Raising a variety of meat breeds

[Dave C]

I have not tried hatching yet. Thinking it might be next year's project.

That's when it will get even more interesting for you, deciding what to breed to what and trying different combinations

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I have not tried hatching yet. Thinking it might be next year's project.

That's when it will get even more interesting for you, deciding what to breed to what and trying different combinations

It does sound like fun, and exciting to watch.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Week 5

They are getting harder to catch, I may need to quit the weekly weighin soon. I will try to contiue for at least one more week.

Rainbow Dixies:. This week weigh in at an average of 788 grams or 1.78 lbs. They gained 205 grams.

Red Ranger:. This week weigh in at an average of 852 grams or 1.88 lbs. They gained 266 grams.

Jersey Giant: This week weigh in at an average of 430 grams or
.94 lbs. They gained 125 grams.
Layers: This week weigh in at 466 grams or 1.03 lbs. They gained 154 grams.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I attempted to weigh my "bigs" the 9 week old Red Rangers. They were too large for my scale. The scale has a max of 5 lbs, subtract 1 pound for the bowl I was using, my birds weigh at least 4 lbs.
I will need to get a new scale, I will want weights of the birds during processing.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

My Red Ranger birds seem to have begun out pacing my Dixie Rainbow. All of my RR birds are larger then my RD, however one bird weighed in at 952 g. I should try to tag him to see if he continues to be the largest.
My layers have outgrown my Jersey Giants. This might be partially due to the fact that my JG are with my other meat birds, who are on a restricted diet, feed in morning and evening and allowed to free range through the day. The layers however are given continuous feed. If I could find a way to allow my JG more food while still restricting my cross birds, I may have better results.

 

[Dave C]

I've found JG to be quite lazy so they maybe not picking up much free range food.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I would not call these lazy, at least not yet. They are fast and smart. It was near impossible to herd them in the beginning. So relieved they finally know where their coop is and are willing to go into it at night.
By contrast the hybrids are very slow, most are easy to herd (they just follow the food)
I think I am just going to maintain and see if things improve. Maybe it is just taking them a bit of time to figure everything out.

 

[Dave C]

Yeah I think you do right, if you let them all grow out to your ideal processing weight as originally planned then you will know yourself exactly what is what and next time you will have first hand experience and can plan your project from there.

 

[Dave C]

Some pics of my Slow Grow Sasso's at 3.5 weeks

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

They do look alot like my Red Rangers