Freedom Rangers

[greyfields]

I am going to a poultry show today and I have high hopes I'll meet some Cornish breeders. I'd love to bring in a few studs who are bigger than the ones I have... and if I'm lucky, maybe I'll even find a white one. Update to follow.

 

[eaemnc]

My chicken tractors need to be inclosed and they can't roam because I don't want chickens taring up my garden nor my orchard. They will have to be in tractors. I'm just not sure how I'll get them into the tractors in the morning and back to the coop in the evening? I can't picture myself carrying chickens AM and PM and I don't want to injur them. The egg chickens would be in one and the meat in another. Just not sure about the roosters. I'm not sure about the roosters in the coop/run either. Any suggestions?
I don't want fighting and I'll only need them when I want eggs for hatching.
I'll get a Freedom Ranger Rooster for the Freedom Ranger hens even if the breeders said this, "Quoting [email protected]:
Ann We do not sell hatching eggs nor breeding stock, We ship to ohio through the postal service our day old broiler chicks
beginning FEb. Our broiler chicks are $0.70 each and the shipping to your zip code for 100 birds would be $28.15. Our birds will
not breed back being a terminal hybrid .

Barbara"

Grayfields, how long do you raise the Freedom Rangers before slaughter at peak meat flavor and chicken size? Which did you prefer of the gray and the red. I found someone through this site near me who will split the shipping costs which is AWESOME hats off to this site!!

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[eaemnc]

Hi! I spoke to the woman via the WI phone number the Freedom Ranger breeders. She said that the chicks come in boxes of 100 in the spring. She won't ship less until summer.
I don't want 100 but am trying to get others to go in on them with me for spring delivery.
You slaughter at 9 weeks so it doesn't matter if hen or rooster they come mixed. She said that the rooster traits don't start that young.
I do want to try my hand at taking a hen and a rooster "Freedom Ranger" and see what comes out of it. If the Freedom Ranger hen won't brood them then maybe my Orpington will or I'll incubate them. This wouldn't be until the following spring probably 2009.
I'm looking for people in or near Ohio who want to try the Freedom Ranger meat chickens spring 2008. I want 10 maybe 15 max and the lady in North Ridgevill wants some not sure how many. So if she wants 5 that's 20 - 25 still need people to get the other 75. They are .70 ea. plus split shipping. I'd be willing to drive part way to Cleveland/Toledo/ect.
Let me know

we have some time to find people but don't want to wait to long as to be out of Spring shipment for the chicks.

Thanks so much and let me know,

Ann

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[eaemnc]

Hi! I spoke to the woman via the WI phone number the Freedom Ranger breeders. She said that the chicks come in boxes of 100 in the spring. She won't ship less until summer.
I don't want 100 but am trying to get others to go in on them with me for spring delivery.
You slaughter at 9 weeks so it doesn't matter if hen or rooster they come mixed. She said that the rooster traits don't start that young.
I do want to try my hand at taking a hen and a rooster "Freedom Ranger" and see what comes out of it. If the Freedom Ranger hen won't brood them then maybe my Orpington will or I'll incubate them. This wouldn't be until the following spring probably 2009.
I'm looking for people in or near Ohio who want to try the Freedom Ranger meat chickens spring 2008. I want 10 maybe 15 max and the lady in North Ridgevill wants some not sure how many. So if she wants 5 that's 20 - 25 still need people to get the other 75. They are .70 ea. plus split shipping. I'd be willing to drive part way to Cleveland/Toledo/ect.
Let me know we have some time to find people but don't want to wait to long as to be out of Spring shipment for the chicks.

Thanks so much and let me know,

Ann

 

[eaemnc]

Lynn,

Where are you located? Looking for others to go in on the 100 needed to place a Spring 2008 order. I only want 10 - 20 (MAX)

The lady in North Ridgeville wants some not sure how many but I think like only 5.. That leaves me trying to find someone or others who will go in on the other 80 - 85 left.

Calling all Ohio meat chicken farmers. Can you buy the other Freedom Ranger chicks? They are .70 plus part of the shipping split at least 3 ways.

Thanks,
Ann

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[eaemnc]

Grayfields,

I'm still debating about which of the Freedom Ranger breeds to start out with for my meat chickens. This will be in Spring 2008 and I was wondering of the 3: Gray, Red and Black, which would be best for my family and I? Can you help me to decide on this?

Thanks for all of your valuable info.,

Ann

 

[greyfields]

I'd go with Grey if it were me. Of course, our farm is Greyfields, so I'm biased.

An associate raised a whole batch of the red rangers. The red and grey seem to have performed identically in growth and time to slaughter. So, either is a good choice.

My advice is to plan well in advance for their processing. All meat chickens seem to have a big weight gain between the 8-10 week mark. So if you wait even a week too long, you may be dealing with 8-10 pound meat birds.

 

[blue90292]

okay, i'm going to show my ignorance here. why is it bad to have a 8-10 pound bird for processing?

i plan on buying these birds in late february so that they will be almost to full term the first part of May when we have our big animal tradin days. that way i can sell them unprocessed as broilers and they can process them themselves. we get alot of hispanic and arabic people who are fine doing that sort of stuff.

whatever i have left over, i planned on getting them processed by a local guy.

soooo, why is it bad to have a 8-10 pound bird for processing? i would think customers would like bigger, fatter birds. sorry for my ignorance.

and thank you for this wonderful thread.

michele

 

[greyfields]

For your own use, there is nothing wrong with growing 8-10 pound roasters. Those are the ones I like for my own consumption. But as soon as you start selling them, you'll run up against a few things:

a) At $3 or $3.50 per pound, you start selling $30 chickens. Chicken should never cost $30 in most people's eyes, who view chicken as a cheap dinner idea which will feed a few people for one meal... not making multiple meals out of using leftovers. Something just doesn't "click" for customers that they're getting more meat, and the larger ones I bring to market always sell last.

b) The ammount of feed to go the last couple pounds puts you on an upward swinging exponential curve. The economics get really screwy and the big birds are less profitable than the 3-4 pounders. Actually, you'll be lucky not to lose money on the 10 pound roasters.

c) At my market, 3 pound birds sell first, then 4 pound birds, then 5's. People are always asking for the smallest bird I have left. I don't know if it's the $$ aspect or just what people want.

d) For ethnic consumers (mainly of Hispanic origin here), they are seeking roosters. Traiditionally, a lot of dishes are made with rooster and they still follow the customs. So big meat birds are not a niche to be going for. The niche the birg birds fit in is the married family with too many children; which often aren't spending a lot of time shopping outside the supermarket.

e) You'll probably get charges an extra couple bucks per bird from your processor if they're over 5 lbs live weight. So an extra dollar or two on a 5 pound dressed bird is adding up to $0.40 per pound of cost per beast. That's more than most people's profit margin.

 

[blue90292]

you got that right, cocci killed me this summer. i probably lost 25% of my chicks. with all this rain we've been having here in houston, if the birds weren't getting cocci, they were getting the pox. it was quite the learning experience this summer, indeed.

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