Crossing my Red Ranger Hens.

[Compost King]

Just out of Curiosity I weighed my oldest Silver Grey Dorking X Red Ranger that I kept for breeding and he weighed out at 8.2 pounds at 23 weeks. I also noticed an error, when I weighed him at the 18 week point it was really the 17 week point because I counted the weeks wrong. Any ways he is good sized bird. Tomorrow I may dress him out instead of the 18 week Cockerel depending on which one has more desirable traits for breeding.

 

[Chickenheadmate]

Exciting

I found myself overwhelmed with a hatch that completed on Easter with some complications, I wanted to dress one out today but between cleaning the incubator and moving Older chicks from a brooder to a Juvenile bird coop as well as basic work that needed to be done I put it off for tomorrow. Provided not problems come up tomorrow I should be dressing out Silver Grey Dorking X Red Ranger. It will end up being a full day even from Beheading to dinner plate. Hopefully I get faster at doing this as I dress out more birds.

 

[Compost King]

I ended up dressing out the 23 week old bird because he had an issue with his comb that I figured I didn't want passing down in my breeding project and the younger birds did not have that defect. Also he was abusive towards the hens I was breeding him with. I am still processing him up and only at the computer to watch a youtube video on how to butcher up whole bird into parts. I know how to do it and have done it before but if I found I make better cuts and have less mistakes if I watch the video before I do it. He was 8.2 pounds live weight, and 3.5 pounds dressed out... minus half the wings. Just had 2 little drumettes for wings because its so much easier to cut off the rest of the wings when you skin them. He had White Skin like his Dorking Father.

 

[Compost King]

The Bird is all processed and in the fridge, has been for about an hour or so. I am getting quicker at this.

I will be eating Szechuan chicken tonight with the breast meat which I have quite a bit of. The Hind Quarters and Wing Drumettes will be going to neighbors so they can give me feed back on how it tastes. The last Neighbor I did that with just threw it in the freezer then moved away. Never got any feedback. Since this didn't take all day and I made sure my work load was light today I have the afternoon off other than egg collecting and checking water levels. I might start doing multiple birds a day in the future but for now I am going to see if I remember how to relax and not work.... maybe take some pictures.

 

[Compost King]

Lunch... I used half the Breast Meat.

 

[Molpet]

I let the meat rest 24 hrs to let the rigor motits pass... seems tough to me otherwise

 

[Kris5902]

How soon do you take chicks off of heat and put them outside usually? I lost my first chick out of 40 yesterday morning, I think to overheating or suffocating in a pile up in the brooder corner, my husband switched battery banks at 5 am but didn’t turn my inverter back on. They are three weeks now and about 1/2 feathered out... temperatures here are lows of 40, 65 average daytime. They are wild little things, compared to my layers!

 

[Compost King]

How soon do you take chicks off of heat and put them outside usually? I lost my first chick out of 40 yesterday morning, I think to overheating or suffocating in a pile up in the brooder corner, my husband switched battery banks at 5 am but didn’t turn my inverter back on. They are three weeks now and about 1/2 feathered out... temperatures here are lows of 40, 65 average daytime. They are wild little things, compared to my layers!

The Temperature outside usually determines when I stop giving them heat. I have found that they are much more hardy than people give them credit and if they do get cold they will huddle in the warmest corner. With Temps as low as 46f (8c) I have put out 3 week old chicks if they had large enough numbers and a well insulated coop. I used to be over protective until I realized they did worse with over heating than they did with cold. By week 4 they are usually feathered up good enough for any temp above freezing. If I have a small number of birds or small birds I tend to keep them in for 5 weeks unless we have warm nights as we do in June July and August. A Youtube channel called off grid with Doug and Stacy said they do not use artificial heat at all, they just let the chicks huddle for heat but they only have chicks in summer.

 

[Compost King]

I forgot to give a taste review on that Dorking X Ranger. The first meal I made (which I took a picture of) the meat was high quality but I skipped adding salt and the meal was bland. I made a different Chinese food meal the next day but added a little salt (not a lot) and it turned out to be the best tasting chicken I ever had. A neighbor tried a thigh and drum stick and he seemed very impressed but would not say it was the best tasting chicken he ever had he claims the ones he raised were the best... he also brags a lot so him just being impressed with the meat says a lot.

I weighed the last 2 males I have left at the 15 week point yesterday and they weighed 4.7 pounds. I believe 5 pounds is the cost effective size to dress them out. A friend is coming by Monday to pick out which one he wants to take home and dress out or fill out (he might want it larger) then give me feed back on how it tastes. he once bred a Jersey Giant over a Red Ranger and said he had the largest chicken he had ever seen then predators got it. I happened to buy 2 splash Jersey Giants today at TSC. I am not a fan of them as a meat bird but crossing them with Rangers or CX could be a good idea. My problem with Jersey Giants is that they cost too much to get up to size, they are a novelty pet as far as I am concerned but for crossing with rapid developing meat birds may create something good.

 

[Compost King]

Some pictures I took a couple of days ago..

The Dorking Rooster with his daughters, hiding being the feeder is his full dorking daughter who is the same age as the Dorking X Rangers. Although the Dorking's will get quite large they take a very long time to do so.

The Meat Bird grow out pen... currently there are only males left in this pen but some of the females are in this picture because I was moving only a couple per day to the Dorking coop/pen. In the Middle is a Dorking Cockerel who is the same age as the others but much smaller. They also seem to get sick and die easily, less than half of the ones that hatched are still alive. Crossing the females back to the father might add some vigor and I can eat the ones that come out Red and Buff then save the ones that have the Silver Grey (duckwing) and Columbia patterns.

The Naked Neck crosses! Red ones are with the Red Ranger, there are also some black ones which were attempts to get the black meat fibro trait with the Naked Neck. The female I used only produced 1 out of 6 with that trait. I had 2 but down to one because one died. It would be nice to eventually get a giant rapid growth full Naked Neck with the black meat, I might get there or I might scrap the project in favor of one that is easier and more practical.

a couple more Naked Necks, I am going to end up with a lot of Naked Necks.