Freedom Ranger Black Broiler

Mine were in transit from Wed. to Fri. morning. I was at work, but DH unpacked them and dipped their beaks, etc. They had plenty of space, two waterers and two feeders. There is no competition for anything. There haven't been any losses now in two days. I picked up one each of the red and blacks, and yes - the reds are obviously heavier and like you said, shaped more like a broiler than the blacks. At 9 days old, they definitely have some weight to them. It will be interesting to see how they all turn out.



My set-up. it shows less than half of their space. They are in an 8x8 coop, and the barrier was taken down within a few days. I'd say it was at least 5' in diameter.
You know, it's been such a weird winter. A lot of infertility. A lot of die offs. Especially the silkies. I ordered 20 from Meyers. 6 Golden Comets, 7 White Rocks and 7 Delawares. The first two group are growing like gangbusters. The Delawares were puny. 1 DOA and 3 more died over the 1st week. Of the 3 left I have one that is very small (male) and two big strapping females. So I think it was just the type this year.
One the other hand, yours are smaller and look different from the reds. I think they gave you a ringer.
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You know, it's been such a weird winter. A lot of infertility. A lot of die offs. Especially the silkies. I ordered 20 from Meyers. 6 Golden Comets, 7 White Rocks and 7 Delawares. The first two group are growing like gangbusters. The Delawares were puny. 1 DOA and 3 more died over the 1st week. Of the 3 left I have one that is very small (male) and two big strapping females. So I think it was just the type this year.
One the other hand, yours are smaller and look different from the reds. I think they gave you a ringer.
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You never know, I guess! But the website does say that the reds will be ready for processing at 9-11 weeks, and the blacks at 11-13 weeks, so it makes sense that they are smaller.
 
I just wanted to throw my "two cents" in about the black rangers. I don't have much experience with them, but I'm in the process of raising Red Freedom Rangers and one black ranger that was a "bonus" bird (from the Poultry Hatchery). Our black one is a roo...we got ours at the beginning of March and we were going through a really cold spell...below zero temps, so the shipping was hard on them, but the red ones seemed (and have continued to be) pretty hardy...no issues with them. The black ranger I thought was cool because it was so different and he seemed to be taking the shipping the hardest, so I gave special attention to him making sure he was drinking water and eating. 9 weeks later, he is still with us, very tall and a good size, but not nearly as big as the other roos. He's taller then them, but not as "hefty" weight-wise. I just processed 4 of the red roos yesterday (Sunday) and our smallest, dressed, was 5.5 lbs and largest 6.75 lbs. I'm curious to see what the black ranger dresses at. For now, we plan to keep him around for a few more weeks at least to see how much bigger he gets now that the most aggressive eaters are in our fridge! lol
 
I came in from the coop to do a computer check on the black rangers because two were in our order of Freedom rangers as complimentary I guess. and there is a male and female and I was just thinking since they appear smaller than the red ones and of a different temperment I would keep them and see what happens as they grow .. .. the little hen just follows me around .. . I don't have much time to spend fussing with them but they are cared for very carefully, . .. . .excercise, feed, bedding etc. No signs of any health issues .. . . just that they are smaller and more interested in people than the others (red rangers) that arrived at the same time . I'm assuming they ARE rangers from the size of their feet but perhaps it was just another breed. they're never going to make their weight as broilers and I don't have a rooster with my RIR's and Barred Rock hens so maybe a cross with the black cornish aka ranger would be an interesting meat bird and the hen can do the work of raising any peeps. However, now I'm thinking it over after hearing about your losses Bobbi . .. . sure hope that was the last one to go belly up.
 
Thanks, Havenhound. We did lose one more. Well, we put it down. A couple of weeks ago we noticed one in the coop that wasn't walking, had no weight. So DH put it down and fed it to the cats. The surviving black rangers all look nice and healthy. We're going to butcher the reds tomorrow, and the blacks probably in a couple more weeks. It will be interesting to see the differences. The blacks still look smaller and have a whole different build. Where the reds look... chunky, the blacks appear to be more streamlined, if that makes sense. They look almost more like laying breeds.
 
Well - we processed the Freedom Rangers. We did the red ones two weeks ago, and the cockerels ran anywhere from 5 1/2 - 7 lbs. The pullets were a steady 3-4 lbs. They were 10 1/2 weeks old. The carcasses looked like what I think a broiler should look like. We did the black ones today. I haven't weighed them all yet - I will do that Wed. or Thurs. when I vacuum seal them and put them in the freezer (they're "resting" in the fridge right now.) I did weigh the biggest cockerel. He was 5 1/2 lbs. I am not impressed with the carcasses of these birds. They look scrawny and more like layers than meat birds. I will not be getting them again. The pullets were at least as large as the cockerels, though, so I think they did better than the red ones. We did find a few interesting things in the gizzards. Three of them had their gizzards packed with broken windshield glass!!
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We did find a few interesting things in the gizzards. Three of them had their gizzards packed with broken windshield glass!!
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Yeesh, did they think they were goats? Though I did have some chickens that liked to eat styrofoam.

Thanks for posting your experience. I decided to stick with the reds again for this fall.
 
Just bagged and weighed my black freedom rangers. They ran consistently in 4-5 lb range, the largest being 5 1/2 lbs. They have a lighter skin, so the black pinfeathers really show up. No, I wasn't able to get them all out, but it doesn't really matter as we don't eat the skin anyway.
 
Is there any updated experiences/info on these birds? I was browsing hatchery websites and found that both Ideal and Freedom Ranger Hatchery are using the exact same picture, which I found interesting. Just wondering if it's been long enough for any of the hatcheries that offer them to improve their strain for hardiness, etc..?
 

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