How do the Rangers handle cold weather?

[tnchicken]

Can anyone with experience on these birds tell me how they handle the cooler weather? I will not be able to try them until mid-September and would prefer to keep in a tractor (with a heat lamp) but am afraid it will be too cold by the time to process. Will it slow the growth on these? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[vermontgal]

It would be helpful to know where you live and what you mean by "cooler" weather. By mid-September, we're starting to watch for frosts; by November there could be 6" of snow on the ground... Unless it is really cold where you are, they would probably be fine but might eat more food, thus making a higher cost of raising them.

 

[tnchicken]

Thanks. This would be in Tennessee. I am guessing 10-12 weeks to process (really do not know since I have not tried these before) but that would put processing in mid December. Frost would be late October and unpredictable from high teens to mid 50's moving to mid December.

 

[zephyrcreek]

Mine are 4 weeks old and have been out in the tractor without a heat lamp for a week. I did throw in a few of my CX that are a little older and can really crank out the body heat. I held a few back that were smaller and not as fully feathered. They seem to be doing great and we have been averaging mid 40's at night. It did notice a change when with our CX when we put them outside a week earlier than the range birds. Their growth slowed down for a week, but now seems to be back on track. I would think that the cold at the end would have even less impact than in the beginning.

I'm in Michigan

 

[vermontgal]

At 3 weeks, my dozen rangers are down to having a only seedling heat mat (17 watts) and only when it's close to freezing. We are past our frost-free date (the tomatoes are in!) but we have still had a couple nights last week with low temps in the upper 30s.

During the day, they had the choice of heat lamp + seedling mat or outside. By about 2 weeks they stopped chosing the lamp so I turned it off. I'm not going to pay for electricity they don't even use.
You'll probably be fine with them (fully feathered) into December in Tennessee, but they may eat more food.