Freedom Ranger parents

[Bossroo]

In the old days... Sears had a robust business supplying chicks to the farm flocks. They arrived in the mail too.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
Some of us who are working on a sustainable home flock don't try to do both things with one bird. We have one or two breeds for meat, then one or two for eggs. We eat the eggs from the meat bird lines when not hatching them out, but we don't tend to rely on them for our eggs. And we eat the excess cockerels from the egg birds, but don't rely on them for the bulk of our meat.

I don't try to go the dual purpose rout.

HUHHHhhhh ??? Are you throwing in the towel on the Heritage dual purpose ?

I'm not a big fan of dual purpose birds. I prefer heritage meat birds and layers.

 

[Ibicella]

Freedom Rangers are actually French. They are a mix of several European breeds to create the hybrid. Of what breeds I'm not entirely certain, but they were created by more than two chicken breeds like the CX's. Their bloodlines are from several lines of grandparent stock as well, own by European corporations.

 

[BackyardAR]

Quote:
Some of us who are working on a sustainable home flock don't try to do both things with one bird. We have one or two breeds for meat, then one or two for eggs. We eat the eggs from the meat bird lines when not hatching them out, but we don't tend to rely on them for our eggs. And we eat the excess cockerels from the egg birds, but don't rely on them for the bulk of our meat.

I don't try to go the dual purpose rout.

I wasn't speaking of doing it all with one single breed. My original thoughts were to do CX meat birds and Pearl white Leghorns. But the more I learn about CX in particular the more I consider other sources for my meat. My point was that getting breeds that maximize ONE of either the meat or egg laying traits is hard not to do for a beginner such as myself. However as I learn more about the pluses and minuses of meat birds in particular and the fact that I want to ultimately not have to rely on a hatchery the more I realize that those lofty production levels of the tricked out breeds don't really fall within a sustainability model.

 

[Buster52]

Nothing wrong with European breeds. Some of my favorites are European.

The Redbro label rouge birds are from 4 distinct grandparent lines. Like they CX parent and grandparent lines, they are probably quite different from the original breeds from which they sprang.

But we are actually talking about two different things in this thread. The suggestion is that the OP not worry about how well whatever meat bird he chooses lays... just get a good laying variety for your eggs and let your meat bird focus on your meat. I think everyone here knows the Freedom Ranger is not a heritage breed, or even a breed at all.

 

[BackyardAR]

Quote:
Again, no. As the OP( if that means original poster) this wasn't about getting eggs from a meat chicken. Or meat from a layer. There has been some confusion. Now if someone suggested a dual breed that they thought fit both then great. However my plan has ever been keeping dedicated egg layers regardless of my meat chicken situation.

 

[Buster52]

Okay. I thought I saw you say you wondered how the FRs were at laying, and I was trying to say it isn't that important. Maybe that was another thread I read that.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
I suppose that depends on your definition of "old days". Sears, Roebuck and Co. only dates back to about 1890.

 

[burntmuch]

Self renewing flock for meat & eggs. My plan is dedicated layers. 7 Isa browns. Im covered for eggs

What I would like to do for meat is the Freedom rangers. Do a big batch to get meat in the freezer & pick out a couple big hens & a big roo Keep them seperate from my laying hens.Let them go at it. Hatch out the eggs. Now would you stick with the original roo & hens for hatching eggs or would they be replaced every batch. So the next batch would be a bit different. Im still new to the chicken thing, Very interesting stuff here.

 

[slc]

Quote:
I'm awaiting my own shipment of FR and will be selecting a few for a breeding flock. My plan is to keep the original breeding flock and harvest all offspring until I have to replace any breeders. I'm thinking of keeping closer to the original hybrid parents so each batch is similar in vigor. Line breeding one flock diminishes vigor each generation.

One way to keep lines going is to start with at least 3 flocks of hens and a roo. The hen offspring stay with the flock and the best roo offspring get switched to one of the other flocks each year. Roos from flock A go to Flock B, Flock B to C, Flock C to A etc. Each generation gets exposed to a more distantly related rooster. I've heard you can keep the same line going almost indefinitely this way.