First time Freedom Rangers

[irf1983]

I'm going to get my first batch of freedom rangers in september. Should I feed them 12 on 12 off like I've seen suggested for cornish? Should they be on starters first? Will they roost like a layer does? Thanks!

 

[crperdue]

I feed mine flock raiser (20%) their entire lives and kept feed in front of them at all times.
They do roost some of the time, maybe 50%.

 

[Salt and Light]

I feed my Freedom Rangers 18% 24/7. One reason I do this is because when you put food down and they haven't eaten for a while, they go crazy. I feel sort of sorry for them.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
I've feed mine 20% with round the clock access, though they don't seem to eat when it's dark, with great success.

Very few of mine roost.

 

[petrelline]

Ditto what everyone else said. Mine were fed 20% nonmedicated chick starter 24/7, and they do go completele nuts if the feeders run out. I have roosts but not many of them use it.

 

[mike67909]

I also do the 24/7 access with a 21% feed and free range them during the day

 

[ChickenPotPie]

I am about to process my first ever batch of Freedom Rangers. I think you'll like them.

Ours were 10 wks old on Wednesday and will butchered tomorrow at 10 1/2 wks. I don't want them to get any bigger (5 - 6 lbs live weight).

I kept them on non-medicated chick feed the entire time. They ARE still chicks after all and the Broiler crumble is only 1% higher protein than the chick starter. Chick starter is cheap in 50 lb bags.

I gave them 24/7 access to feed INDOORS until they were 2 1/2 wks old.

I moved them OUTDOORS at 2 1/2 wks. Fed them 24/7.

At 4 weeks old I moved them into a larger protective enclosure. I kept them in this until they were about 5 weeks old. I began to let their feeder run out of food now and then.

While free ranging, I've fed them once every two days - meaning that I filled up their feed trough and let them eat until they ran out. I let them go with out food for a bit and then fill it up again. I was hoping this would encourage them to forage and it seems to have worked very well. They love exploring. It's nice to see them wandering around and acting like normal chickens. I don't mind that they're not ginormous, hulking, barely-able-to-move beasts. I'd rather they be happy, roaming, crumble/bug/grass fed, healthy birds.

They return to their enclosure at night. They roost on a 2x4 board placed about 1 foot off the ground or dog pile into the nest box I had put in for my other birds. None want to sleep on the dirt anymore.

 

[pigfarmer]

As with timg, I fed/feed mine 24-7 with no problems...unlike cornish cross's

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

When we had feed out 24/7 for our Ranger chicks they ate it way too fast and we had some accidents with feeders, including one squashing a chick and another feeder damaged. So I started feeding twice a day using the amounts of grower feed a BYC poster indicated their Rangers consumed. (And yes, they went crazy at feeding time and were nicknamed “The Piranhas.”) At four weeks we put them out in a fenced range area and started them on meatbird crumbles twice a day. They foraged well right off and moved onto fresh grass a few weeks later. They are out foraging much of the day except in the heat of the afternoon (they never outgrew their afternoon naptime piled together in the shelter). They have a gutter feeder in the shelter but it is less crowded to scatter feed on the ground outside. No waste--they always eat every crumble before next feeding.

If scheduling allowed we would try growing some of the roos out to 12-13 weeks, but we need to process them all this weekend at 10.5 weeks. They look plenty big now. We’re keeping out two roos and all six hens for a try at hatching the next batch.