Alternatives to Freedom Rangers

[greyfields]

OK. I have been spending today reseraching alternatives to Cornish Crosses. Thanks to some tips from Abundant Life Farm, here is what I can report:

1) The Freedom Ranger lines were indeed created from Hubbard parent lineage. They come out of the "differentiated growth" line in their catalog, with a multitude of colors and growth rates available to the customer (in that case commercial hatcheries).

You can see the various combinations here:

http://www.hubbardbreeders.com/products.php?id=5

Click on the "parent stock female" to see the varying results crossbreeding with different sires.

2) Ideal Hatchery does not provide enough information on their Black and Red Broilers to determine if they are from the Hubbard "Red Bro" lineage. If someone would like to e-mail or contact them for more info, I'd be indebted.

3) I was able to contact JM Hatchery. They current offer Red Broilers which come from the Red Bro differentiated line. They also currently have Gold and will be offerin those for sale very soo as well. In a couple more weeks, they will be offering the black line as well.

They have been swamped with orders since FR's went out of business, so there could be backlogs on ordering. But, they were helpful and looking at their product line they aren't big retailers of status quo industrial broilers.

http://www.jmhatchery.com/

4) If anyone at all tomorrow could e-mail Hubbard USA sales and try to get a list of all hatcheries which order the Differentiated Growth product line from them, I'd also be indebted.

I'm stupidly busy here with a Farm Market season beginning on Friday.

So, anyway, do NOT fear. You will not be cornered into raising Cornish Crosses if you do not want to.

 

[SimplyAbundantFarm]

Thanks for the update, Grey...

So the Golden was also a Hubbard bird? That's good to know. Even better, to know that JM will be carrying them, as he is a great guy to do business with. (I just need to be careful not to promote him too much, though, or there will be no Goldens left for me when I am ready for them!)

I love his line-up of birds -- not a Cornish Cross in the bunch. I may try to order some ducks from him a little later in the season.

I also have a few more resources to share (and, from what I hear, they have also absolutely swamped today with the FR news). They are all located in PA.

George at MT-DI Hatchery. He doesn't have a website, but his email address is: [email protected] Phone number is (814) 942-7024. I have an electronic copy of his paper price list. If anyone wants it, just contact me through my website and I will be happy to email it to you. He has the reds this year and will be adding a French white next year that looks like it will be pretty interesting.

Moyer's Chicks (www.moyerschicks.com) sells a brown pasture-type broiler called the Kosmos 22. From what I read on the APPPA list, there is no picture of this bird on their website, but they have info about the K-22 on the price page. They confirmed today that they are hatching them this season. Their phone number is (215) 536-3155

You may be able to find the equivalent of the Grey Ranger through Hoffman Hatchery (www.hoffmanhatchery.com). They sell a Silver Cross Grey broiler which they advertise as being "a very fast growing meaty bird with dark gray feathers weighing 11 to 13 lbs." Their phone number is (717) 365-3694. Please note that they only take mail orders to the best of my knowledge, no internet based orders at this point, but you can still see their website online.

Hope that helps...

Mary
Simply Abundant Farm
www.simply-abundant.com

 

[UncleHoot]

Wow, there is a lot of good info in this thread!

Even for those of us who will probably never breed chickens, there is still a lot of info here on how the various hybrids are created.

Several hatcheries have Black and Red broilers. After reading about them on the Hubbard site, I think it's a good bet that these hatcheries are getting them from Hubbard (although I guess we can't be completely certain).

But I got to thinking... What would happen if you crossed one of the White males with, say, the Red Bro hen? 6-7 lbs live weight at 8-9 weeks with a healthier bird? Who knows...

 

[SimplyAbundantFarm]

Hi UncleHoot -

I think that you would probably end up with something like this bird...

http://www.hubbardbreeders.com/product_leaflets/JA957.pdf

I believe that MT-DI is planning to add this bird to their line up next year, in fact.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
Ahhh... I didn't notice that the JA 57 had a separate list of males to breed with.

My last batch, last year, were "Cornish Roasters" from McMurray. They said to grow them out 2 weeks longer, so they were about 10 1/2 weeks at slaughter. I'm not sure they grew any slower, as most of my family thought they were getting a small turkey.

I never actually weighed any of them, however.

For me, I just want a few to experiment with (not breeding stock). I've got a handful of customers, and I'm not sure I want to just say, "Hey, I'm growing a different type of chicken now. Hope you like it!" and then end up with 50 frozen chickens in my freezer. So, I'd really have to order a fairly small quantity, perhaps 20 or less, and then probably give out a few freebies, just to gauge people's opinions.

 

[greyfields]

JM stated that the Golden was also a Hubbard bird, even though I don't see it on the Hubbard website.

I've also e-mailed Hoffman to determine if the Silver/Gray is from the Hubbard differentiated growth line. I'll let you know what I hear.

p.s. Awesome info!

 

[greentree]

THIS is an awesome learning experience!!! 'Course, I really love the science of this as much as raising the animals!!

If only Hubbard had a Texas office.....

Thanks for all the great info..please link us to any thing else you find!!

Nancy science geek

 

[greyfields]

We call our incubator "a science experiment that ends in a good meal". Of course, the only science experiments we like better are those that end in alcohol.

 

[greyfields]

By the way, did anyone pick up on how non-Cornish looking the 'Cornish Cross' sires are in their catalog?

As stated before, the parent lineages themselves are hybrids, but selected to the point where they are nearly their own 'breeds' (little variaton in the genes). They little resemble a Cornish or Rock you'd see in the backyard.

 

[greentree]

I wondered about that too. Maybe our American Cornish are bigger, like our cars!

Nancy