Freedom Ranger parents

[BackyardAR]

I will definitely be on the lookout for that upcoming info about the Rangers. I definitely want to get to where I am 100% sustainable with everything but food, and still have the best producers that I can manage to keep going.

I think for now I'm going to build my indoor/outdoor brooder, order my laying hens, and get them growing. This summer looks to be way too hot for me to enter into this as a novice with the meat chickens. I think I'll start them up in the fall once temps have lowered a bit. With it starting in the triple digits in mid June instead of mid July/August, this could very well be one of the longest and hottest summers we've had in a long time.

Also, a laying question..... literature says chickens molt at about one year, so stagger your laying hens so you aren't without any eggs during this time. My dad kept Ameracaunas and he claims his all molted at the same time regardless of their age. Which is it? Do I need to vary the age of my laying hens by 6 months, or does it make more sense to also vary my breed? Do they molt just once or yearly or what?

Thanks for your time.

 

[hensonly]

Quote:
My cockerels started around 9 weeks. They're not especially vocal, but that might have something to do with the fact that there is already a dominant rooster in the yard.

My boys started that gurgling crow at four weeks! They are now just shy of eight weeks and a couple of days ago, one of the boys was trying to mate with one of the pullets. A bit precocious, eh? And I do have a flock of laying hens in an adjacent coop, with an adult roo. But they were crowing before they were next to the adults....

In regard to the heat question, we've had some upper 80 - lower 90 degree days here. None have been seriously distressed, but all have been sitting still and panting, whether in the chicken house or outside (their choice). They don't have shade from trees, but they do have shade from the buildings...I have a fan in the chicken house to move the air. No losses, no real concerns for them, but I am careful to keep fresh cool water out at all times. They do drink a lot, even when not so hot.

I have 30 Rangers, and two have developed leg problems, on fairly minor, the other can barely walk on one leg; it buckles and he sticks his wing out to catch himself from falling on the floor. I have him in a dog crate until I can talk to the hatchery for their suggestions. I may have been feeding too high protein or something...they sure did grow fast. If the Cornish grow faster, as I understand they do, it must be scary to watch them pack it on!

Keep us posted if you do any experimental breeding...these birds are so neat that I wouldn't mind keeping a couple around...

 

[scubaforlife]

Quote:
I do a multigenerational laying flock, buy batches of 25 each year, and I know I don't have 25 in molt at the same time. I will have 10 or so in various stages of molt, but not all 25 at once. If you vary the breed, and buy some chicks in the spring and some in the fall, you should be fine.

If you are looking to be sustainable, don't be picky about the breed. Get some large breed roos and hens and just let them be. You will end up with a sustainable flock that way. Take a big roo, get 3 or 4 hens of different breeds and separate them from your laying flock. Let them do what they do and you will end up with babies. Eventually you will end up with a line that breeds well and is acclimated to your area of the world.

 

[hensonly]

Quote:
I got my laying flock the last day of April...they started laying the day they turned 4 months old (red sex links), and did not molt that first fall. They molted the second fall, and this upcoming one will be their third. I understand this is pretty standard. Probably someone with more experience than I will respond with more info.

 

[petrelline]

There was a guy over in the egg selling section of BYC a couple of months back who had been breeding the FRs for a few generations. He said that when you breed the FRs you still get a meat bird, but you get a lot of variability in growout. If you hatch 20 birds you don't get 20 identical birds that are 6 lbs in ten weeks -- you get some that take 8, some that take 10, some that take 15, and some that never make it at all. But they're still shaped like a meat bird.

If you're aiming purely for sustainability it is *always* going to be a better idea to start with a meat chicken (even if its a hybrid) and work from there, rather than try to reinvent a meat chicken from something else. Leverage the work that's already been done!

 

[BackyardAR]

I agree petrelline. I am not wanting to do my own genetics experiments. It's just hard for me to get away from wanting the most prolific layers, largest/fastest growing meat chickens etc. Although when I read some of the drawbacks I definitely take stock in them.

My climate I feel is going to be my number one factor in my decisions. Arkansas has a wide enough range of temps that anything not 100% native you're going to have a problem with at some point. But again, it's so hard to think that I would have to grown some dual purpose breed out for 12-16 weeks when I can accomplish the same thing, with maybe higher weights in 8 weeks.

I do have neighbors so smell and noise are an issue. I don't want a big stink myself(but I think I can gear myself and my wife up for it for 8 weeks at a stretch..heh).


Soooo many things to consider.

 

[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.

 

[Bossroo]

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 ?

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

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 agree with buster's outlook.

 

[petrelline]

Even when heritage dual purpose chickens were actually dual purpose there were always chickens that were better for layers and chickens that were better for meat. In the old days they didn't have hatcheries that would ship a box of chicks across the country in two days or the ability to buy hatching eggs you could put into an electric incubator for three weeks. If your barnyard had barred rocks, that's what you raised.

We have the luxury these days of being able to choose from a huge variety of chickens, so if we choose to be sustainable AND work with heritage chickens we can choose the best heritage breeds that work for each specific goal. Like buster says, there's absolutely no need to constrain ourselves to one hypothetical super chicken that works for everything.