Crossing my Red Ranger Hens.

[Parront]

X3
I make myself eat the breast from store bought. . home grown is easier to eat. Every one I know wants dark meat..

We are lucky, hubby likes breast and I like dark. But we both like duck!

 

[Compost King]

If I could have roosters, I would keep one that was that easy to handle. 5 pounds @ 16 weeks is respectable. I like to eat the annoying roosters first!

Its the Red Rangers, that guy only has 1/4 Red Ranger and still managed to get up to a decent size in 16 weeks. Most of my chickens are big hatchery quality including the Red Rangers. Having Red Rangers to cross with other breeds leads to having decent sized roosters. Also The Red Rangers have much smaller females, still meat bird sized but not huge eaters like the males as far as the crosses go so they make for decent layers. Getting a Red Ranger to breed with a random rooster seems to work out great. Even if you wanted to keep all your chickens uniformed you could use a Hatchery Quality NH Red and you will end up with great dual purpose offspring. I am so glad I tinkered around with Red Rangers.

I wish I was your neighbor. I'd even pitch in some chicken feed.

The Neighbor currently receiving free meat lost his legs in Vietnam, he can't really handle raising chickens so I give him free meat and eggs. As far as I am concerned he earned the free meat eggs. I have serious hearing loss from my service and he makes phone calls for me. I live in a VA Hospital neighborhood so there are plenty of disabled veterans here we and we look after each other .. or most of us do.

 

[Parront]

Its the Red Rangers, that guy only has 1/4 Red Ranger and still managed to get up to a decent size in 16 weeks. Most of my chickens are big hatchery quality including the Red Rangers. Having Red Rangers to cross with other breeds leads to having decent sized roosters. Also The Red Rangers have much smaller females, still meat bird sized but not huge eaters like the males as far as the crosses go so they make for decent layers. Getting a Red Ranger to breed with a random rooster seems to work out great. Even if you wanted to keep all your chickens uniformed you could use a Hatchery Quality NH Red and you will end up with great dual purpose offspring. I am so glad I tinkered around with Red Rangers.

The Neighbor currently receiving free meat lost his legs in Vietnam, he can't really handle raising chickens so I give him free meat and eggs. As far as I am concerned he earned the free meat eggs. I have serious hearing loss from my service and he makes phone calls for me. I live in a VA Hospital neighborhood so there are plenty of disabled veterans here we and we look after each other .. or most of us do.

Does sound like I want some red ranger chicks!

 

[Morrigan]

The Neighbor currently receiving free meat lost his legs in Vietnam, he can't really handle raising chickens so I give him free meat and eggs. As far as I am concerned he earned the free meat eggs. I have serious hearing loss from my service and he makes phone calls for me. I live in a VA Hospital neighborhood so there are plenty of disabled veterans here we and we look after each other .. or most of us do.

It's so nice to hear people doing right by each other.

 

[Compost King]

Does sound like I want some red ranger chicks!

There are other Free Range hybrids worth checking out too. Red Rangers were the first I dealt with, later this year I will breeding a Slow White Broiler as soon as she starts laying. I also want to see if I can get a CX hen to survive into sexual maturation and breed that too. Sure Red Rangers are turning out good but possibly some of the others are better. One issue with Red Rangers that I am not concerned with but others may be is that they are super aggressive, and I just have hens. Those hens will block other chickens from getting to food or water. They are large enough to seriously hurt other birds too. Mine when free ranging would pounce on top of Bantams. The slow White Broilers have the opposite issue, they are so timid that they were kept away from water by more dominant chicks and 3 out of 4 died on me. I had to isolate the one surviving chick in a pen with even younger chicks to ensure her survival. With a variety of free ranging type of meat birds one might be better for one person and another might be better for someone else. Red Rangers, which I impulse bought, turned out to fit what I needed as far as drawing a columbian Pattern out of my Silver Grey Dorking's. Now my surviving Slow White Broiler will be used to make white meat birds, I honestly do not like how timid they are because I have to go out of my way to keep them protected. When my 1 bird matures I am hoping she starts defending herself a bit better. Currently she is in a flock of chickens that are a bit younger and even though those chickens (half red ranger) are dominant they do not bully her because the grew up with her.
Most of that is anecdotal, someone else could have the exact same hybrids and have opposite results. And maybe someone else "red Broiler" was created in a different breeding program than Red Rangers. I would love to see Hatcheries sell an assortment of free ranging meat birds and then we can pick out the ones the fit our flock and process the others.

 

[Kris5902]

The Neighbor currently receiving free meat lost his legs in Vietnam, he can't really handle raising chickens so I give him free meat and eggs. As far as I am concerned he earned the free meat eggs. I have serious hearing loss from my service and he makes phone calls for me. I live in a VA Hospital neighborhood so there are plenty of disabled veterans here we and we look after each other .. or most of us do.

I love how raising and sharing food can bring a sense of community and support. Especially when it can be so easy for people dealing with disabilities, particularly ones from events in adult life, to isolate themselves. Thank you for your service! I know I’m not American, but your service was not just to your own country, but IMO,the good of humanity overall as well.

 

[Molpet]

Its the Red Rangers, that guy only has 1/4 Red Ranger and still managed to get up to a decent size in 16 weeks. Most of my chickens are big hatchery quality including the Red Rangers. Having Red Rangers to cross with other breeds leads to having decent sized roosters. Also The Red Rangers have much smaller females, still meat bird sized but not huge eaters like the males as far as the crosses go so they make for decent layers. Getting a Red Ranger to breed with a random rooster seems to work out great. Even if you wanted to keep all your chickens uniformed you could use a Hatchery Quality NH Red and you will end up with great dual purpose offspring. I am so glad I tinkered around with Red Rangers.

The Neighbor currently receiving free meat lost his legs in Vietnam, he can't really handle raising chickens so I give him free meat and eggs. As far as I am concerned he earned the free meat eggs. I have serious hearing loss from my service and he makes phone calls for me. I live in a VA Hospital neighborhood so there are plenty of disabled veterans here we and we look after each other .. or most of us do.

 

[Parront]

There are other Free Range hybrids worth checking out too. Red Rangers were the first I dealt with, later this year I will breeding a Slow White Broiler as soon as she starts laying. I also want to see if I can get a CX hen to survive into sexual maturation and breed that too. Sure Red Rangers are turning out good but possibly some of the others are better. One issue with Red Rangers that I am not concerned with but others may be is that they are super aggressive, and I just have hens. Those hens will block other chickens from getting to food or water. They are large enough to seriously hurt other birds too. Mine when free ranging would pounce on top of Bantams. The slow White Broilers have the opposite issue, they are so timid that they were kept away from water by more dominant chicks and 3 out of 4 died on me. I had to isolate the one surviving chick in a pen with even younger chicks to ensure her survival. With a variety of free ranging type of meat birds one might be better for one person and another might be better for someone else. Red Rangers, which I impulse bought, turned out to fit what I needed as far as drawing a columbian Pattern out of my Silver Grey Dorking's. Now my surviving Slow White Broiler will be used to make white meat birds, I honestly do not like how timid they are because I have to go out of my way to keep them protected. When my 1 bird matures I am hoping she starts defending herself a bit better. Currently she is in a flock of chickens that are a bit younger and even though those chickens (half red ranger) are dominant they do not bully her because the grew up with her.
Most of that is anecdotal, someone else could have the exact same hybrids and have opposite results. And maybe someone else "red Broiler" was created in a different breeding program than Red Rangers. I would love to see Hatcheries sell an assortment of free ranging meat birds and then we can pick out the ones the fit our flock and process the others.

My purpose is just to raise a batch of meat birds and eat most of them. We are over a mile high and I have read that some Cornish-X will have trouble with the altitude. Aggressive foraging sounds like a good trait for a fast growing meat bird, to me! It seems like meat birds always have to be raised separately for one reason or another. Refresh my old memory, where are yours from?

 

[Parront]

Never mind, I went back to the beginning and saw you got them at Tractor Supply.

 

[Hamburg]

Its the Red Rangers, that guy only has 1/4 Red Ranger and still managed to get up to a decent size in 16 weeks. Most of my chickens are big hatchery quality including the Red Rangers. Having Red Rangers to cross with other breeds leads to having decent sized roosters. Also The Red Rangers have much smaller females, still meat bird sized but not huge eaters like the males as far as the crosses go so they make for decent layers. Getting a Red Ranger to breed with a random rooster seems to work out great. Even if you wanted to keep all your chickens uniformed you could use a Hatchery Quality NH Red and you will end up with great dual purpose offspring. I am so glad I tinkered around with Red Rangers.

The Neighbor currently receiving free meat lost his legs in Vietnam, he can't really handle raising chickens so I give him free meat and eggs. As far as I am concerned he earned the free meat eggs. I have serious hearing loss from my service and he makes phone calls for me. I live in a VA Hospital neighborhood so there are plenty of disabled veterans here we and we look after each other .. or most of us do.

Thank you, and your neighbor for your service to our county. You both have paid a high price for freedom.