Cornish Cross versus Freedom Rangers

We have harvested our broilers and done a comparison of our Cornish X (CX) versus our Freedom Rangers (FR). Here are the results.

Here are explanations of the different lines of the table.

Days to processing – we got the CX two weeks later than the FR because we knew that they grow faster.

Mortality – We always have problems with our CX and have a 10-20% mortality - sudden death, leg problems, enlarged craws, etc. The FR are much hardier.  Only 3 FR died but one got its leg broken somehow and didn’t gain weight and the growth of another was stunted by illness so we only counted those two as one bird. We processed 40 CX and 46 FR.

Total lbs of meat per bird - the CX caught up and surpassed the FR in weight gain per bird. They are bred for rapid weight gain and our experiment proved it. The FR actually looked larger but the CX are stocky and when you picked them up you could tell the difference. I think getting a 5.9 pound average carcass in 7.5 weeks is just amazing

Chick cost – We get our CX cheaper through 4H so they have an unfair advantage here.

Feed consumption and cost. Both CX and FR were on pasture but the majority of their feed still comes from purchased concentrates. The CX are much more efficient in feed conversion.  The FR are much more active and burn calories through their activity and it takes longer to get them up to weight. Feed is the main cost so this is a big issue.

Processing cost – we were originally going to harvest the birds ourselves but since we are going on vacation next week we don’t have time to harvest 86 birds. So we took them to the Mennonites. I have no problem paying them $1.94 per bird to do it.

Overhead costs – we estimate our overhead costs to be about $0.25 per lb. This is for mileage to take the birds to get processed and for wear and tear on waterers, feeders, heat lamps, pasture coops, etc.

Total cost and cost per pound – as you can see, it is not economical to for us to produce our own chicken. We can buy it cheaper in the store. We grow our own because we like backyard farming and producing our own food.

Our conclusion – I like the Freedom Rangers. They are pretty, active, and hardy. I don’t like Cornish Cross. They are ugly, lethargic, and die easily. However, we do have to consider the bottom line and I am leaning towards CX.

TASTE TEST – Next week we will take 10 CX and 10 FR iced in a cooler on our 2000 mile drive from Antietam Glen, Maryland to Alta Canyon Park, Utah to serve up a taste test at the Johnson family reunion.  Stay tuned for the results.

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/jumbo_cornish_x_rocks.html

http://www.jmhatchery.com/images/Lg-Colored-Range.html

Questions from Readers

What's best for their "Bath's" we put out a container of ash - I heard it needs to be very small soas to choke any mites like diatomaeous earth we'd really like to use the ashes from our stove insert in an old small vegable bing from a past refrigerator

We just let them give themselves a good old fashioned dirt bath. We haven't had any issues with mites.

My chickens stopped laying eggs. Some of the couple of the eggs I cracked had watery egg yolks, What could be wrong with them. Thanks.

Is is possible that the watery eggs weren't as fresh? As the eggs become less fresh, they become more watery. Did all of your chickens quit laying eggs at the same time? It isn't a normal time to molt. You may have a pest of some sort.

I just discovered a large amount of (what I believe is) "Cup Fungi" in my veggie garden. I don't have a clue what to do about it. Is it safe for my plants? Do I need to get rid of it somehow? Please help! Thanks, Alyson alyson.smth@gmail.com

You must have had some wet weather lately. Cup fungi is a term used for many cup shaped mushrooms. The problem is many of them can send off spores and it may look like you have taken care of all of them, but they could come back. Since they are in the garden, you must be very careful how you take care of them. Do not use any old fungicide from the store, most are poisonous. If it is on just a few leaves, remove the leaves or areas it has affected. If entire plants are affected you may want to put a bag over the plant (to keep the spores from spreading further) and dig up the entire plant and dispose of them. Maybe even scrape up some of the soil below and around the plant and dispose of it as well. You will want to apply a natural fungicide on the area. You can make a Neem Oil spray by mixing 2 TBS neem oil (found at the health food store) to 1 gallon of water. Neem oil is a natural fungicide and should help prevent further spreading.

Readers, feel free to leave any additional advice in a comment.

Water rings

By Jennifer

This is how I like to water my tomato, squash, melon and pepper plants:

• First, dig a moat around the plants. (For the vacation-starved gardener, imagine you're creating a little palm tree on its own desert isle, which in my case is as close as I'll probably get to the real thing. Is my husband reading this?)

With tomatoes and squash use a one-foot radius for the moat; peppers can be a bit smaller. 

• Use hose to fill water ring, let water soak into the soil, then fill again. Go away for a week. (Like, on a trip?) 

If you'd like you can make channels to join all the water rings together to make watering easier. It will be like having your very own grownup sand box. (Again, do I need a vacation or what?) One year, while I didn't plan it, the five tomato plants in my garden box formed perfect Olympic rings as a lead-in to the China summer games. (Someone get me out of here!)

This method allows you to do a thorough, deep watering. Infrequent, deep watering helps plants form strong roots. Water rings are especially useful in clay soil to contain, and allow to soak, the water that would normally run off. l I water my tomatoes every 7-10 days this way. As you can see I also use grass clippings as a mulch to retain moisture.

Lazy

by Mike

People are like water. They tend to follow the path of least resistance, not always, but often. I think the laziest year of my life was my Freshman Year in college. I remember one time that our remote control to our TV broke. At first, we ended up watching just one channel because no one had the energy to get up off of the couch. Then one of our friends broke his leg and he had to use crutches. We commandeered his crutches, moved the couch within crutch distance of the TV, and used the crutch to change the channel. This was a lazy, path of least resistance, method to change the channel to our precious TV.

You may ask why I bring this up. Marisa and I had some free time the other night so we decided to veg in front of the boob tube for a while. We don’t have cable but we do have Netflix streaming to our TV. I found some episodes of an interesting show called The Lazy Environmentalist. It is normally shown on the Sundance channel. John Dorfman is the host and he has an interesting perspective. He is an environmental advocate but he believes that most people will not embrace environmentalism unless it is easy, cost effective, and convenient. While this is not true for everyone I think it is an interesting idea. In his show he visits people in there homes or businesses and tries to help them be more environmentally friendly. However, he doesn’t seem to expect them to make extreme measures, rather he tries to find easy ways to change what they do that will help the environment, while at the same time helping them. It is an entertaining and educational show that we both enjoyed.

I like John Dorfman's philosophy and I think it mirrors the philosophy we try to have with backyard farming. We want to encourage and inspire everyone to try to raise there own food. We know that not everyone can have a goat, or raise there own chickens. We do believe that everyone can do a little something to start raising there own food. Marisa had some great comments from a lot of you about what we can do to garden in our apartment. Now I have a new question. Think of those of your friends that don’t have anything to do with gardening. What would you tell them to do that would be an easy, unintimidating way to start raising there own food, or at least eating more locally? How can we help people start down the path of self sufficiency? Please comment on your ideas. I think, that once people eat spinach from there own garden, or once they go to a farmer’s market they will be bitten by the backyard farming bug and never go back.

MIA

Michael and I have been MIA (Moving Into an Apartment) which has caused us to go MIA (Missing In Action) and have neglected just about everything that didn't have to do with moving.

We sold our little backyard farm with high hopes to find a slightly larger home on a little more land where we could expand our operation. It seems like every house we are interested in just slips through our fingers like sand. We got in a bidding war over 2 houses we really like and lost out on both. Can you believe it?!?!? A bidding war in this economy and this housing market? I don't get it. This week there was a darling white house with green shutters and a wrap around porch on an acre, in my price range. We set up the appointment to see it, and got canceled on because it went under contract. I was devastated.

Bare with me as I bore you with family photos. Should I whip out the wedding pictures? Michael and I just celebrated our 12th anniversary. That would really bore you to tears!

Speaking of tears, I'm still a little bit weapy about moving. I put a lot of time, energy, and love into this little house and it no longer belongs to me. Plus, I have so many wonderful friends in this neighborhood that I really miss.  It would be one thing if I got to move into a different home and start a garden, and think about where to put bees, or dream about the possibility of a cow or some pigs.  But no, we are in an apartment.

So I've had some "ugly cries" over the last two weeks. I really don't cry....ever. But I have this week. And by ugly cry I don't mean shedding a tear or two, an ugly cry is where you are slobbering and mascara is smeared all over your face. It isn't pretty.

I decided that I needed to quit being a "princess" and to get over myself and make the best of the situation. So I'm on a quest to discover the possibilities of apartment farming. I mean, that is what this blog is all about. It isn't about going out and buying a farm, it is about taking small steps in the right direction, wherever you are and with whatever property you have! All of a sudden I feel empowered.

Apartment #268...get yourself ready baby.

Please leave a comment with any apartment farming ideas you may have for me!!! I basically have a balcony to work with. I requested a south facing patio, but they only had East facing. It is about 4 feet by 6 feet. Thanks in advance for your ideas!

They're BA-AAACK!

By Jennifer

Silly me. I thought (OK, make that hoped) last year's discovery that leaf miners were devastating my leaf crops would be an isolated incident, never to be repeated in my fair garden. I got rid of all infested leaves and rotated crops for this season. Not only was the spinach I planted at winter's end in a different area of the garden, it was in a container with packaged soil. Immune, right?

Nope, as my dinner salad harvest showed me. Here again are the eggs, stacked like rice grains on the underside of leaves. If left to hatch the eggs will become burrowing worms that fatally channel between the layers of leaf tissue. (Fatal, that is, to the leaves.) All this on a merry chase to become adult flies and lay another generation of eggs. 

What's a gardener to do? One method is using floating row covers atop the plants so the fly can't land, but the evidence of eggs shows I'm already too late into the insect's life cycle for that. 

The Internet abounds with ideas for using different chemicals on the soil around leaf crops, but I really don't want to go down that road, especially since mine is just a small patch.

My approach, then, will be daily checking of leaves, constantly harvesting those with eggs. This may be one case where my Baby Bear-sized garden is just right -- because it takes hardly any time at all to inspect the leaves of each and every plant. The eggs are easily removed from the leaves by scraping or cutting away. So far I've seen no evidence of hatches. 

Have any of you successfully dealt with leaf miners? While somewhat entertaining, this thread on an Internet forum shattered my belief that gardeners are a kind, friendly, resourceful bunch. Please restore it for me!

Broiler Harvest

By Dale M. Johnson

I spent an enjoyable day helping friends harvest their broilers. There is satisfaction in turning these chickens into food for human nourishment. It is not cruel or abusive. It is ethical treatment of these animals. It is part of the circle of life which the Lord has laid out for us. It is a symbiotic bond.  Our purpose is to take good care of these chickens for their short lives. Their purpose is then to sustain our families. They have a right to a life without pain or discomfort. We have a responsibility to raise them properly and a right to use them for food. I believe it is a holistic relationship ordained by God. 

I understand some people feel squeamish about the harvesting process. I did too at first. It is not pleasant but you get used to it. You get blood on you. The smells are disagreeable.  Eviscerating the chickens is distasteful. But in the end when you put an iced carcass in a plastic bag and is ready to put into soup or in the frying pan or on a rotisserie, you know that it is all right and there is a sense of fulfillment in being involved in the processing. 

I am not suggesting that everyone needs to raise and harvest their own chickens. But I am encouraging everyone to understand and accept this process and appreciate the farmers who do it for you. So when you pick up a frozen chicken in the store, please remember where it came from – it once lived on a farm, a farmer took care of it, a processing company harvested it for you, and there is nothing wrong with you, your children, and your grandchildren eating it as long as you appreciate it and give thanks to Heavenly Father for it. 

Dale at the killing cones.

 Dale eviscerating a chicken. The gizzards in the foreground will be cleaned later. 

 The finished carcass goes into ice water.