Do your Freedom Rangers use roosts and raised nest boxes?

[Mrs. Mucket]

Do your Rangers use their roosts or nest boxes? Our Rangers lived all summer outside in a range shelter without high roosts or nest boxes. When they were young they preferred to sleep on the floor all bunched up. Recently we put them in a coop with nest boxes 24" off the floor and roosts 36" off the floor. The cockerel and three pullets sleep on the roost, and three pullets bed down on the floor. All the eggs are found on the floor--none of the girls use the nest box though I've left eggs in there for them to get the idea. I know they're heavy but not too heavy to fly a few feet, and all the pullets are lighter than the hefty cockerel that gets up on the roost.

 

[ijon1]

Some of my FR used the lower roost. Two pullets I kept are only nine weeks old. How old are your pullets and when did they start to lay. I know one thing we ate one of the FR chickens tonight and it was de-lish. Nine weeks old, monster chickens. I liked them better than Cornish X .

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

Mine are 5-1/2 months old and started to lay at 17 weeks. I don't think I've ever gotten an egg from each pullet a day, but now I can get 4-5 eggs from 6 pullets. The Rangers are tasty, aren't they?

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

I know nothing about FR, but with the big birds that I have had (Turkens annd Delawares) they like the floor nests best.

I have 2 nest just off the floor a few inches that are open all the time. The other nests are above the floor nests, I close them off at night and open them in the morning. So many times the birds will use the bottom nests.

Think I'll try some FR next year if I can get some.

 

[TimG]

The one cockerel and three pullets that I have all use a roost that is just a foot or so off the floor. When the pullets were laying (they've stopped...) they were using laying boxes, first with the laying hens and then when they were isolated, though I would find an occasional egg on the floor.

I have a Partridge Chantecler rooster that still sleeps on the floor. Some of his brood mates slept on the floor for a long time, but they have all graduated to the roosts, he's the only one that still sleeps on the floor.

 

[price403]

My Freedom Rangers are 8 weeks and only 1 uses the roosting poles every night. A few use them intermittently. The rest huddle up in a corner on the floor. Maybe as they get older they will roost.
I have a handful of Redbro chickens (which is what Freedom Rangers are bred from) that are about 1 year old. They roost and use the same elevated nest boxes as the other laying hens. I use 2 roosting poles. One at 4 feet and one at 5 1/2 feet. They all fly to the lower one and hop from it to the top pole. Not one of my hens sleeps on the lower pole...

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

I may put in a low roost and see if the floor-dwellers use it. I've noticed they have bare spots on their breasts and I don't think it's molting or broodiness. Maybe I'll try a lower nest box too. I keep finding eggs buried in the wood shavings. I think after they lay, someone stirs up the litter and it covers the eggs.

Here is another question: Do your Freedom Rangers lay glossy eggs? My layer pullets (several breeds) all lay eggs with a smooth sheen. The Ranger eggs are chalky in texture. They all get the same feed and oyster shell and the Rangers are only one month younger than the layers.

 

[Salt and Light]

I have 4 FR's and they all roost and use nesting boxes. I had to make them "handicapped" accessible but they still roost and nest.