My own variety of meat birds

[Adorae]

Got the weights for the 3 week old Bresse and the just slightly younger Freedom Rangers.

The egg layer I weighed that is being raised within the group weight 3.31oz.

The Bresse were averaging 6.47oz. The biggest being 8.28oz and the smallest 4.51oz.

The Freedom ranger chicks average was 7.73oz and the biggest baby was 10.15oz and the smallest was 4.83oz.
You could feel the muscle on all of the meat chicks when you handle them, and you can feel the lack of muscle on the egg layers.

I'm worried about the Freedom Ranger chicks. The biggest ones are starting to act the way I think Cornish Cross would behave. Hanging out by the feeders and laying around a lot. They get worked up when I reach in there to grab them, they wobble a bit, like their little legs are having trouble supporting them. I think I will raise the next batch on the normal chick crumble to see if they have this problem with a lower protein diet. They are massive though.

 

[Adorae]

I took a whole day off on Friday to try to catch up on chicken stuff and chores around the house, and I only got a few things off my list. Hopefully can get the chicks moved this week.

The average weight for the Freedom ranger chicks was 426.8g, the lowest being 350g and the highest was 496g.

The Bresse's average was 340g, biggest was 446 and the smallest was 240.

The next batch of meat birds are due to hatch on Wednesday. They will either be pure Freedom Ranger or a Dark Cornish and Freedom Ranger cross. After I clean the incubator I will set the eggs I have collected that are all Dark Cornish/Freedom Ranger.
The batch that is about to hatch will be raised on the meatbird 24% protein feed instead of the 30% game bird feed like the current one. I'm interested to see what kind of difference it may or may not make.

 

[Adorae]

The next batch hatched! This batch is a mixed bag because I just grabbed a bunch of eggs from the chicken tractor that had the freedom ranger hens when I thought my freedom ranger rooster had hurt himself. Luckily he recovered, but the eggs had still been set.
So this is a mix of Freedom Rangers, Dark Cornish, and DCxFR.

11 Chicks total have hatched, I have 3 left in the incubator that I will give another day, but I think they are late quits. I'm hoping the late quits are reduced in this next hatch since I have been supplementing the parents with the Ferrell breeder supplement.

The little dark baby is a Silkie mix. I stuck their egg in to try to determine if my Silkie had started laying. One of the Bigger chicks hatched with what I think might be an umbilical hernia. I started a thread in the medical section of the forums.

 

[FunClucks]

View attachment 3804622
The next batch hatched! This batch is a mixed bag because I just grabbed a bunch of eggs from the chicken tractor that had the freedom ranger hens when I thought my freedom ranger rooster had hurt himself. Luckily he recovered, but the eggs had still been set.
So this is a mix of Freedom Rangers, Dark Cornish, and DCxFR.
View attachment 3804623

11 Chicks total have hatched, I have 3 left in the incubator that I will give another day, but I think they are late quits. I'm hoping the late quits are reduced in this next hatch since I have been supplementing the parents with the Ferrell breeder supplement.

The little dark baby is a Silkie mix. I stuck their egg in to try to determine if my Silkie had started laying. One of the Bigger chicks hatched with what I think might be an umbilical hernia. I started a thread in the medical section of the forums.

Let us know if that Ferrell breeder supplement helps things. I'm interested to hear. Also, super cute chicks!!! Glad so many of them hatched for you.

 

[LaurenRitz]

I am free ranging my Rudd Rangers. I give them free choice feed 12 hours, and let them out at dawn. They eat the feed, but apparently prefer grass and bugs.

They seem to do fine free ranging, but at 8 weeks they prefer to eat sitting down, even if they're eating grass.