Freedom Rangers x Orpington?

[UPSweeten]

So this is my second year raising freedom rangers. They are doing well. I should be butchering in the next 2 weeks. My 3 year son has fallen in love with one of the hens.

I also have layers (4 yearling hens (1 barred rock, 2 Dominiques, and 1 Americana) and a friend gave me 6 chicks who are 13 weeks old (2 Lavender Orpington (1 roo, 1 hen) and 4 mixed hens. So I am thinking of not butchering my son's favorite FR hen. The Orpingtons are nearly keeping up with the freedom rangers, they are 2 weeks older. So I'm wondering about trying to hatch eggs next spring from the FR hen who hopefully will be bred by the Orpington Roo for Broilers. Is this crazy? Maybe I should hold back 2 FR hens. Has anyone tried anything similar?

 

[lilmillefleur]

I have not but it sounds like a fun project

 

[Ridgerunner]

Personally I have not tried it but there are a few old threads about people trying this, some with Cornish X and some with Rangers. Most people are not overly happy with the results, especially with the Cornish X. But some people have made it work and really liked the results.

The Rangers are bred to get really big which can be the problem. If you are going to try it I suggest you restrict the diet to try to reduce their size. The cross should be a good meat bird. If you can get offspring, you might be better off keeping some of the pullets for future breeding. They should still give chicks with pretty fast growth and size but maybe won't have the medical problems you will probably see with Rangers, especially if you don't restrict the feed. But the crosses will not grow as fast or as big as the pure Rangers.

Regardless of the color of your Rangers, expect the chicks to hatch out black with that rooster.

 

[GreatBreeder]

Great idea, would be great with cx too!

 

[UPSweeten]

IMG_20170726_062723[1]

• UPSweeten
• Jul 26, 2017

Not the best picture of the orpingtons, but here they are near the FR.

 

[Geena]

I have been working on a project like this. I put one of my blue Orpington Roosters

over a Red Ranger hen

The cockerels turned out to be black or blue with red or buff - pictured at 11 weeks with same age heritage turkey poults.

and the pullets look like this -13 weeks

The cockerels dressed out at 4.5 to 6lbs. at 12 weeks. The pullets I kept.

 

[Geena]

Next I put the same Blue Orp rooster over a CornishX hen. It's been slow going with this girl as her laying is erratic. She lays a lot, but they are often either shell less, tiny or huge double yolkers. Maybe once a week I get a decent egg to hatch.

We have hatched out three so far. I was very surprised when they came out so dark. I thought cornish Xs were dominant white and that the chicks would be at least mostly white as well. The one little guy has white dots at the corner of his eyes, so cute!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I never count on a white chicken to be either recessive white or dominant white just because the breed or cross is supposed to be. You have just shown why.

 

[Geena]

I never count on a white chicken to be either recessive white or dominant white just because the breed or cross is supposed to be. You have just shown why.

Thanks Ridgerunner. I actually prefer a colored bird, so I'm happy.
Like quite a few people here, I'm trying to breed my own meat bird. You can't beat the cornishX and rangers for lots of meat fast, but I need a bird that can negotiate the terrain around here. The Orp x Ranger has worked out quite well for us, I just put the third batch of the year out in the grow out field. They spend most of the day rustling up their own grub and eat way less pellets than rangers do, and no leg problems! Not sure how the Orp x CornishXs will turn out, but I'd like to put together a breeding group of them with the Orp x rangers and see what that gives me.

 

[Kdavi332]

I have successfully bred my freedom ranger rooster, Chuck Norris to my buff orpington hens and black astrolorp hens. They are the two brownish chicks in the image. The black chick is 100% Ayam Cemani (parents are housed separate from the rest of my flock). I think these babies have astrolorp for mom (due to darker coloring).

At the time of image (April 2025), the chicks are two days old.