Crossing my Red Ranger Hens.

[Kris5902]

Sorry your CX didn’t make it... and that the Dorkings are doing less well than hoped for. Thanks for the update though! It will be interesting when you start weighing them up.

I’m hopefully going to separate out my ranger females (I think) tomorrow into a new tractor, and I took the bait... I have taken in three CX from the farmer I split the order with. (She is going to take hers in for slaughter tomorrow) i took her runt, and two medium sized birds. Their back ends are nasty smelling, I’m going to need to bathe them I think! Her two rangers are quite a bit larger than mine, but they have been getting less exercise and have unlimited feed, whereas Ive been forcing foraging by scattering feed with each tractor move. I’m up to 3x daily.

We will be at 8weeks on Wednesday. I’ve noticed many of my “keepers” in the rangers have twisted toes, I’m hoping due to their size and not a genetic issue. I think my 6x8 tractors are ok for maybe 20 birds each. The heat is definitely having an effect on my birds, but I’m running the tractors in dappled afternoon shade. I’ve currently got 37 birds in the one tractor, so once I finish tracking up the hardware cloth tomorrow I’m sure they will appreciate the extra room. Here’s how they are devastating the forage, even at 3 moves per day!

They started by going up the fenceline to the right of the track, returned down that barren section, and are now heading back up hill.

 

[LilyD]

Oh no so sorry you lost your CX they are definitely not as hardy as some of the others I know I have to watch them like a hawk they tend to have heart issues even without eating themselves to death. I have had batches where I have found chicks with flip at only a week or two.

 

[BlueBaby]

@Compost King Are you doing anymore hatching or weighing now?

 

[Compost King]

@Compost King Are you doing anymore hatching or weighing now?

I should be weighing soon, I opted not to weigh the one pulletl I had who had to endure rationed feedings. Now that the CX passed away she is free eating but penned up with her father and should start laying soon. I bet she actually misses the giant compost pile and rationed feed which she often opted to skip so she could forage the compost pile. She is the only half Red Ranger from her hatch. I am about to start weighing a male from the following hatch, he is sizing up well. He turns 10 weeks old on Saturday.

After I clean the Incubator today or tomorrow I will be hatching out eggs laid by the Dorking X Red Rangers, they were bred back to their father in an attempt to make a better Dorking. I will be breeding for a Columbia pattern and the Silver Duckwing pattern, all the ones with red on the wings will be eaten although the Females may be given away to friends who want them as egg layers. The Dorkings I have need more vigor in the bloodline and it is looking like The Red Ranger was the perfect bird to use although the end result may be that the legs are a bit long for a Dorking.
The Red Ranger with the wounded thighs seems to have made a full recovery but she is missing saddle feathers. I am giving both of them a little bit of time off from being Roostered. I Did keep one SGD X RR male and may breed him back to Red Rangers just to make meat birds for my consumption but I am not fully sure who I am breeding them to next. Things depend on the batch of chickens I bought in March. I may have a Jersey Giant Rooster to cross with them.

Here is the young Naked Neck X Red Ranger I will be weighing sometime soon.

The Slow White broiler who will be part of the Heritage x Meat Bird experiments

Red Rangers! the bottom left is the one in recovery, I believe she is ready to be back and at it but I want to give these 2 a vacation from being roostered all the time.

Not the best picture but the Dorking X Red Ranger crosses that I kept around to breed back to the Dorking father, their eggs are going into the Incubator as soon as I get 3 more eggs to fill out the Incubator.

 

[BlueBaby]

@Compost King I like the coloring that's going on in your last picture above, and of course think that it would look good added to my Naked Neck's over here!

 

[Compost King]

He hit 10 weeks today so I weighed him, 3.3 pounds. Naked Neck x Red Ranger. His older sister has a larger frame and is being bred back to the White Naked Neck as soon as she starts laying which should be soon.

 

[LilyD]

View attachment 1805775
He hit 10 weeks today so I weighed him, 3.3 pounds. Naked Neck x Red Ranger. His older sister has a larger frame and is being bred back to the White Naked Neck as soon as she starts laying which should be soon.

Looks good 3.3 at 10 weeks is not bad at all.

 

[Kris5902]

He’s very nice looking! Well, my Rangers are also going on 10 weeks old this Wednesday, and the boys are trying to learn to Crow, which is entertaining... I’m still having a tough time telling them and some of the pullets apart. My really big girl, who has been unable to walk for almost a week, (I kept thinking we would just cull for personal consumption) stood up and walked a few steps today. She is much larger than the 3 CX I’ve taken on to see if I can experiment with breeding them. I’m going to need to weigh some of them and figure out the genders more certainly as we will be taking them in to the processor on the 20th. My “diet and exercise pen” is getting more rationed feed than the “mostly dudes” pen. They get moved twice a day and I feed them by tossing handfuls of feed in front of them and making them walk to it.

In sorting out my keepers I have decided on processing some of the known females, because I can’t rule out the twisted toes being a genetic vs environmental (broken? I can’t tell!) issue. I’ve named the largest CX “Goose” because she honks just like a goose and is getting pretty big now. I can’t wait to start in on my second generation of meat birds! The CX runt, “Shanti”, is by far the most agile chicken I’ve got. I can send up to 30 in for processing (I think that’s what we agreed to?) so I’m going to have to start making some decisions...

I’m currently at 96 chickens with a few more eggs still looking ok-ish in the incubator... I’m hoping Chickie Hawk, my Wheaten AmeraucanaXMarans (a fairly big boy), will have added some size to the cockerels he sired in this batch of General replacement Layers. There’s huge variations in chick pattern, color, and leg feathering in his offspring so far, though at a day or two old there’s really not much I can tell about them yet!

 

[LilyD]

I currently have about a week and a half before my Cornish X are ready to process. I will start with the largest of those and work my way to the smallest. Turkeys are looking huge but still aren't quite sure why I put them in with all the puny little birds. The Meal Makers are looking about the same size as the turkeys but are lighter of course. I will be looking to process my first of those guys around middle to end of July and then the biggest of the turkeys will be done up at the end of August.

 

[Compost King]

Weigh in day. I was able to grab him during the day so I could weigh without waiting for him to Roost!
Week 11 Naked Neck Red Ranger Cockerel/Rooster... 4.7 pounds. that's up 1.4 pounds from last week. My camera is charging and if its fully charged before I post this there will be pictures, if not I will post them in my next post later today. He also crowed and mounted his sisters who were moved to a new pen for breeding. This was the earliest of my Red Ranger crosses to become sexually active.

Its day 10 in the Incubator, when I weed out the infertile eggs, half the eggs were infertile 5 hens one Rooster... the eggs I have hatching now are Dorking X (Dorking x Red Ranger). This is an attempt to improve the Dorking's and make them a bit hardier since less than half seem to survive to adulthood or even to butcher size. I also want to make some light dorking (columbian pattern). I am now collecting eggs for (Dorking X Red Ranger) x Dorking the reverse. My Dorking Mama birds came out of being broody and their broods are surviving in the general flock now. They are both laying really well which I did not expect because I would told they slow down in summer.

The Naked Neck Rooster I have is now living with 4 of his daughters (Naked Neck X Red Rangers) and the slow white broiler. He is excited because he hasn't been with ladies for about month now and those poor unfortunate Pullets were roughed up a bit. One will start laying next week (estimated) and the rest will follow 3 weeks later.

The Red Ranger Hens themselves are now with a full bred Ayam Cemani, Previously I had some imitation AC breeding with them who was large for his breed and I suspect was a mix. Now I will see how well a pure bred does when crossed with a Red Ranger. I also needed to remove the dominant rooster from my AC breeding project for the sake of diversity in the flock I am building with ACs.