Freedom Ranger in Sacramento - California Area?

[emeded]

Hi,
Is there anybody in Sacramento area selling Freedom Rangers or some other type of meat birds besides cornish x? I would like to get couple of them, but cannot keep 25 (minimum order from hatcheries) in my backyard. I was already thinking about splitting order, but I would like to get like 3-4 every month or so.
Anybody? Freedom Ranger, any other type of broiler beside cornish x?

Thanks

emeded

 

[PatS]

You might check and see if you have a feed store in your area -- if not, Woodland or Davis or one of the small outlaying towns would. Like you, we didn't want to raise Cornish cross, so we're going with slower growing birds: dark cornish and red broilers, that our feed store was able to order from the hatchery they use.

 

[gryeyes]

Bradshaw Feed at Bradshaw and Florin Rd sells chicks individually, and they sell Cornish X if you only want a few. Plus other dual purpose (and layer) birds. This is my absolutely favorite feed store in the whole area. Check 'em out!

 

[emeded]

Quote:
Thanks. I usually go to Loomis to get my feed supply. They do not sell Freedom Rangers, but I think they could get me black broilers. I would not mind trying red broilers, as I heard they get a bit bigger then black broilers. I think feed store in Loomis gets chicks from some hatchery in Fresno.
How long do you keep your red broilers and dark cornish around? 12 weeks? What size they reach?

Thanks for the tip.

 

[orientphoenix]

Quote:
Thanks. I usually go to Loomis to get my feed supply. They do not sell Freedom Rangers, but I think they could get me black broilers. I would not mind trying red broilers, as I heard they get a bit bigger then black broilers. I think feed store in Loomis gets chicks from some hatchery in Fresno.
How long do you keep your red broilers and dark cornish around? 12 weeks? What size they reach?

Thanks for the tip.

dark cornish grow rather slower than most dual purpose breeds but u will not be disappointed because they have more width in their breast size but not as big as cornish x

 

[emeded]

Great thx. Can I butcher them at 12 weeks? Any meat on them by then?

Thanks.

 

[orientphoenix]

Quote:
12 weeks is a little to early, try 4 to 6 months or u can wait until they r older to fill up on their breast meat

 

[PatS]

This is our first time out with dark cornish, so we'll see what the timetable turns out to be. I thought it would be a 12 week timetable, but it sounds like more.

 

[emeded]

Quote:
Yea, I just cannot wait more then 12 weeks. My backyard is small, and we would like to have 2 chickens/month. I already have 3 RIR for eggs. So I figure out if I can keep meat chickens for 12 weeks, I could establish following operation with a batch being 2 chicks:

End Month 1:
Batch 1 - brooder (4 weeks)

End Month 2:
Batch 1 - coop (8 weeks)
Batch 2 - brooder (4 weeks)
At this point I would have 4 meat and 3 RIR's in the coop.

Month 3:
Batch 1 - slaughter (12 weeks)
Batch 2 - coop (8 weeks)
Batch 3 - brooder
So operation established. Coop would always have 7 chickens total.


And so on. Using such system, would enable me to always have 2 chickens per month, plus eggs, with only having 7 chickens in the backyard at any given time. I could handle this in my backyard. Now if I have to keep them longer then 12 weeks, and still want to maintain same ratio of chicken/month, that would fill up my backyard very quickly, or to be more specific 2 chickens per 4 weeks extension.

Just wanted to clarify a bit my point of view, and why am I asking such specific questions. I know I could get better results with Cornish X, but I just have hard time believing that those are not GM, as they look so unnatural.

Thanks.