Got 'em! 150 Colored Range Broilers (aka Freedom Rangers)

[Buster52]

Quote:
The Rangers are a hybrid from all that I have read.

Where was that? The stuff I read says, yes, they are a developed breed from careful artificial selection (but then, all breeds are), but nothing I have seen says they are hybrids.

 

[brandywine]

We butchered our JM Range Broilers last week.

I started with 102 birds. Lost one to mystery (every time I go away for two or three days and leave Professor Chaos in charge, one bird of some kind dies mysteriously). One poor doer I culled and ate. Three dead in stupid accidents (one we ate, two wasted). Four are still here -- three escaped in the dark when we were catching them to load them onto the trailer and lost count, and one hen I am contractually obligated to keep alive forever.

So we processed 93 at 11 weeks of age/

Cost was $100 for chicks.

About $600 for feed (@2300 pounds)*

$ 239.25 for processing @ $2.25/bird for basic processing, plus .60 each for bagging 50 of the biggest ones. (I cut up the smaller ones for use as parts, prepped in a way that works for our cooking habits.)

* But I raised 13 replacement layers and four cornish x with the rangers. So cost to feed the rangers (less 17% of total) is more like $500.

So let's say cost of raising -- not counting capital depreciation on the fencing and waterers, or labor -- about $8.50/bird.

I have sold a few, and will sell a few more, for $14/bird.

Not one of these birds dressed out under five pounds, and a lot of the bigger ones were seven pounds or a little more. I do not have total weight for the birds or a big enough sample to get an average, but my guess would be six pounds average.

As for food for value, here's a perspective.

A SAR teammate paid me cash for three birds last Tuesday at our monthly meeting.

Professor Chaos and I had our usual late-night dinner post-meeting at Eat-n-Park, which was adequate, but nothing wonderful.

Wednesday morning I had a barely edible breakfast at a diner near the processor.

And that ate up ALL the money Chris had given me for three birds. Three mediocre (at best) meals.

He and his girlfriend will get maybe 8-12 excellent meals from those three large birds.

And we'll eat all year from the birds in our freezers.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
FCR (dressed weight) would be around 3.8. That's incredible! I'll be happy if I'm anywhere close to that.

Incidentally, I'm down to 149 now. The two with bad legs are gone, and one died of "sleeping sickness", because I don't know what else to call it. They just want to sleep until they die. Perhaps it's heart trouble.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
The Rangers are a hybrid from all that I have read.

Where was that? The stuff I read says, yes, they are a developed breed from careful artificial selection (but then, all breeds are), but nothing I have seen says they are hybrids.

They are definitely hybrids. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=61284

EDIT: Just thought I'd add that you can make your own here: http://www.hubbardbreeders.com/products.php?id=5
So, for $8,000 you could get your own breeding stock and there you go!

 

[brandywine]

Quote:
FCR (dressed weight) would be around 3.8. That's incredible! I'll be happy if I'm anywhere close to that.

It must be the very lush summer pasture I've had them on, with the frequent moves of their shelter. I bet, based on the crops and gizzards of the two birds who died in accidents after pasturing that I dressed out without food withdrawal, that half their intake was pasture forage, including goatberries, fruit drops, bugs, grass, clover, weeds. So maybe a quarter of their calories from forage, since the corn/soy-based feed is so much more caloric.

I did not expect them to get that big.

And the best part is, that's not the total meat we use. I use the giblets, necks, and feet as dog food, too, so I got back maybe 50# of dog meat with this order, maybe more. And of course, an enterprising cook uses all those parts for stock, etc.

FWIW, my cornish x, raised with the rangers, were HUGE at eight weeks -- over 7.5 pounds each, dressed. Scary huge. Jabba the Chick huge.

So this is a good lesson learned -- I timed the chickens well this year, and will keep to a similar schedule in the future. They made maximum use of forage, and needed minimal shelter (we ended up just using an old EZ-up 10'x10' canopy). I learned that they are much happier in very tall weeds with tree canopy and bushes, so we'll take advantage of that next time. They do well either following or in with the goats, as long as I make a creep to keep the goats out of their feed. And I worked out a watering system that cut my total chicken labor by about 75%

 

[UncleHoot]

Just to post some notes...

The first 2-3 days, they really liked to scratch through the pine shavings. In fact, I couldn't even tell if they were pooping because it wasn't building up anywhere. But then the scratching became less and less, and now, at one week, they don't seem to be scratching much at all. Perhaps it's a learned behavior. Scratching didn't seem to amount to anything, so they quit. Not sure.

I normally start all my chicks on crumbles (Dumor from TSC). This time, the chickens came a day earlier than I expected and I had completely forgotten about feed, so I just gave them the usual 20% mash that I had already mixed, then the next day, I went and bought crumbles, and put them in a separate feeder. They barely touch the crumbles. In fact, I'm not sure I'll ever buy crumbles again.

At one week, 149 of them are eating perhaps 7-10 lbs of feed per day, and around 1.5 gallons of water.

 

[vermontgal]

I also report a FCR of 3.8 lbs dressed weight for my 12 rangers slaughtered at 10 weeks.

I did a little survey of various FCR posts for rangers and that is summarized here - (scroll to bottom) - https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7883-meaties

 

[jaku]

Compared to the Cornish X's, how much do they eat?

 

[vermontgal]

All my numbers - feed, weights - are posted on #12 of this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=217642&p=2

 

[UncleHoot]

Thanks for the info, VermontGal! I am trying my best to keep track of exactly how much I'm feeding this group. I started with 250 lbs of feed, and I think they have eaten about 100-150 so far, but it's hard to say, since it's all just in a big tub right now. I'll know exactly how much they ate when it runs out, which will probably be some time next week. We're splitting the processing dates, but I plan to precisely record their processed weights, along with their total feed intake this time around. Harp's thread is great for also gathering this information, plus you can easily see what an impact weather has on FCR's and yields. I hope to add just a little bit more info, as well.

Today, the birds were moved outside to the tractor, at 16 days old. It was about 58 this morning, and I figured they would huddle together, but no; they were too excited to be outside! Boy, they were sure hard to catch, though. I ended up laying a small rubber tub sideways and "scooping" them into it, 10 at a time, until I got down to the last 30 or so, then they were much harder to trap that way.

I must have miscounted before. It looks like JM shipped exactly 150, not 152 as we originally thought. We've lost 3, giving us 147 remaining. Or perhaps 2 were carried away by some predator that snuck in the brooder/coop, but I think we simply miscounted before.

When I left them this morning, they were running around eating grass (and their feed), having a good ol' time in the morning fog. It's a hot and humid day, today, so I'm glad I got them outside, as the heat inside would have been nearly unbearable.

Thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next 24 hours, so I'll probably have to check on them in the middle of the night, but I think they're pretty happy for the moment.