The Slow White broilers are still in the Brooder, and just to be deceptive I made sure to get the picture of them I took standing near my 2 Seramas just to make them look like giants. The Seramas are quite a bit older too and they spend 2 cycles in the brooder. They will get stepped on if they are the same age as Slow White Broilers or any of the meat birds. Being a few weeks older they can are quick to get out of the way. Now I have a lot of meat birds to play around with and cross and learn a little bit. If I gain enough Skills maybe I can make a sustainable meat breed. If I do that it will be a Naked Necked bird with the largest Single Comb I can get so they can be heat tolerant.

Lunch break over... and BTW the Cornish X already stops eating at 15 minutes without me there to take the food away, I am watching her from my window!

thanks for the pics

 

[Compost King]

My last batch of SGD/RR is 11 weeks old today and I thought I would weight 2 of them, one of them is a Runt and much smaller at 2.8 pounds. I believe its a female but not certain, if it is and she lays well I will keep her as a laying hen. The others looked to be the size of the rest from that hatch weighed in at 4.1 pounds. The one I weighed at 14 weeks was 3.5 pounds. I actually can not see a size difference between the 11 and 14 week old birds or most of them. I tell them apart by leg bands. I actually changed out some leg bands today because their legs grow.

Below are the ages of the chicks in the pictures I took today, I have enough time to check my calendar after dark.

NN x RR just over 6 weeks, Cornish X just over 5 weeks, Slow White broiler 2 and a half weeks

In the Incubator I have more Naked Neck Red Rangers since I only have one. I also have eggs from my Cemanis X Rangers as they were bred back to their father. Not really going to track those in this just trying to get a decent Black Meat Rooster and repeat the process. These should hatch out this weekend. Just went into Lockdown.

Next hatch ( late April) will have More Naked Neck X Red Rangers and also the AC x RR females eggs with the mystery father between the AC and the Make Neck.

Next Update will likely be sunday if I remember to weigh the 15 week old SGD X RR, keep in mind I am grabbing a random male and it might not be the same one I grabbed last time. I have no idea which one I weighed last time. Not exactly a great scientific experiment, just roughly trying to find out when the best age to dress them out. Wednesday the next batch turns 12.

 

[Morrigan]

Thanks for the update and pictures. I like the look of the RR X NN cross.

 

[Compost King]

The CX was on the roosting bar this morning when I opened the coop. I have never seen a CX roost before so I thought it might be worth doing a lunch update on it. I like having this buddy system with another pullet. I wonder if having 2 other birds with the cx (total 3) would change the relationship. Next time I ration feed for breeding I will defiantly do this buddy system.

 

[Molpet]

The CX was on the roosting bar this morning when I opened the coop. I have never seen a CX roost before so I thought it might be worth doing a lunch update on it. I like having this buddy system with another pullet. I wonder if having 2 other birds with the cx (total 3) would change the relationship. Next time I ration feed for breeding I will defiantly do this buddy system.

The 5 I raised with layers roosted. The one I kept roosted until winter when she couldn't exercise

 

[Compost King]

The 5 I raised with layers roosted. The one I kept roosted until winter when she couldn't exercise

I am actually starting to like raising them as regular birds, They have adorable personalities when they are mobile. Mine even breaks into a sprint when I break out the feed.