Colored Rangers

[anthonyjames]

So I originally had some Red Rangers on order from S & G Poultry. But the unexpected shipping costs had me cancel me order and order the Colored Rangers from JM. When working with S & G I told them my end goal was to breed and hatch out my own meat crosses. I was going to try crossing the Red Ranger Roo with a small batch of 6 - 10 of my hens. they said that because I wanted to do this the Red Ranger Roo would work great.

So now that I ordered the Colored Rangers are the hens good or somewhat good layers? Can I just breed out my own Colored Rangers if I keep a roo and 10 hens?

Or should I just keep a roo and breed with my original hens I was thinking of? 2-Speckled Sussex, 2-Buckeye, 2-Austrolaps and may be 4-RIR.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Winsor Woods]

That's an interesting question.

 

[canada-goose]

My Gourmet Black hens are good layers. I can't speak for the other types, though.

They're a hybrid (I think) so you might not get very consistent results in your breeding project. I hope the experts will chime in soon.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
Lots of us are about to give this a try. I have at least one pullet that laid an egg before 15 weeks (just two weeks ago). My Rangers are in with my layers so it's hard to keep track of who is laying (but I saw this Ranger in a special spot of her own and tiny pullet eggs in that spot three times). I plan to isolate the Rangers in a few weeks and then set some eggs in the incubator this fall.

Rangers are a hybrid, so will not breed true. The big questions are how far will they drift and how varied will the results be. My plan (at the moment) is to cross the Rangers with a New Hampshire or Buckeye in an effort to stabilize the line into something that will grow faster and bigger than the typical dual purpose bird, but might come up shy of the Ranger's 10-12 week processing time. Of course, it may turn out that the Rangers breed reasonably true or that I can stabilize the line through selection rather than introducing a New Hampshire or Buckeye.

 

[Bossroo]

If you add the New Hampshire or Buckeye, all that is accomplished is adding another variable to the genetic soup of an already genetically mixed up bird. Adding one of these breeds would work to stabilize the genetics only if one of these breeds is already in the mix in the grandparent generation. That is assuming that the selected purebred bird has strong genetics for their breed traits. Examle: To quote an centuries old Arab saying for purebred Arabian horse breeding... " Let the grandsire of the sire also be the sire of the dam."

 

[TimG]

Quote:
I'm not sure I buy that, although I admit to not having a strong background in genetics.

My Rangers are various shades of red, gold in terms of genetics, I believe. But, there is more than one gene which influences the shade of red. If I introduce a dark red Buckeye to a Ranger line and select for color, the line will move towards the darker red of the Buckeye. It will do this regardless of whether or not there is any Buckeye in the Ranger ancestry. At least I think it will.

It seems intuitive that crossing one mixture with another mixture will produce more variable results than one mixture with one known. Intuitive isn't always right, of course!

 

[anthonyjames]

I called and talked to Joel as JM and he said it is best to keep a roo and breed with existing hens. And TimG said it correct because they are a hybrid.

 

[slackwater]

Quote:
I'm not sure I buy that, although I admit to not having a strong background in genetics.

My Rangers are various shades of red, gold in terms of genetics, I believe. But, there is more than one gene which influences the shade of red. If I introduce a dark red Buckeye to a Ranger line and select for color, the line will move towards the darker red of the Buckeye. It will do this regardless of whether or not there is any Buckeye in the Ranger ancestry. At least I think it will.

It seems intuitive that crossing one mixture with another mixture will produce more variable results than one mixture with one known. Intuitive isn't always right, of course!

I think the PP was saying that introducing a new breed will not STABILIZE a hybrid. It will only be introducing another genetic variable. But, if you continue to use the same purebred and select towards the larger/faster-growing offspring, you will basically be creating a new 'type' - but, then again, taht depends on whether you breed back to the purebred each generation or are striving for a self-sustaining meat bird w/o any outside genetics.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
I said I would be attempting to stabilize the line, meaning the line I create, not the hybrid. In fact, I said I would be introducing a New Hmapshire or Buckeye in "an effort to stabilize the line into something that will grow faster and bigger than the typical dual purpose bird, but might come up shy of the Ranger's 10-12 week processing time." Which seems to me to make clear that the expected result would not be a Ranger.