Good Deal? Right Chickens?

[mamatomany]

I have a local guy wanting to sell me RIR straight run, 20 of them for 1.50 each. They are a week and a half old. I would like to raise them up for slaughter. Is this the right breed, a good dollar deal, and how long until I can process them?

 

[Cadjien_De_Louisiane]

Sounds like a good deal to me. RIR are duel purpose breed. Not sure how long till big enough to process.

 

[dsqard]

It might take a while before there is enough meat on those birds since RIR's are mainly raised for eggs.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I suggest reposting this question on the meat birds thread. I bet you'll have some expert advice in a very short time.

 

[Wildflower_VA]

RIR is a dual purpose bird, so they are good for meat and eggs. At one time the RIR was the chicken of choice for eating because the flavor was considered the finest of all meat chickens. Ever since they came out with the Cornish cross, though, they have been tinkering with RIR to make them more productive layers, so the modern RIR hatchery bird is most likely a "Production Red", meant to be a laying machine, and are not the same as the RIRs we knew 40 years ago. It could take 16 to 20 weeks to get your birds to the point of butcher. A hybrid meat bird will be ready for slaughter in a minimum of six weeks and average of eight weeks for the CX and between eight to 12 weeks for the Ranger meat birds.