Freedom Ranger with Egg-type?

[PolarBerry]

So I know some people keep freedom rangers for egg and meat and we were looking at getting 25 of them to run in our tractors. The second tractor I was looking at getting 10-12 egg laying hens.

I know general consensus is don’t brood meat and egg layers together but we are looking at brooding them outside in the tractor in a covered end of it with the heat mat tunnel method. Husband has vetoed raising 35+ chicks inside.

Since freedom rangers are more dual purpose (although mostly meat but not as fast growing as Cornish x) could I theoretically brood them together for more body heat for the first 2-3 weeks then divide them?

I know most egg layer chicks are started on starter and meat birds on a grower ration. Could you potentially mix the two feeds (would be around 18% protein) or raise all on starter and just see slightly slowe growth in the rangers? I’ve read about some rangers having some leg issues when raised on too high of protein.

Any input is appreciated!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

All my chicks start on meat maker pellets as soon as they're big enough to eat them (usually 3 weeks old for LF), so there's no issue there. I use it in place of an "all flock" type feed.

You'll want to separate the males and females around 3 months old, sometimes sooner, depending on when they start harassing the females.

 

[PolarBerry]

All my chicks start on meat maker pellets as soon as they're big enough to eat them (usually 3 weeks old for LF), so there's no issue there. I use it in place of an "all flock" type feed.

You'll want to separate the males and females around 3 months old, sometimes sooner, depending on when they start harassing the females.

The rangers would be going to butcher around the 3ish month range anyway (if big enough or being enough of a problem) along with excess roosters that might be in the egg layer batch.

Curious, what do you feed them from day 1 to 3 weeks then?

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Chick starter or game bird starter, whatever I have on hand. I buy the game bird crumble to ferment during the "warmer" months (I just started back up this month). If I hatch anything in winter I just pick up a smaller bag of chick starter.