Freedom Rangers too small??

[Poultry Enthusiast]

Stranglover,

I thought Ideal only sold Red Cornish, not Freedom Rangers. From the descriptions on the Ideal and Freedomranger sites, I think the genetics are a little different, but I could be missing something.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

I really like the purina flock raiser for my meat birds - it takes a little longer but I didn't loose any to outgrowing themselves.

 

[stanglover2001]

Poultry Enthusiast - On Ideal's website they call it a red broiler... Here's what it says on the website about the red broiler:

Red Broilers are efficient producers of broiler meat for those who do not wish to have white plumage broilers. When broiler rations are fed, producers can expect to have six pound broilers in seven weeks or less. Since red broilers are more active than Cornish Rocks and grow slightly slower, they rarely experience leg weakness or Ascite, which is fluid in the body cavity. Red Broiler hens are not a good choice for efficient production of brown eggs.

You're probably right about the freedom ranger part, they're not the same thing BUT they're still supposed to grow large quicker than normal dual purpose breeds. Which they are growing faster than my RIR's, the pullets are about the same size.

I just checked the freedom ranger site and this is at the bottom of the page:

Based on the results and experiences of our own flocks and our customers’ flocks, the Freedom Ranger assortment will reach 5 to 6 LBS Live Weight in a minimum of 9 weeks and a maximum of 11 weeks. In no way does this data constitute a warranty or guarantee of the same performance as conditions of nutrition, management, health, density or physical and biological environments (weather and relief) vary from producers to producers.

I like the flock raiser as well, it did awesome for the CornishX in the middle of summer. I had good sized chickens and didn't lose 1! (except for the lack of water on a really hot day

)

I think the fact that this winter has been bad for TN is affecting the growth, December is NORMALLY WARM! This time we had several snow days and icy rain. My mom informed me that this was the first white X-mas since the 70's.

 

[feathers4fun]

A little free fed corn will help them stay warm.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote:

NO IT WON'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[booker81]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Quote:

NO IT WON'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deep breath now

 

[stanglover2001]

Hmm... I wish they'd be ready before the 13 of this month... college starts back up

where's the "le sigh" smiley?

Took care of my last 2 CornishX today and 2 mutt roo's that were eating all my layer feed and making it hard for the younger pullets to eat. So now I only have 3 grown roosters all in seperate pens with the hens, and 1 chicken tractor with RED BROILERS

and another tractor with some DP chicklets of the same age that aren't going to be eaten.

 

[CDennis]

Its been really COLD here as well, and my red broilers are smaller than I would like (also from Ideal, but I had a great hatchery experience), I am going to postpone butcher and keep a few more than I planned on for my meat bird project. I did my undergrad degree in middle Tennessee and when it hit 30 it felt like -20!

 

[stanglover2001]

I hate that yours are growing slow too, I just hate letting them go on for so long. I think before school starts I'll just butcher as many large one's as possible. I live east of middle TN, and when it snows it's dangerous to go out... not because of the icy roads but because of the drivers who swerve to miss hitting a snow flurry.... or the ones who go 15 under the speed limit because they're afraid they're going to go veering off in a ditch.

 

[CDennis]

Quote:
I use it also, no problems so far.