Buying Less Than 25 Freedom Rangers?

[Evergreen160]

I want to raise Freedom Rangers this year but we would like to try 12,... not 25. As far as I can tell 25 is the minimum order from Freedom Ranger Hatchery. Is there anywhere else I can order the chicks from?

The reason I planned to try Freedom Rangers and not XC is that I live in the Rocky Mountains at a little over 8,000 ft. If I can't get a small order of Freedom Rangers is there another broiler that you recommend that does well at high altitudes and can be purchased in smaller batches? Thanks!

 

[Judy]

You can order 15 from Murray McMurray this year.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Cackle Hatchery has shipping as small as 15 birds too, (15) Red Broilers $34.50. Mcmurry's Rainbow Ranger is $36.75 for 15. All those (Freedom, Rainbow or Red broilers) are the same moderate growth meat bird butchered at 10 to 12 weeks.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Hey Evergreen! Maybe we can split an order of 30! I raised 35 Freedom Rangers last summer and was really happy with the results. However, we were forced to evacuate due to the Waldo Canyon fire and ended up...guess where...in Evergreen, housing our 43 chickens (the 35 juvenile Freedom Rangers plus 8 adult hens) in my sister-in-law's garage and dog run. My husband at that point said "NEVER AGAIN!" to meat birds. However, I just broached the subject with him yesterday and asked if he'd reconsider. His answer was "maybe 15...no more than 18 but not 35".

If you are interested in talking more, send me a private message. We'll compare locations. I could host the whole batch for the first few weeks if you are not set up with a brooder and we could transport 12 of them to your house when they are older...or vice versa.

I was thinking about contacting some of the BYC forum folks in this area to see if anyone wanted to split an order when I saw your post.

Let me know.

By the way, we also live right at 8,000ft!

 

[Evergreen160]

Thanks everyone for the responses!

Hummingbird Hollow: Hi there! We are in Coal Creek Canyon which is the foothills West of Arvada. I'm thinking that you are 1-2 hrs South of us. Let me talk over the idea with the hubbie. I don't mind the drive and it would be nice to split an order. We don't have any kind of coop for meat birds right now so we need to figure that out. We have a coop/run for our layers and a small barn and pen for our goats. I was thinking of raising the meaties from June to Aug when the weather is best. Is that what you guys did? How long did you grow them out? What did you do for housing?

That is scary that you were evacuated! The fires were so bad last Summer. I hope we're not headed for the same situation with the snow pack being so low this season.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

My Freedom Ranger chicks were hatched on May 18th. We processes the largest 6 at 9 weeks, on July 20th, and then pretty much did 6 at 10 weeks, 6 at 11 weeks and the rest at 12 weeks on August 10th. Since I was doing them myself, and plucking by hand...plus I only had room for about 6-8 in the refridgerator to "rest" after processing, this worked out best for us. We could have probably done them all at 10 weeks if we had wanted to.

They were housed in our garage in an oversized brooder for the first 3 or 4 weeks and then moved outside to my mobile mini-van/tractor (shown below) for all of three days before we disconnected the tractor from the mini-van and evacuated to Evergreen. The Freedom Rangers spent 8 days in my sister-in-law's garage& dog pen until we moved them to "foster care" with a nice lady near Florissant who agreed to care for them until we were moved back onto our property. They spent about a week there and then were back in the mini-van coop.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

My Freedom Ranger chicks were hatched on May 18th. We processes the largest 6 at 9 weeks, on July 20th, and then pretty much did 6 at 10 weeks, 6 at 11 weeks and the rest at 12 weeks on August 10th. Since I was doing them myself, and plucking by hand...plus I only had room for about 6-8 in the refridgerator to "rest" after processing, this worked out best for us. We could have probably done them all at 10 weeks if we had wanted to.

They were housed in our garage in an oversized brooder for the first 3 or 4 weeks and then moved outside to my mobile mini-van/tractor (shown below) for all of three days before we disconnected the tractor from the mini-van and evacuated to Evergreen. The Freedom Rangers spent 8 days in my sister-in-law's garage& dog pen until we moved them to "foster care" with a nice lady near Florissant who agreed to care for them until we were moved back onto our property. They spent about a week there and then were back in the mini-van coop.

So, talk with hubby and get back with me. No big rush, since it's only January, but it would be nice to make plans.