Can you breed Freedom Rangers?

[pringle]

Hey I was curious to see if you could grow out freedom rangers and perhaps breed them with a dual-purpose chicken to produce a fast growing meat and egg chicken? Can I even keep a freedom ranger this long without it getting overweight? I figured it would be interesting to try and breed them with a Delaware rooster and see how the offspring grow out. Anyone have any advice or useful information?

 

[digbychris]

So this is a very, very old post but Im considering the same thing with an australorp rooster. How did the OP's turn out?

 

[Life is Good!]

We kept a batch of FR's for longer than 'should have' - life got in the way.
Frankly, they were eating us out of house and home. Once they were no longer part of the flock, I realized how much they were eating....our feed consumption dropped from 3 bags of feed/wk (for only 12 chickens!) to 1 bag of feed for 3 wks! (for 8 chickens).
It's something to consider. Because even though they foraged really really well, they are still eating machines. And I spent a whole lot less on coop bedding after they were gone too!

 

[oldrooster]

So this is a very, very old post but Im considering the same thing with an australorp rooster. How did the OP's turn out?

It might be a long time to get a response the poster hasn't been on here in 5 years! Folks it looks like a zombie thread to me!!!!

 

[SunnySkies]

Well, I'm going to try it. I have a couple FR pullets that just didn't grow like their brothers, so they will be spared and go into the layer flock. The roosters with the layers are Australorpe/Jersey/Wynadotte barnyard mixes, and are very good sized. I butchered some of their brothers, and they had a decent amount of meat on them. Perhaps adding in a meat line will improve that....if these girls survive.

I'm planning to cut their feed back, reduce the protein, and not free feed them when the boys leave, in hopes of slowing their growth, and eventually they can free range if they wish, and we shall see how they do.

 

[ijon]

It works good if you cross with a dark cornish.