Tried cornish rocks. Looking for another meat bird.

[Buster52]

I currently have 130 eggs of Corn/Del, Del/Corn crosses in my 'bators now. Takes about a week to accumulate enough eggs for a 48 egg incubator, three weeks for 130 to 140 in my 3 incubators. Run that twice a season and it is clear it isn't all that difficult to hatch out and raise over 200 birds for the table over a single summer.

That's from 11 hens and two roosters.

 

[Southerngirl]

Here is a pic of my extra orpington roos that went to freezer camp. They make a beautiful table bird and are great for dual purpose meat and eggs !

I ordered these from Cackle hatchery and they dressed out great !

 

[halo]

How old were those orps when you processed them? They look a little on the smallish size.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
Yeah, and look at that tiny tub! What's up with that?!

I mean, it can't be more than 3 inches long!

 

[burntmuch]

I think alot has to do with the amount of space you have for your chickens. I have room for 20 or so. Right now I have 23, but 6 are 3 wk chicks. I cant have 50 or so birds. I wish I could. But with 7 or 8 laying hens, I can only have13--15 or so meat birds at a time. So the chickens that get full size in 8 to 10 weeks or so are what I can do.. My goal is to provide my family & a few friends with eggs. & not have to buy chicken at the grocery store.. So for my family of 5. Im looking to do 50--60 chickens a year. So that means 3 batches a year

 

[Southerngirl]

They were 6 months old in the pic when processed, some I have now to process are a year old and a lot larger.

 

[Buster52]

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I think they are fine looking birds. Some folks just expect everything to look like an X bird.

That and it is difficult to tell scale by looking at a small picture.

 

[mike67909]

Quote:
Hey Mike where did you get your freedom rangers & how big are they

I will post some pictures here next week. I plan on butchering them this coming Sunday and Memorial day (monday). I got them from JM hatchery, they will be just under 10 weeks when I process them. The roosters are really big and the hens are still nice sized but smaller. I am guessing the roo's will be 6.5-8 lbs dressed out but that is just a guess.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
That seems small to me. I have some 9 week old Rangers that must average over 6 pounds by now (tomorrow or the next day is weigh-in day and I'll update my journal). Even if you figure 1/3 loss at processing, that's 4 pounds per dressed bird. I'm actually thinking about processing mine before twelve weeks because they've grown so well.

 

[burntmuch]

I just processed my 10 cornish rocks. Right under 8 weeks. Some big fattys there. They all looked good. Acouple had some ascites. but it was clear. My next batch is gonna be Freedom Rangers. Just to try them out.