Raising meat birds in the Fall

[foamspoon]

Hello,

I am interested in raising meat birds in the fall and harvest around Thanksgiving. Any concerns I should have? I live in NY. It should not be too bad weather wise? Would Red Rangers be better than Cornish X Rocks?

Thanks,

Bryan

 

[HS Pye]

Have you looked into broilers? They can't reproduce and aren't super strong healthwise. But they will put on that meat by November.

HS Pye

 

[ChocolateMouse]

CX's are the only birds that will get to a decent size in the nine weeks between now and thanksgiving. If you don't mind a 3-4lbs bird you can go for something like a freedom ranger. My CX's are seven weeks today and handling the night in the upper 40's just fine but not sure how they'd handle the cold and snow of late October with those bare chests. Still, anything else you'd be lucky to get a 3lb carcass from in 9 weeks I think.

 

[aoxa]

Have you looked into broilers? They can't reproduce and aren't super strong healthwise. But they will put on that meat by November.

HS Pye

CX Can reproduce, but they will not breed true.

They have to be raised a certain way, but can't is definitely not accurate in this statement.

 

[HS Pye]

There is truth to that. I worded that wrong. Broilers 'can' reproduce, but you have to have them super healthy and take the best of care for them. However, it has been said many times that the hatch rate isn't very good and if your hens do lay eggs, the chick might not live anyways.

HS Pye

 

[beanmcnulty]

I raised some rangers last fall- up to thanksgiving- and we had cold wet weather in october (in ohio). They definitely didnt get in as much feed so a lot of them were behind the curve, had to keep back like 10 for being too small, I go 9 weeks on ranger cockerels and they get 5 pounds live weight under normal (not cold and wet) conditions.