hatching meat chickens - question

[tracylhl]

I am getting ready to process some Freedom Rangers today. I'm trying to decide whether to hold back a few for breeding. My hang-up is that I only have one coop for my grown birds (layers and otherwise) and want to hatch under Buff Orpingtons. If I don't have them seperated as Freedom Rangers and knowing that their coloring changes with breeding generations, will I be able to tell which ones are meant to be meat in time to process them if I hatch them alongside layers and DP?

 

[jessicayarno]

Do you have hens and a rooster that you plan on holding back? You should be able to tell by growth rate alone, they grow faster than a DP or layer.. I have some second gen. right now and they are way bigger than my DP babies were at this age.. Oh and they eat like little piggies too.. The only thing I heard, was not to have your layers start on the high protein feed that the meat birds require...

 

[tracylhl]

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. Your post on your 2nd gen. birds is what got me thinking about holding some back after I had already decided to freeze all of them. I'm glad to hear you're having good results. I think I'll try my hand at it!

 

[jessicayarno]

Good luck and keep me posted..