They're big enuf - we're goin broke on feed - cheap feed 'til butcher?

[Sparklee]

Sorry about the spelling in the "subject."

The Broilers (Colored Rangers) are big enough at 10.5 weeks. They're eating us our of house and home and now it's time to butcher. But it will take me a couple of weeks to get it all done because I have to do it a few at a time.

What can we feed them during these last days so that we can spend less (as in stop pouring food down the drain) and not let the birds lose weight. (Is that possible?)

We grind our own feed. Here's what we've got according to price in decending order (top item is highest priced):

Fish Meal
Organic Corn
Millet
Sunflower seeds
Wheat
Barley
Field Peas (somewhat similar to soybeans protein wise)
Alfalfa Pellets

So what can we feed until butcher without losing weight, but still cutting costs?

Do they still need the premix? (the stuff with the vitamins, minerals, etc)? Will it affect their flavor if this stuff is removed? I'm probably going to drop the cultured yeast and the kelp, but continue on with the DE.

Right now they're eating about 20.5 % protein. They are on range during the day, but only are out during the shady parts of the day and don't eat much grass at all, nor do they scratch at the dirt/bugs either. They are fairly sedentary compared to the layers that I'm used to.

They get about 10% fish meal and so I'm thinking of dropping that down to 5 # per cwt.

They aren't eating any barley yet because it's supposed to be for adult birds because of their lack of enzymes when they're young. However, they're crowing so maybe they'd be considered adults and therefore able to handle a little barley which is cheaper than corn and wheat?

I hope this is the place to ask this since it's about our meaties. Sorry if it should go in another section.

Let me know if this is just a plain stupid idea because I'm tired and don't really have time to think it all through. Just thinking about the butchering (on my own) taxes my poor little brain. Oh, and these are for our own personal use so we don't have to worry about customers, just family that we're sharing with.

Thanks for any ideas, comments, and/or info you may share.

 

[ChickBond 007]

They're at a weight where their legs will give out if they don't have quality feed. They are susceptible to leg injury.

 

[dancingbear]

How many are there? Can you do 10 in a day? Every time you butcher some, your feed costs will drop, so that will be reduced as you go. I'd say go ahead and get started, and keep feeding what you're feeding now. If you make a drastic change in the diet now, they could become ill or get leg problems. You may be able to reduce the fish meal, though.

I feed mine a 50-50 mix of layer mash, 16% protein (mash as in coarsely ground grain mixture, w/added vitamin and mineral supplement, not crumbles or pellets) mixed with distiller's grain, which is 25% protein, and only $6 per 50 lb bag. The mash is $7.25. Plus they free range. Mine are dualies, though, not broilers. It sounds like yours have a better diet than mine. I don't have the money to feed like that.

 

[Sparklee]

Oh, yes, the legs. Thanks to you both for reminding me.

I cut down from 10% fishmeal to 3% and now that I think about it, I wanted to that right before butchering anyway to avoid any chance that the meat would have a fishy flavor. So great!

I added just a smidge of barley. Not enough (just 5%) to probably cause much diarrhea, but it will cut the costs a little because we got a good deal on it.

I cut out the sesame seeds, too, and will save those for our other birds.

We got 48 of the Colored Rangers from JM Hatchery. And no way can I butcher 10 a day. Maybe if that's all I had to do, but it's not. I think I can get 3 done today and then maybe 5 every other day or so after that. I've only ever done 15 in my life (last year) and that was with 2 others helping. I can barely remember how we did it, but I did do the whole process.

How long does it take for the leg problems to develop? Is it just perosis or other issue? My poultry feed book shows lots of leg problems, but it looks like they're all vitamin and mineral problems that would be covered by using the premix. Also, these aren't regular broilers; these are slow broilers and we've not had a like of problems with these except losing 2 when they were just days old.

Your feeding system sounds good, dancingbear. Nice and healthy.

I like having slow broilers this year, but shockingly (to this newbie) they look very much like our New Hampshire Reds that we bought for layers. The broilers eat a whole lot more, don't digest their food very well, and aren't all that much bigger than the New Hampshire Reds considering how much more they eat (at least that's our experience). Glancing down and seeing lots of food pieces in the Colored Rangers' droppings really bothered me because they aren't turning that feed into meat, are they? So what's the point in buying birds that eat a lot very quickly if they poop it out in the same form as they ate it. And yes, the food was ground, their digestion just wasn't keeping up like our pure New Hampshire Reds' digestion could. And the NHRs ate less.

So next year we'll have dualies and be happier with that--luckily we bought a couple cocks, too, to breed with our NHR hens. If the Colored Rangers had been better digesters, though, I think I'd be a little torn.

If anyone else has any comments about cutting losses right before butchering, I'm all ears. I'm new at this and need all the help I can get.

 

[dancingbear]

Now that I think about it, I've not read of color rangers getting leg problems. Maybe it's not really an issue.

I don't think I've ever seen a chicken poop out whole pieces of food. Are they getting enough grit? Normally, if they have access to the ground, with dirt and rocks, etc., it's not an issue, but I wonder, in this case.

I toss whole corn and BOSS to mine for a treat, I never see any whole corn in the droppings.

I wonder if that's why people use the highly processed broiler feed?

In any case, if they aren't digesting the food very well, I don't think I would continue to feed such an expensive blend. I don't think I'd feed barley at all, it doesn't sound like it's very good for them.

You could try some chicken grit mixed in with the food, and add 2 TB organic apple cider vinegar per gallon to the drinking water. It can help digestion, and if they digest the food better, they probably won't eat quite so much.

 

[TimG]

I have some 7-8 week old Rangers, they are not nearly as clumsy/immobile as the Cornish Crosses. I have heard of people keeping Rangers (actually Redbros, which I think are the same thing) in their laying flock with no problems. I don't think they experience the standard Cornish Cross problems, though mine are waddling a bit at the moment. But, it looks to me more like awkward teenage stage than about-to-collapse stage. I've also heard of people keeping Cornish Crosses to breed, but that takes rationed feed (and often AI).

I know they are hybrids and as such will not breed true. But, I would live to hear from someone who has bred them and find out what the offspring were like. Even though they will not breed true, certain qualities will likely be predominant. I am considering keeping enough to breed and see, but don't know just yet.

I'm also VERY interested in hearing where the New Hampshires that are similar to the Rangers in size were purchased. I'd like a true dual purpose bird and the New Hampshire Red seems a great candidate breed. I've casually been looking for a source of large New Hampshire Reds and it sounds like you have one.

Thanks,
Tim

 

[ghulst]

I have fed Cornish X whole corn starting about the 5th week and increasing untill about 100% by the 12th week. They do good and don't go down on their legs with whole corn.

 

[jaku]

I'd say corn also, but it looks like corn is pretty high on your price scale, which I'm surprised about. Don't forget though, if you give them corn, they'll gain a lot of fat, so keep that in mind.

 

[Sparklee]

Quote:
Yeah, I read somewhere that Cornish X have trouble with digesting because of the hybridization. Some parts of them grow really fast, but the digestion doesn't keep up. I figured that's what was happening with these since pieces of ground food can be seen in droppings. (Not whole food, sorry if it sound like I was feeding them whole pieces of grain, seeds, and legumes.) It's usually just the ground peas, I think, but I'm only going to look at it and guess and not do any physical analysis. Ew. Since they've been eating so much, I cannot keep up with the grinding if I grind it super fine. They are eating a lot right now. The pieces of ground corn is larger, but I don't see huge pieces of corn. Maybe it's because the peas are so hard?

I give my layers (not the Colored Rangers) whole corn, too, and I have never seen anything whole in their droppings. Obviously the layers are utilizing the feed in a normal way as opposed to the way the Colored Rangers are utilizing. Millet was going through the Colored Rangers whole before I started running it through the grinder before I fed it to them.

Yes. They get grit. Granite (insoluable), No. 2, free choice and mixed in. They are out on range (pasture) all day long. At around 5 or 6 am, they spend a hungry hour without any feed to encourage eating grass and bug hunting. I then go down after an hour and put the feed out. They hardly eat any grass at all, nor do they dig to any great extent. I watch them to see sometimes. They scratch sometimes while eating their feed. Sometimes they lay down next to the feeders while eating. Most of the day is spent in the shade reclining with trips to the feeder and waterer a few feet away. They get up and move around and flap their wings and run at each other when there is a lot of shade from the trees ( early morning until around 8am and then in the evening from about 6 until dark). They get next to no grit from the ground. They are not like our year old (duallies used as) layers at all that eat dirt, etc. Not that I don't like the Colored Rangers because I do like them. I'm just describing our experience with them.

add 2 TB organic apple cider vinegar per gallon to the drinking water. It can help digestion

Yep. Also have been using cayenne and cinnamon and turmeric (until we ran out of turmeric).

Thanks for ideas.​

 

[Sparklee]

Quote:
I had thought of that, too, until the digestion issue in my batch. Then I scratched that idea. Possibly once we're down to just hens left to butcher, we'll see that the hens don't have a digestion problem. At that point I'll be sorely tempted to keep a couple. Many of them have very sweet dispositions.


Quote:
Hmmm. Lets go see what I said. Here it is:

Quote:
I think the operative words are "...considering how much more they eat...." I wouldn't want to mislead you. I have 2 large roosters out of 5. A couple of the Colored Ranger **hens** are really close to the same size as the 2 largest NHR roosters, with the Rangers being larger across the breast (as to be expected). And they were born on almost the exact same day. The Colored Rangers were shipped the same day as the New Hampshire Reds and they arrive the same day. They have been fed the same feed. 20.5 protein. I tried to cut the NHRs back to 17% protein, but the other birds with them started feather picking. So I upped it right back up.

The Colored Rangers cocks are much bigger than the NHR cocks right now. I'm not going to dig out my scales and weigh them because they were too large for the tray last time about 3 weeks ago.

For us, it will be a better deal to hatch our own NHRs and feed them for a few more weeks than to pay $2 each (shipping included) for each of the Colored Rangers that eat, eat, eat and don't digest quite as well as we'd like. Part of that is about how much work I need to do with the grinding. Less fine grinding with the NHRs. The breasts won't be nearly as big as with the Colored Rangers. But I think the feed to weight ratio will be more in line with what we'd be happy with. The NHR might be tougher, but oh, well, that's the price you pay, I guess.

Anyway, we got them from Cackle Hatchery. I guess that Cackle does have some trouble with their phone being busy all the time, but we had no trouble with them. We ordered early (I thought) in late Jan or early Feb for an April delivery. No problems. All sexed perfectly. Our NHRs were 5 boys and 5 girls just like we ordered. They gave us 2 extras for a batch of 27 chickens. I'm not sure if that's standard or not, but it was nice. Chicks very robust and ready to eat and drink on arrival.