Freedom Ranger Grow Out Times - Cornerstone

[RoosterGeek]

JM Hatchery says on their website that the maximum time you should process their birds is at 11 weeks. I intended to process them this weekend at slightly over 11 weeks, but something came up.

It looks like we (DW and I) will be processing them next weekend at around 87 days or so.

Do you think taste/texture will be affected much by this?

Also, anyone know of Cornerstone Farm's turn around time for orders? This would be a problem of being a fulltime student and forgetting to order the supplies ahead of time. My wife says it's me just being a man. I told her, "Nah..."

 

[eKo_birdies]

Quote:
no. not at all. if anything it will be better.

 

[tnchicken]

I think you are fine. 16 weeks is about the max I would process in terms of toughness. It's probably a question of efficiency after 11 wks.

 

[CDennis]

I agree with everyone else!

 

[TimG]

I had no texture/toughness problems with one I processed at 17 or 18 weeks last year.

 

[RoosterGeek]

I wrote Kendall Fox of Freedom Ranger Hatchery and he said:

"It won't hurt the meat at all. You will just have a bigger bird and have more feed in it. The meat should actually taste better since the flavor in a chicken comes from age, but one week won't make much difference."

That makes me feel better. Thanks for the responses folks! It would be neat to see where the maximum grow out times not affected by poor texture/toughness.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
Maybe, but a lot of toughness and texture is dependent upon how it is cooked.

The first bird I processed myself was a one year-old rooster. I cooked a small piece in a skillet to see how it tasted and found it tough. I slowed cooked the rest of the bird and had chicken a dumpling, no texture issues.

But, the big thing with Freedom Rangers and Cornish Crosses is you don't want to be spending the money on feeding them after they've reached a good size because you don't get as good a return (extra weight) on the money you spend on their feed.

 

[eKo_birdies]

Quote:
Maybe, but a lot of toughness and texture is dependent upon how it is cooked.

The first bird I processed myself was a one year-old rooster. I cooked a small piece in a skillet to see how it tasted and found it tough. I slowed cooked the rest of the bird and had chicken a dumpling, no texture issues.

But, the big thing with Freedom Rangers and Cornish Crosses is you don't want to be spending the money on feeding them after they've reached a good size because you don't get as good a return (extra weight) on the money you spend on their feed.

i thoroughly agree w/ tim.

we aged a 6 mo old freedom ranger for a week, roasted it like usual... and it was DELICIOUS!