Freedom Rangers out of buisness

[SimplyAbundantFarm]

I think you're probably right. There were probably just overwhelmed with things and unprepared for the tremendous growth that their company experienced so rapidly.

Plus, we have to remember that we are getting second hand information as it is being interpreted by the various sources, so we may all be getting the same message and just interpreting it in different ways. Kind of like that old telephone game.

Barbara was always very sweet -- she just sounded absolutely overwhelmed the last time I spoke with her. It's just a shame that one contract gone bad (if that is what happened, and that is what it sounds like) can have such a negative ripple effect on so many. Good people put out of business and now all of their supply source farmers scrambling to figure out what to do with all these chickens they have on the ground. A shame, indeed.

 

[eaemnc]

Greyfields and all posting in this one,

Barbara wasn't new, she and her husband had been raising the Freedom Rangers in Europe, moved to Canada and were selling them in the USA. She said something about shipping issues expected in the future from Animal Rights groups. I have gotten a few reply e-mails as I e-mail regularly about the future of the Freedom Rangers in the USA.
My family and I only need a small amount compared to some of her bigger purchasing customers. I told her to keep in touch as she plans to be a coach for a breeding program she wants to have in the USA. I told her I don't have the money she will probably charge and we don't want to raise loads of Freedom Rangers on our small farm. We just wanted a few and so that's why I had others buy from me some of the chickens I got this past spring.
I have been keeping in contact with the 2 people who bought from me as one of them (Mick) is very smart about chickens and we both plan to save the small female we each got in our group. I'm not sure about the Rooster to save, as I am afraid that he will explode by the time the hen will lay an egg, which for egg laying breeds is 20 weeks. I LOVE that their legs are thick and support the weight well, which makes them "Rangers". It'd be worth trying and comparing the meat to the ones we will have in the freezer in a couple weeks.
Can anyone tell me what I can do to incorporate the 2 Freedom Rangers (1 Male and 1 Female) into the 18 egg layers we have that are only 2 weeks older than the Rangers and are not heavy weight breeds. We have 11 Red Stars, 2 Buff Orpingtons, which will be our broody hens for the Ranger eggs, and 4 Ameraucana's.
I know that the pecking order is already established in the egg layers and I hope that there wouldn't be to much picking on the Freedom Rangers, which will be newbies to the bunch. If we had to we could keep them separate but 1 male to 1 female isn't a good idea I don't think. At least there would be 19 females (including the Freedom Ranger) and 1 rooster to the whole bunch although he'd be quite big for the egg-laying hens. I wouldn't want any of them to get hurt not knowing how aggressive he'd be.....???? I can't imagine with his size he'd be overly aggressive but I'm new to chickens and have no idea.
Any and all input is GREATLY appreciated!!! Thanks so much in advance! Please keep Barbara in your prayers (something bad happened she didn't say what but I think it may have been something medical with her husband) just a hunch...

God Bless you always,

Ann

 

[eaemnc]

I forgot to mention before,

Barbara said that in January she had 6000 breeders. I asked her how many she has now and if she was going to sell any. She mentions about the program she wants to put in place next year to teach the Freedom Rangers Breeding to others in the USA for a Fee to keep the breed going here for us who want to raise / buy or sell them. I told her it'd be easier for me to get the 46 or so that I got this year than to breed and sell them to people as we don't have the area to raise 100's of Freedom Rangers.
I'll keep looking on here for help and suggestions from others that know much more than I do about breeding / hatching and raising chickens.

Thanks again for your help and greyfields I'm sure you could assist in your ideas for meat chickens. You have been purchasing from Barbara for 2 or more years. It was you who started me with them as I wanted broilers that didn't get the crippled legs and would get up and eat and drink instead of dying in front of the feed bowl because they didn't want to stand up.
One other thing Barbara mentioned is that all of her breeders come from Europe. That is where she and her husband raised them years ago before moving to Canada.
I thought she was going to have a breeding program set up in Wisconsin but my order didn't come from WI.

God Bless you all and keep the info. coming,

Ann

 

[eaemnc]

To all concerned,

Why would a law suit for patent infringement be a "Personal" reason?
I took it differently. Especially when I told her that we are praying for her and her family.
It seems more like an injury or something. Cancer I don't know but it makes you wonder that they'd shut down in the early months of their busy season. (shrug)
I am tempted to ask her straight out so that we can all stop speculating and in the mean time I'll keep praying for her and her family.

God Bless you all,

Ann

Quote:
My thoughts exactly.

~Phyllis

IP theft as in internet IP? Don't be absurd.

As far as patent infringment, they certainly bought their breeding stock from Hubbard. The point of buying breeding stock is to breed and sell the offspring. How on earth could this be considered patent infringement?

 

[eaemnc]

Greyfields and all who care,

I just sent an e-mail to Barbara and asked her what actually happened. She is very quick in her replies and I'll let you know soon. Meanwhile pray for her and her family as well as all her hard work in this Freedom Ranger business she and her husband put many many long hard hours into.

God Bless you all,

Ann

 

[ncgnance]

I KNOW I read in a post earlier this am that an Amish group had a bunch of freedom rangers that they are trying to sell. But I cannot find the post now. I was looking forward to trying the freedom rangers later this year. Hate to hear that I may not get to..

 

[eaemnc]

Dear Greyfields, Cindy, Mick and all who care about the Freedom Rangers,

Here is the letter I sent to Barbara yesterday:
Dear Barbara,

I just read the posts that were put on the backyardchickens.com forum in reference to Freedom Rangers and about what people think happened to your WONDERFUL business.
Most of us are concerned about you and are praying for you. I told them that I will ask you what happened so that people can stop speculating.
I think it's something medical and I was thinking maybe something happened to your husband. Others think something happened to the business itself.
We all are hoping it will work itself out and that you will be able to keep it going in the USA with so many of us behind you and all the hard work you have done to get your Freedom Ranger business where it is today. Many have bought your chickens and still many more wish they had.
With God all things are possible and I know that what ever happened it will work out and God will help you through what ever happened and get you back in business. If you are going to pass it on to others I and many like me hope we can still be customers of yours.

I hope it's temporary and like you said that you hoped to do some things
next year.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=514403#p514403


God Speed Barbara and God Bless you and
your family now and always,

Ann
Concerned Customer who cares

as well as her reply that she asked me to post here for all of you.
We can help her and her Freedom Ranger business. She got hosed by someone who fell through on a promis to buy many chickens.

Here is her reply e-mail to me / and all of you who care:

Dear Ann,
Please do post this on the backyard chicken forum if you wish.

We have been put into this postion by a series of events over which we had no control. WE had set up production in June 2007 for a small company who were intending to build a poultry processing plant and were interested in using our breeds.
Unfortunately this company never achieved the target numbers for birds they asked for, and never built the plant. In mid January at only less than one
quarter of the target birds being placed to growers, the company ran out of funds.
This left Freedom Rangers in a very dire financial situation with production set up to provide over 18000 chicks per week and the breeding flock structure in place .
We were left with the unenviable task of culling breeders and destroying chicks at birth. We have tried to recover financially over the past 2 months but have been unable to do so, culumating in the closure of the business.
At the same time we do have a daughter(40) with
serious heart problems and she recently had a mini stroke and this was also causing us some distress.
These situations arise in business, and who is to know this when you start out, and maybe we should or should not have done certain things, but hindsight is always 20/20.

AS far as we are concerned we have been very humbled by the outpouring of empathy and kind words and prayers from many of our customers all over the USA. We thank all of you, so many of you are like close friends and not just customers.

We firmly believe that these breeds are a great and a viable alternative to the cornish cross for outdoor production. This is borne out by the numbers of these breeds which are sold in Europe every year.

Freedom Rangers will actively seek out willing and enterprising people who will step up and
establish small breeding flocks in various location across the USA.
We feel that our role in the future could be that of an advisory company to assist anybody to set up and manage a breeder flock of their own.
This will be the way forward for these breeds. There is a huge gap in the marketplace which these birds can fill. Also there has to be someone who will be willing to service all you small to medium size growers out there. More locations for breeders means less travel time for chicks which will be better for those little birds in the long run.

This is just the end of the first stage of this story, we are still here to answer your questions, show you how to do it and take the Freedom Rangers name forward.

Thank you for your time on this forum.

Barbara and Brian Aaron

If you would like to send an e-mail to Barbara to let her know you are interested in purchasing Freedom Rangers in the future, or just drop a line to say you are praying for her family that would be very kind.
Her e-mail address is: Barbara Aaron [[email protected]]
Anyone who would be interested in joining her "Breeding Program" that'd be great!! Mention that to her if you are interested.
I'd Love to but we only have 2 acres and a coop to hold no more than 70 chickens.
Our 56 chickens go to market next week and I plan to hold a male and female to see what happens (shrug). The female is small and there are many roosters to pick from. I just hope that I don't do him (the rooster) an injustice as he will be quite heavy and how long can he hold up??
I wonder what feed to give them? I plan to put them in with my 18 egg layers who are 2 weeks older.
I'd like to slow the growth of the Rangers that I plan to keep. How would you suggest I incorporate the 2 Rangers in with the Pullet Hens??

Thanks in advance for any suggestions about the broilers and God Bless you always,

Ann

 

[eaemnc]

Quote:
Dear kstaven,

Please contact Barbara and if you would like to be a part of her Breeding Program in the USA let her know that to. I think it'd be great if many of you who are interested let her know and that will help her to know that she has business here that wasn't even known to her and her husband Brian.
Barbara's e-mail address is: [email protected]

Take care and God Bless,

Ann

 

[eaemnc]

Quote:
Dear blue90292,

Just like I mentioned to a few others, e-mail Barbara and let her know that you hope to be a customer of hers. I posted her reply e-mail about what happened to her business. I wanted to ask if you and any one else who wishes to be Freedom Ranger owners in the future to let her know that there are many of us here in the USA who hope to purchase from her or her USA Breeder program owners in the near future. Her e-mail address is:
[email protected]

Take care and God Bless,

Ann

 

[eaemnc]

Dear Liz,

I got 100 and I only lost one in the first day or so. The other 2 people who bought from my 100 near me didn't lose any. We ordered a mix and got a mix.
Mick noticed some things about his, as they got bigger as well. He is more experienced and said that he could tell what some of the chicken breeds that are in the Freedom Ranger by the offspring he has.
I really do want to try and see what happens with a male and female if they don't EXPLODE before 20 weeks goes by. And even after 20 weeks it doesn't mean that my Buff Orpingtons will be broody and such. I never hatched eggs before so it'll be quite interesting. I'm not sure if I should chance it to a Broody hen or get a small incubator to try and hatch a few Rangers if the eggs are fertile. I plan to separate the male and female Freedom Rangers a week or two before keeping the eggs.
I was wondering what any of you would suggest for egg hatching success? How long can I collect the eggs and where and how are they stored for best fertility and egg hatching success??

Thanks in advance for any input and God Bless you always,

Ann