Freedom Ranger hens with Black Australorp roo

[Doublete]

Thinking about holding two hens to cross with my BA roo... Any thoughts? What will be the process time? My thought is then I can hatch some for my own consumption... I dont NEED them to grow this ridiculously fast...

 

[Doublete]

 

[Compost King]

I like Crossing my Red Rangers with heritage breed Roosters. Some of my Heritage roosters have good meat quality some do not and regardless of the Rooster I seem to get a decent table bird eating the males and then keeping the females as layer/breeders. I noticed that when I cross with a Rooster of low meat quality the females do not get very big but the males do, when I crossed my Dorking to a Red Ranger the females and males got rather large with the males filling out sooner.
My thoughts with a Australorp and Freedom Ranger, you will have a decent table bird for yourself with the male offspring and its a 50/50 shot that the females size out. They should be good layers if the females do not size out so I say do it and let us know how it works out.

 

[Doublete]

I also have an extra marans or ameracauna rooster I could try but I thought the black Australorps would be fun.. a black ranger lol

 

[Compost King]

I crossed an Ayam Cemani Rooster with a Red Ranger and made black rangers, the females carried the black meat trait but the males did not. The females also did not get very large as the males did.

 

[Doublete]

I crossed an Ayam Cemani Rooster with a Red Ranger and made black rangers, the females carried the black meat trait but the males did not. The females also did not get very large as the males did.

That’s interesting that it ended up being sex linked!

 

[Compost King]

That’s interesting that it ended up being sex linked!

Black skin (and apparently the meat) is a sex linked trait. Maybe if I tinker with this I can can end up making the perfect rooster for creating sex links. Black Skin, Full Naked Neck (for easy viewing of the skin after hatch) and try to get these traits into a prolific layer.

 

[Doublete]

All very interesting
Freedom ranger hatchery is very close to me so I have an endless supply (and year round) of freedom rangers to play with..

 

[Ridgerunner]

One disadvantage to a dark feathered chicken, either black or dark red, is if you pluck them. The dark pin feathers really show up. The white or buff colored ones will have the same amount of pin feathers but you don't see them as well. You get a prettier carcass if you pluck. If you skin like I do it doesn't matter. For some people those pin feathers are not an issue but some people complain.

Your process time will depend on how big is big enough for you and how you want to cook them. Some people like them young enough to be able to fry or grill. Of course I like size but there are only two of us, I can get two meals out of a fairly small hen. The way I raise and cook my dual purpose cockerels my target age is 23 weeks, but you cannot fry or grill those. My age for the pullets is usually 8 months, that gives me time to evaluate their eggs. To me, asking what your process time will be is an unanswerable question. It depends on your individual goals, methods, and likes. I do think a BA over a Red Ranger will give you a nice bird to experiment on and determine what works for you.

 

[Doublete]

Maybe I’ll use the color yield hens (white feathers) with the BA...