Crossing my Red Ranger Hens.

[Morrigan]

I processed one at 20 weeks that was only a pound heavier dressed. The boys we processed earlier had less meat on their frames in general.

Do you have a pen you could put bachelors in so they can have a bit more time to gain weight? I'm thinking about adding one more pen to my yard for this specifically.

I'm building a new meat bird coop to have a place to keep meaties and grow out roosters. This little guy was not actually causing any trouble in the flock, and I could have let him grow out more, but I wanted to process at an age were the meat could still be roasted in a more conventional manner to see how he compared, flavor and texture wise, to other birds of a similar age.

 

[Molpet]

Are you my long lost sister? My daughter told her kindergarten class she ate the Easter Bunny over Spring break after she tried rabbit for the first time. She thought it was hilarious, I got a phone call that she had traumatized some of the other kids

 

[Compost King]

I'm building a new meat bird coop to have a place to keep meaties and grow out roosters. This little guy was not actually causing any trouble in the flock, and I could have let him grow out more, but I wanted to process at an age were the meat could still be roasted in a more conventional manner to see how he compared, flavor and texture wise, to other birds of a similar age.

I like to process early because it cuts down on the feed bill. Although this may not apply to every breed/Hybrid I found that with my Red Ranger crosses that processing at exactly 5 pounds was the most efficient. I am finding that to be the case with the CX too. Although I never did an official study on it. I would suspect that maybe 4 pounds is even more efficient. Letting them grow out to full size seems to be a waste of feed. Although I will admit that I let some grow out and live because I thought they were kinda cool. Sometimes its their behavior and sometimes its just how fast they grew that made me admire them. Now those Traits are being passed on even though I didn't necessarily need them for breeding.

 

[Kris5902]

That dark meat could become a Halloween favorite!

I was just thinking the same thing a Halloween special at the local pub “Zombie Chicken Dinner” all natural with no artificial colors or flavors!

 

[igorsMistress]

I like to process early because it cuts down on the feed bill. Although this may not apply to every breed/Hybrid I found that with my Red Ranger crosses that processing at exactly 5 pounds was the most efficient. I am finding that to be the case with the CX too. Although I never did an official study on it. I would suspect that maybe 4 pounds is even more efficient. Letting them grow out to full size seems to be a waste of feed. Although I will admit that I let some grow out and live because I thought they were kinda cool. Sometimes its their behavior and sometimes its just how fast they grew that made me admire them. Now those Traits are being passed on even though I didn't necessarily need them for breeding.

I think we still have other traits we look for besides meat quality and feed efficiency. They may vary from person to person depending on goals and the flock keepers personality of course.

 

[Parront]

I think we still have other traits we look for besides meat quality and feed efficiency. They may vary from person to person depending on goals and the flock keepers personality of course.

That trait here is crowing. No rooster zone. Best male here would be a silent one!

 

[igorsMistress]

That trait here is crowing. No rooster zone. Best male here would be a silent one!

Yes, I do prefer a quiet rooster but fortunately my neighbors don't mind.

 

[BlueBaby]

@Compost King That Dork O chick is growing like a weed. It's already fully feathered, and almost twice the size of the NN's that hatched a day after it did! I still think that it's a pullet, and it has a lot of reddish-brown on feather coloring in a wild type look.

 

[Morrigan]

I actually like the sound of a rooster crow. I missed Duke's crow after I had to put him down and am glad that my keeper NN seems to be developing a respectable sounding crow. A lot of my neighbor's have their own chickens and roosters (plus barking dogs and shooting practice), so no one complains about a little crowing.

 

[Compost King]

@Compost King That Dork O chick is growing like a weed. It's already fully feathered, and almost twice the size of the NN's that hatched a day after it did! I still think that it's a pullet, and it has a lot of reddish-brown on feather coloring in a wild type look.

Sounds like you won the Lottery, Some are turning out to be runts and some are turning out to be quite large quite fast. I just moved some Dork X to the adult coop because the Juvenile Coop is too crowded. I struggled to figure out which one were from the first batch and which one were from the 2nd batch.

I didn't hatch as many Dork O's as I did Dork X. And the few that I did hatch out went into different systems. 2 went into the Rationed Feed flock as Buddy Birds to the CX. 3 went into the Buddy Birds of the male CX with unlimited Feed and Limited space. They ended up picking up CX eating habits and got quite large. and 2 went into the Juvenile Coop with the Dork X because they were red and none of the Dork X are red. I am going to do some photo comparisons to see Size differences after I process the last CX.