Ranger Grow-Out Journals

[petrelline]

Here's the start of my grow-out journal.

Hatch date: 5/17/10

I started with 103 chicks, sold 59. That leaves me with 41.

Four died on 5/23 and 5/24. 37 left.

I'm feeding them Organic Pride (purina) non-medicated chick starter, which is 21%. I'm planning to keep them on organic feed the whole way through. Organic is roughly $24/50lbs. (yes, the feed is expensive, but I can sell these birds at a premium per lb in this area if they are organically fed).

I weighed 20 of the 37 birds to get an average sample. It's not going to be so easy to weigh this many the older they get, but I'll keep trying.

Date Age (days) Weeks Weight (oz) Weight (lb)
5/19/10 1 1.33 0.08
5/28/10 9 1 3.45 0.22

So far my weights are roughly on par with TimG (given that I'm not weighing right on the week, my day 9 weights are a tiny bit more than his day 7s). Interestingly enough these weights are also almost exactly on par with the barred rocks I raised last year. Presumably the ranger's weight will start accelerating more in the coming weeks. (I don't expect the rocks to be able to keep up by any means.)

 

[TimG]

My Rangers and laying flock have gotten sort of mixed and the Rangers are not particularly patient with the weighing, so the days of weighing them all are likely over.

I went through just a bit less than 550 pounds of feed in 11 weeks for 22 birds (plus one that died at 6-7 weeks). They're plenty big enough to butcher and have been for at least a week. I'm confident that 550/22 = 25 pounds of feed per bird is a good conservative estimate and that my birds are averaging just north of seven pounds at this point (they averaged 6 lbs 1 oz at 9 weeks). When the chick starter in the feeder runs out, they'll be converted to layer feed. (I plan to keep most of the pullets and a couple cockerels and see how their offspring compare.)

In fact, I butchered three 11 week old (minus one day) cockerels this morning. They were 9 lbs 0 oz, 8-6 and 8-4. Processed weights were 6-6, 6-0 and 5-15. I ended up taking the skin off the largest -- 10 ounces of skin -- and boning it to get 3 lbs of meat (breasts, thighs and legs). The dogs ate the wings/drumettes and the neck and the rest of the carcass went into the stock pot.

Assuming 25 pounds of feed (my chick starter is $11.95 per 50#) and a cost of $1 per bird (I shared a large order to keep the price down), my cost per bird has been about $7. I'm happy with that. I now know I could make a profit raising them (though not much if I add in the local cost of professional processing) and that I am actually not paying more than the typical Perdue bird in the grocery store (yes, I know there are times when whole chicken is $0.99 per pound or less, but in general).

I'm very interested to hear whether my experience is consistent with that of others.

 

[TimG]

[Duplicate post, wanted to get it in this thread.]

I had seven Rangers processed last week to get down to about 10 keepers for breeding. 3 males and 4 females this time around. Dressed weights: 6-1, 5-6, 7-4, 6-2, 6-0, 4-12, 5-12. They were a couple days shy of 12 weeks at the time of processing. They were bagged and some water may have added slightly to the weights, but I am comfortable saying that one can achieve a 5 to 6 pound dressed weight in 12 weeks. Remembering that I processed three boys just shy of 11 weeks that dressed out at 5-15, 6-0 and 6-6, I think it's safe to say that one could push the processing of some cockerels to 10 weeks and still top 5 pounds dressed.

I haven't weighed any live Rangers in a while, but I will likely give it a try before long.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

 

[petrelline]

I've been trying to keep up with weighing my rangers, although I haven't been posting to this topic. I've only been weighing 8-10 at a time, although I weighed all of them last week when I moved them from the brooder to the growout pen. I lost one more chick between my last post and this one, although when I moved them to the big pen I seem to have gained another one so it all evens out. (on a side note, why is it counting chickens is so hard? I never seem to come up with an accurate number for a batch until they actually go to freezer camp.

Date Age (days) Weeks Weight (oz) Weight (lb)
5/19/10 1 1.33 0.08
5/28/10 9 1 3.45 0.22
6/3/10 15 2 5.81 0.36
6/10/10 22 3 11.63 0.73
6/14/10 26 4 14.89 0.93
6/22/10 34 5 27.33 1.71

If you compare this chart with TimGs on page 1 you'll note that my rangers are SIGNIFICANTLY lagging his in growth for the same time period, by almost a half pound. I've also at this point gone through almost 40 more pounds of feed than TimG, even though we are both feeding 20% feed (mine is organic). In other words, my ranger experience is so far not living up to the hype.

This has been bugging the living daylights out of me. I couldn't figure out why two sets of the same hybrid chicken born only a few weeks apart, fed roughly the same feed, would grow so differently. My only theory has to do with confinement.

TimG mentions in his first post that he had his birds in a brooder for 2 weeks, and then in the barn up to 6. TimG: how big are your brooder and your pen in the barn?

My brooder is really large: it's a big 4x8 box. For the first four weeks my 37 chicks had a LOT of exercise in that brooder, and then I moved them up to the growout pen, which is 8x8. And they're getting a LOT of exercise in that pen. Next week they go outside into the 20x40 yard. My theory is that contrary to their name, the rangers actually gain weight a lot faster if they're confined, and letting them "range" will let them burn off way too much energy. Given that they seem to be little nuclear furnaces on legs, perhaps confining them is a better plan if you're trying to maximize your FCR.

That said, these are easily the ugliest, hottest, smelliest chickens I've ever raised (I've never done cornish X), and I hope it's worth it in the end.

 

[Bossroo]

I would investigate the quality of the feed.

 

[TimG]

I don't remember the size of the brooder (it was makeshift after the planned brooder wasn't staying warm enough); the pen in the barn where they were kept until about 6 weeks was 4 feet by 6 feet. I had 23 at the time. It was opened occasionally before they moved outside, but they did not show much interest in exploring.

In my limited experience, I would put the Rangers somewhere in between Cornish Crosses and typical dual purpose birds in the smelly & messy categories.

 

[pigfarmer]

Hi Tim, and the rest of you folks posting to this post.......

I finally put some of my "rangers" in freezer camp. I put 8 in on Sunday.
I weighed them alive and after processing... The after process weight did not include heart, liver, gizzard.

LIVE weight PROCESSED weight

6# 8oz 4# 6oz
10# 4oz 7# 4oz
10# 6oz 7# 6oz
2 @ 10# 10oz 7# 10oz
10# 8oz 7# 8oz
9# 8oz 6# 8oz
And the BIG ONE
11# 6oz 8# even

NOTE: the smaller bird had leg problems... he had a hard time walking, weak hips?
When I processed him, fluid came from his knees (water on the knee?).

I noticed a pattern of processed weight birds in the 10 pound range... they were about 3# less than live weight.
My birds have been free ranging for about 1 1/2 mo's.

I do have to say, these birds are much better looking and much better mannered than the cornish x breed.
I am keeping my hens and a couple of roo's, for breeding.

I do want to weight my 6 hens and remaining roosters. Of which 2 roosters will be large.

 

[mstricer]

Quote:
What are you feeding yours may I ask? I want to order some today

 

[noladq]

I'll add my basic data. I'm not nearly so organized, but this is what I have.

Started 10, 1 day old Buff Orps (BOs) on 4/18 and added 8 Cornish "Slow Broilers" (CSB) on 5/3 - they were about 5 days old when I got them.

Everyone started on Purina non-medicated chick starter. Inside until 5/23, then out to the tractor. I waited to move out because my tractor fencing is 2x4 wire. They had lights at night, but after 5/13, no lights during the day. On 5/22, everyone was feathered out.

On 6/7 I noted that the CSB were as large as the BOs.

On 6/12, I lost three BOs to a skunk that found a low spot under the tractor rail. Otherwise, I've lost none so far. Knock on wood please!

So far I've spent:

10 BOs and 50# starter: 59.89
8 CSBs: 24.22
3 50# bags of Purina Flock Raiser: 53


I've only weighed the CSB - it's so obvious the BOs are smaller! I weigh 3 or 4 of the larger ones, which have combs, so are males.
On 6/4: 2.5#
On 6/25: 4.5#

BTW - I know there are issues with cornish crosses, but so far all I've had are deformed feet. They still run around, forage, eat voraciously and are really sweet and docile. I wish they lived longer because I'd add a few to my flock. I really enjoy them. The BOs and my Buff Brahmas on the other hand are all much less docile. The BOs have shown NO personality, but they've been raised as meat chickens, so I really can't expect much. I will keep three of them to add to my laying hens at the end of the season. We'll see what I think then.