Growing your Meat Chickens

Raising meat birds is one of the best ways to feed your family high quality poultry. Below are some tips for raising and handling your birds before you bring them to us.

There are a few different types of meat chickens. Most of them fit into two categories - Cornish Cross Broilers and Ranger Broilers. Typically, Cornish Cross are birds that have been bred to grow very quickly and yield large breasts and a higher quantity of white meat. Cornish Cross birds are the type of chickens that produce the poultry that we are used to finding in the local grocery store. They are best suited to confinement type housing.

Rangers, on the other hand, have been bred to grow a bit slower and tend to have smaller breasts and higher amounts of dark meat. Rangers are best suited for a more free range life and tend to do better on grass in a pasture type housing option

Broiler birds or Cornish Cross type birds are typically ready for butcher between 8 and 10 weeks of age. Yes, they grow that fast. Due to the speed at which they grow they can be a bit challenging to raise. Birds of this type need high protein feed and should be fed on a schedule to ensure that they do not grow too rapidly. Starting at three weeks of age, this type of meat bird should be fed on a 12 hour on 12 hour off feeding routine. Chicks should be fed a 20% protein feed until 3 weeks of age, at which time they should be switched over to 16% protein. Birds that grow too fast tend to have heart, leg and hip problems and/or even suffer untimely deaths due to their growth rate.

Ranger Broilers typically grow at a slightly slower rate and are not as likely to suffer from the health issues that the Cornish cross do. Rangers do best on an initially high protein diet of 20-22% crude protein until 3 weeks of age. From 3 - 7 week of age they should reduce their protein intake to 18-19% and then for the final weeks feed 16-18% protein. Rangers are typically butchered around 12 weeks of age and will yield a carcass that has smaller breasts and more thigh and leg meat as they are more active.

**Information is for reference only and results will vary depending on many farming factors.