besides Cornish X. Anyone have any experience with them? I have pretty much unlimited land they can roam on, and hopefully reduce the feed bill versus traditional Cornish X. But, how is the meat? I don't care for the meat of young dual purpose birds, finding it tough and stringy. I want breast meat mainly for grilling or breading and frying... not roasting or stewing. Is the meat of these new Ranger style meat birds as tender as the meat from Cornish Cross?

Following.

I have a few ideas, but want to hear from the folks that actually know.

Following also.
Getting ready to do our 3rd rounds of cornish cross. LIke the meat and size of the birds.

Always found the meat from regular laying chickens to be on the tough side also, had to cook them low and slow. A little while back though I read about letting the bird age for a bit after killing and cleaning. So I tried it, kill, skin or pluck, then put the carcass in a bag in the fridge for 3 days or so, then either cut up or package whole and freeze. Makes a huge difference in the tenderness of the meat, much better. Been doing it that way since with regular barnyard mix roosters, heritage breed turkeys (usually a year old or so when butchered) and guineas. Like night and day the difference in being able to enjoy eating them.

Freedom ranger grow slower. Dual purpose grow slower yet and have thin hatchet shape breath. I have not found anything better than Cornish x yet. I guess that's why they are popular.

Look up Hoover Hatchery the listed several combo birds in the past the straight meat birds to me were mushy meat tasting and had a lot of issues with legs a a heart problems.

I bought some White Rocks from them years back a heavy built layer the best birds I ever had over the years.

Resting the chickens makes day and night difference. We put them in 60 quart coolers with ice for 3 days.

We always go back to Cornish X. The feed bill has been pretty much a wash after the extra time. Shorter time is better all the way around, less mess, less hassle, more time to dedicate and use elsewhere. You can use game bird feed and take off even more time and only adding $1.75 a per bag in cost., done in six weeks instead of eight.



Owl

I've always done the cornish crosses but picked up the last 3 freedom ranger chicks that tsc had just because they were 50 cents apiece about 2 months ago. I probably only fed about 5 pounds of feed before I let them go in the barnyard haven't fed them since and there probably around 5 pounds. As far as flavor I haven't tried one yet.

The freedoms seem much more like a "real" chicken. The do take longer to get the same weight and it seems the extra time adds to their being a little less tender. It is hard to beat the cross for time, feed efficiency, and meat ratio. Never tried resting the meat more than a day. Could definitely make a difference in tenderness, but won't improve the meat ratio and time.

We do both cornish x and Red rangers. Actually Murray McMurray refers to them as Murrays big reds. We also did ginger broilers this year. None will get a breast like the x's. But you can free range the reds and gingers and cut your feed costs big time. The reds butchered out at about a 5 lb. average and gingers were a bit smaller at 4 lbs at almost 10 weeks. The x's will go generally 7-8 lbs in 8 weeks. But at about 5 weeks they basically lay at the feeder all day. They will not free range.
I prefer the reds meat over the x's because to me they taste better as a whole bird. But if your going to breast them out for say boneless skinless breasts then the x's is the way to go. That's why I raise both.

Thanks for all the replies. It actually never even occurred to me to raise both, lol. I guess that's what I'll try. Think I'll do mostly Cornish X and get a few rangers to try out.

I raised some Cornish cross in a chicken tractor this summer starting as soon as they were big enough to not get thru the wire. I Put the food on a pulley system so you could access it from the outside. After four weeks I raised the food up at night so they were only getting free choice food for 12 hours a day. This cuts down on issues with growing too fast for bone structure . Worked good for me so far as I didnt have any of those issues. I also moved the tractor twice a day morning and Evening and made sure they always had water. I raised three Barred rock roosters with this last batch of meat birds and they both got along fine even though the barred rock were significantly smaller than the Cornish. In fact the smaller roosters held there own just fine. I’m sure you could raise some other meat bird alongside the cornish without issues.

After just pricing chicks I'm having second thoughts, lol. Cheapest I can find them is $3 a chick!

check metzer farms or murray mcmurray hatchery

A few times this year I got them really marked down at the feed store once they didn't sell and getting bigger. Double win. Half price and less time and feed to get them grown out. Of course I had all ready ordered my birds for the year so raised more than I was planning. Sold a few more than I had pre orders for. The rest we will eat.

We raise 100 X Cornish and 200 Red Rangers each year. My wife likes to cook with and the dark meat is better on On the Red Rangers at less we think so. The X Cornish have better grilling meat. We get them in batches of 50 to 75 at a time.

If anyone needs meat birds Welp has a GREAT sale going on but it's only for delivery the week of Thanksgiving! $1.30 a bird and free shipping.

https://www.welphatchery.com/fall-sale/cornish-rock-broiler-male/

I am 15 I have been having chickens since a young age
The best place is to get them cheap I found this year is at like a farm supply store
This year which was a suprise I got 6 for $.45 a chick now that did not get all of them but I thought it was worth the deal.

laying hens that lay the best are leghorns excellent breed and any version of red chicken Rhode Island Red, Production Red. Etc

I will say I an getting sick of chicken. My wife could fix more deer. I think i will sell more chickens or raise less next year so she dosent have as much in freezers to fix. She likes chicken more than i do i guess.

I got some deer out of the freezer today to thaw. If she does not get the hint i guess i will be cooking one night. Its winter time for red meat. Chicken is better when its warm out.