Freedom Rangers out of buisness

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Well Crud,

I'm looking at my just recieved order of Rangers in a whole new way now. I received 50 this past Fri the 25th via a prepaid order. I guess I should feel lucky I got them! I lost 4 due to shipping stress in the first 24 hours, but the rest seem to be doing fine. I noticed a couple with pasted bottoms, but cleaned them off and hopefully now that the stress of moving is over they'll be ok.

One thing I'm noticing though is that the birds are a variety of colors. Is this normal? I had ordered Red Rangers, the packing sticker says I received Goldens. Some of the chicks are black (wing tips feathering out almost barred like my barred rock hens, but too soon to really tell) others are brown with wing tips a mottle brown color.

Did I end up getting a mixed batch and noone is fessing up to it? I emailed Barabara, got an 'Oh, sorry for the mix up' email with no further offer of compensation. Called the hatchery about the fact that I didn't get any overs (Barabara says they have a standing 2-4% over policy) and they said they couldn't send extra because of low hatch rates.

I wonder now if the low hatch was due to going out of business, not viability of the eggs that were hatched!

So... do I just butcher all these birds and call it an end to an era? Or is it worth trying to breed a few and see what happens? I've hatched a couple rounds of chicks from my layers, but I've never done broilers.

Greyfields... why the dislike of regular chick starter for broilers? Most of what I'm reading says to start them on a 16-20% protein starter ration, so that's what I did (20% protein). The only non-medicated feed I was able to find was at Tractor Supply (DuMor brand). No broiler feed there that I noticed. My local feed store doesn't carry a specific broiler ration either. Please let me know what I could be doing better, and why. I noticed you said to start the pullets (I guess I have to wait until it becomes obvious, I can't tell them apart yet!) on 1/2 chick starter and 1/2 cracked corn. Is this to slow their growth??

Thanks!!
Liz
 
i would have loved to have gotten a mix bunch like that.
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Quote:
The color variation is totally normaly when breeding hybrids. To get around this, commercial broilers are all self colored (white) so you never see any of the variation which would normally be present. Personally, I find myself amazed at how pretty the different FR's were, compared with the dull white Cornish Crosses.


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My plans are to retain some for breeding. But, there are some alternatives out there like Black/Red broilers from Ideal.

I personally will be researching answers to this question as I need about 200 more meat birds this summer and I usually do 50 bird crops.

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You can use normal chick starter; but they make a feed specifically for broilers/fryers so why not use it? If you do use a chicke starter, I don't think you are 'harming' them. But at some point, you have to switch to a broiler finisher. Whenever you change feed, your birds will stop gaining while their bodies adjust (and could get runny poop).


Quote:
That advice is for pullets who you intend to become layers only. If you just keep feeding them starter (high protein) until they reach point of lay, you will have massive birds who potentially will:

a) eat more food then their eggs are worth

b) have issues with longevity and injury because they'll be 1-3 lbs heavier than their breed should be

c) start laying too soon, which in the long term causes hens to 'burn out' too quickly

So yes, it's to slow a pullet from 2 months until they begin to lay, when you switch to the layer ration. If you switch to layer too soon, they will start laying too soon. So the advice to mix comes from needing to "develop" them properly so they begin laying at the right age and weight.
 
This surprises me even though when I first heard about FR's and saw the site I kept wondering how they could stay in buisness selling the chicks for seventy cents. I was tempted to get some but was waiting on my extra paycheck next month to get them. Well Greyfields if you ever get any of the results you have been going after in your experiments and when you are ready to sell some I will be interested in buying some from you.
 
Quote:
I see that Hoover's Hatchery sells their broiler chicks from $.84-$1. so they are not that far off.I don't understand the differences in the prices since some hatcherys get as much as $1.75 Has anyone ever bought Hoover's and noticed a difference?I thought with the Freedom Rangers that they were fairly new and were trying to build up a customer base,thats why they were priced the way they were.
Will
 
I just heard (as in yesterday) that my local hatchery has started selling Black Broilers, although there is no information on their web-site yet (www.townlinehatchery.com). If that's true, I will probably buy some for my next batch (in July). I'll certainly post my thoughts here when the time comes.

Personally, I hope that the flavor is a little richer, in addition to the chickens being more lively and a bit slower growing.
 
I have 13 golden FR's that will be processed in two weeks and was going to order more too. Very very sad. Ann, thanks for the email ~

I've had them on 28% gamebird feed since day 1. My feed store carries lower protein layer feed but suggested the 28%. With only two weeks to go, my birds don't seem to be all that meaty - talk about skinny chicken legs LOL. Is this because of something I'm doing wrong?? Do I have them on the wrong feed? I just started giving them scratch as a treat too. I need to get them bulked up!
 

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