New to meat birds need advice

[mrsherrm]

We are getting ready to order some meat birds. I want some opinions on Freedom Rangers vs Cornish crosses from a hatchery like Cackle hatchery. We have 2 Cornish X now they are ready to be butchered. But I read about the freedom rangers being a good free ranging birds. What is your fav messy bird? Do you think hen vs too is a huge difference? What about just getting dual purpose birds?

 

[Habibs Hens]

freedoms have a bit of colored to them for a nice looking flock

CX are just plain white due to the Rock is a dominant white

personally i say CX as they are bigger where as freedoms are smaller although freedoms can be processed a little later as they dont suffer the leg and heart prob

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

If ranging and foraging is an issue for you, I'd recommmend the FRs over the CX. Although there are a few who have had good results getting their CX to forage, for the most part they'll just lie around as close to (or in) the food dish as possible and move/forage very little. I've raised both, a group of 36 FRs last summer and a group of 10 CX this spring. I lost 1 of the FRs at around 3 weeks of age and three of CX, one each at 2, 3 and 4 weeks of age. In both cases, I butchered one of the roosters a week early because it seemed to have difficulty walking, but as far as percentages, I had better luck keeping the FRs alive and healthy than the CX.

In both cases I got large (4.5-6 lb) dressed carcasses, but the FRs, taking a week or two longer to reach butchering age cost a bit more per pound. I did not get to pasture my FRs as much as I was hoping because they spent a week in my sister-in-laws suburban garage while we were evacuated from our property due to a fire and then they spent another week with a kind stranger who "fostered" them for the end of the evacuation period and a few more days while we were trying to clean up and move back home. In neither case was there anything for them to forrage.

I'd be raising FRs again this year, except that I can't order any less than 25 at time, and I've promised my husband, after last summer's experience, that I wouldn't have that many birds at any given time in case of another evacuation. I currently have 15, 3-week-old Red Rangers in garage, almost ready to go out to pasture in a tractor. So far, they seem a lot like the FRs.

Both types are tasty, the CX having larger breasts and the FRs having more leg meat. So, depending on whether you are a dark meat or a white meat kinda person, that may make a difference.

Oh, another thing I liked about the FRs. I don't always have the time and ability to butcher a whole lot of chickens at the same time. Because the FRs are healthier longer, I could take the largest 6 at week 8, do the next bunch the following week and finish them up a week, or even two weeks after that. I kept two hens and one rooster with the hopes of having some FR chicks, and while that didn't work out so well, the rooster was huge and quite tasty, weighing in at over 8 lb at around 6 months of age. I butchered and ate both of the hens, one when she was about 8 months old and one when she was about a year old. While cooking methods are different for a mature hen, they were healthy until the end and very tasty. I may keep some of these Red Rangers a few extra months too to enjoy the flavor of a mature bird.