Home Bred Broiler Update (IMAGE INTENSE)

[greyfields]

Quote:
Nope! They are proprietary strains of broilers created from "heritage breeds" in England. They were imported as breeding stock into Canada and now are available in the US.

I have raised Grey Rangers (hey, I'm Greyfields), Gourmet Blacks and currently Golden Rangers. Here is the link:

http://www.freedomrangers.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=22

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
What I need are trap nests. What I also need is 28 hour days and 8 days a week.

 

[chcknrs]

Quote:
Nope! They are proprietary strains of broilers created from "heritage breeds" in England. They were imported as breeding stock into Canada and now are available in the US.

I have raised Grey Rangers (hey, I'm Greyfields), Gourmet Blacks and currently Golden Rangers. Here is the link:

http://www.freedomrangers.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=22

No online sales at this time, due to computer problems!

 

[greyfields]

You can phone them.

They'll gladly accept your order and money.

 

[chcknrs]

Cool! Now I just have to wait until next week when DH is traveling.................

Question: Do the Freedom Rangers poop as much as the Cornish X? And if they are free ranging during the day will that help? I pm'd ya too.

 

[greyfields]

They will range better than a Cornish X. Mine are pretty active and always have been.

As with any chicken, the ammount of poop they create is a function of how much food they eat. So, Cornish X's take the ammount of food and turn it into poop very quickly. But, a hen would create as much given that she'd eat the same ammount of food (but obviously over a longer stretch of time).

 

[chcknrs]

Are they eating machines like the CX, or closer to Leghorns or in between?
Do you have to limit food or can you free feed? (I prefer to have free feeders but I can handle it)
How far do they range?
I free range my layers, will this be a problem? I just open the coop in the morning and close it at night.
Do they need a tractor like the CX's? (for poop reasons)

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
I would use a tractor for all meat birds, simply for their protection. They are closer to CX in food eating, I'd say probably 10-15% slower growing is all.

I always free choice feed my birds. Some people say that if you pull up food 12 horus per day they'll do better. I don't believe this. The chickens are programmed to do nothing but grow. They will grow wether you feed them properly or not. So if they grow, with nutritional deficiences, I think this is where you have problems.

WHen my broilers get older, I usually let them out into a 40' x 40' pen made out of poultry netting. They seem to use the ground well up in that much space.

 

[BirdBrain]

What about if you had a pen separated down the middle with the two sets of layers and alternated the rooster between the two pens every 2 days or so. That way they would all be getting bred and you would have some way to tell the two groups of eggs apart and as a result have some frame of reference or comparison between the two. It seems that this would work better than a trap nest (which seems like a lot of monitoring) as you would only need to know if the eggs came from a FR or a BSL and not what each individual bird is laying.

 

[digitS']

Quote:
Hey greyfields, I've made homemade cider and sometimes even considered it absolutely 1st rate!!

Thank you for your responses. Please continue allowing us to know a little of what you are up to

!

Maybe one of these days, I'll know enuf about poultry genetics to ask why folks can't dehybridize chickens just as gardeners dehybridize tomatoes. . .
That would be another backyard mystery to me

.

Steve