Freedom Rangers

[MissE]

Do you have any recommendations for a good heritage meat bird? Not dual purpose. My RIR are excellent layers, but not that good for meat lol

Jersey Giants were developed to take the place of turkeys. They take a long time to mature, but are very hearty and the hens do go broody.

 

[PurpleCArTires]

Jersey Giants were developed to take the place of turkeys. They take a long time to mature, but are very hearty and the hens do go broody.

Thank you! Ill look into those as well!

 

[MissE]

Thank you! Ill look into those as well!

Keep us posted on what you decide and your results.

 

[iwltfum]

Yes the freedom rangers have lots of excellent fat - as do heavier dual purpose breeds. We make bone broth from parted carcasses and sell it at the farmers market. Starting to gain quite a following with that one.

I've heard of people crossing dual purpose birds with rangers, but I have not come across anyone breeding rangers back onto themselves. A breeding program might be interesting, but you might spend the next couple decades doing the selection work that a worldwide industry has been working on for 100+ years.

Maybe look into bared Plymouth rocks. They get huge. Black Austros are pretty quick too. There are lots of good things about austrolorps, but I dare say the barred plymouth rocks grow quicker.

 

[Ridgerunner]

From what I understand, they do not breed true and have dwarf recessive gene that shows up when interbreeding.

They are crosses and will not "breed true", that is correct. What does "breed true" mean? The offspring will not be exact copies of their parents. They will all have some of the genetics that causes them to put on a lot of meat quickly, but some will have more than others. They will not be consistent. All of them should have enough that they will be better than a dual purpose bird, probably a lot better, but every one will not be perfect. Is this a case of reaching for perfection keeping you away from something that is still really good and better than many other alternatives?

I don't know which Rangers have the dwarfism gene and which don't. There is an easy way around that. Dwarfism is a sex linked recessive gene. If the line of Rangers you have does have the dwarfism gene, only the boys will have it. If you only breed the girls it will not show up.

Do you have any recommendations for a good heritage meat bird? Not dual purpose

I do not. I don't think you will find one from a hatchery. Hatcheries stopped breeding heritage breeds for meat back in the middle of the 1900's when the Cornish X took over the commercial meat industry. If you go for over 60 years of not breeding for meat bird qualities those flocks will not have great meat bird qualities. Some breeders may have some that come fairly close, there are several people on this forum trying to breed their own, but don't expect to find that in a hatchery.

The Rangers were probably developed to fit that niche, better for pasturing than the Cornish X. But they are still meat birds, developed to grow to butcher weight pretty quickly with a decent feed to meat conversion rate, and to then be butchered. They are not bred for longevity. If you want them to have a long life you have to manage them a bit differently than just growing them out to butcher. That generally means watching their diet.

Do you pluck or skin when you butcher? If you skin it doesn't matter but if you pluck you get a prettier carcass if the feathers are light, such as white or buff. When you pluck you always leave pin feathers and some fluff behind. Those show up better if they are dark so white or buff gives you a prettier carcass. Color genetics can be tricky but if you are looking for a dual purpose rooster to put over a Ranger hen and you pluck your birds I'd look for a white one. White is a hard color to work with because there are different ways to make white. You can try a White Rock, White Wyandotte, or White Chantacler, these probably will work but I'm not sure. Delaware and Light Brahma use Silver to make white, they should be a good choice. I'm sure there are others.

 

[PurpleCArTires]

From what I understand, they do not breed true and have dwarf recessive gene that shows up when interbreeding.

They are crosses and will not "breed true", that is correct. What does "breed true" mean? The offspring will not be exact copies of their parents. They will all have some of the genetics that causes them to put on a lot of meat quickly, but some will have more than others. They will not be consistent. All of them should have enough that they will be better than a dual purpose bird, probably a lot better, but every one will not be perfect. Is this a case of reaching for perfection keeping you away from something that is still really good and better than many other alternatives?

I don't know which Rangers have the dwarfism gene and which don't. There is an easy way around that. Dwarfism is a sex linked recessive gene. If the line of Rangers you have does have the dwarfism gene, only the boys will have it. If you only breed the girls it will not show up.

Do you have any recommendations for a good heritage meat bird? Not dual purpose

I do not. I don't think you will find one from a hatchery. Hatcheries stopped breeding heritage breeds for meat back in the middle of the 1900's when the Cornish X took over the commercial meat industry. If you go for over 60 years of not breeding for meat bird qualities those flocks will not have great meat bird qualities. Some breeders may have some that come fairly close, there are several people on this forum trying to breed their own, but don't expect to find that in
Do you pluck or skin when you butcher? If you skin it doesn't matter but if you pluck you get a prettier carcass if the feathers are light, such as white or buff. When you pluck you always leave pin feathers and some fluff behind.

From what I understand, they do not breed true and have dwarf recessive gene that shows up when interbreeding.

They are crosses and will not "breed true", that is correct. What does "breed true" mean? The offspring will not be exact copies of their parents. They will all have some of the genetics that causes them to put on a lot of meat quickly, but some will have more than others. They will not be consistent. All of them should have enough that they will be better than a dual purpose bird, probably a lot better, but every one will not be perfect. Is this a case of reaching for perfection keeping you away from something that is still really good and better than many other alternatives?

I don't know which Rangers have the dwarfism gene and which don't. There is an easy way around that. Dwarfism is a sex linked recessive gene. If the line of Rangers you have does have the dwarfism gene, only the boys will have it. If you only breed the girls it will not show up.

Do you have any recommendations for a good heritage meat bird? Not dual purpose

I do not. I don't think you will find one from a hatchery. Hatcheries stopped breeding heritage breeds for meat back in the middle of the 1900's when the Cornish X took over the commercial meat industry. If you go for over 60 years of not breeding for meat bird qualities those flocks will not have great meat bird qualities. Some breeders may have some that come fairly close, there are several people on this forum trying to breed their own, but don't expect to find that in a hatchery.

The Rangers were probably developed to fit that niche, better for pasturing than the Cornish X. But they are still meat birds, developed to grow to butcher weight pretty quickly with a decent feed to meat conversion rate, and to then be butchered. They are not bred for longevity. If you want them to have a long life you have to manage them a bit differently than just growing them out to butcher. That generally means watching their diet.

Do you pluck or skin when you butcher? If you skin it doesn't matter but if you pluck you get a prettier carcass if the feathers are light, such as white or buff. When you pluck you always leave pin feathers and some fluff behind. Those show up better if they are dark so white or buff gives you a prettier carcass. Color genetics can be tricky but if you are looking for a dual purpose rooster to put over a Ranger hen and you pluck your birds I'd look for a white one. White is a hard color to work with because there are different ways to make white. You can try a White Rock, White Wyandotte, or White Chantacler, these probably will work but I'm not sure. Delaware and Light Brahma use Silver to make white, they should be a good choice. I'm sure there are others.

Yeah, i dont want to recreate the wheel lol. Just want to improve my stock a bit for meat.

I do pluck and agree the pin feathers are a pain. We dont sell the birds, so I am not too worried about the look, as long as it tastes good. Lol

Thanks for the info on dwarfism. If i can get a few ladies to adulthood and breed them with my RIR, hopefully they grow a little faster than a normal RIR but retain their large size. At least thats the dream lol

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I also checked out some other articles where they said the Rangers had more fat and way more flavorful than CX. But are more expensive, so i dont want to buy them every year lol. And CX (if thry are like the grocery store meat...) No thank you. Lol. It tastes like Styrofoam to me.

I like to let my chickens free range so i thought Rangers would be a better option and maybe find some of their own food lol

More flavorful, yes. Less fat, certainly less subcutaneous fat, but perhaps marginally more intramuscular fat. Some of that is genetics, some of that is lifestyle. My Cornish X free ranged with the rest of my flock this year, I took one male to 26 weeks, another to 30 weeks (don't ask). Great flavor. Neither had much fat, so little in fact I needed to get oil down to add to the drippings in order to make gravy. If you haven't recently either poured off, or threw away before baking, big chunks of subcutaneous fat from a store bought bird then you have not bought a bird at the store recently.

...and yes, seems like every hatchery in the Nation is currently selling some bird with some play on the "Ranger" name, its the current buzz. HUGE differences between the hatchery stock, and generally most posters here tend to agree that they still show moderately high egg production relative to meat. Though still better on average than a DP bird. There are some small breeders who have re-emphasized meaty-ness (that's a word?) in their breeding stock with success, but I can't name any off the top of my head.

I have no rangers myself - combination of a lack of good info, and a lack of available birds when I assembled my flock.

Finally, this site is littered with the posts of those who thought they were going to create a breed, or otherwise engage in a long term breed improvement project. Hell, I have one myself ("Lemonade"). Most start with a bang, and 6 months later are abandoned. Its a long haul, of uncertain reward, and great effort - particularly for those not in the business, with relatively small flocks. Not to discourage you, just to fairly characterize the size of the plate you are considering ordering.

 

[August Coldwell]

My experience with them is they don't live that long. I bought 24 straight run in June of 2019. Butched all but one roo, and decided to keep him and the 8 hens through the winter. I was down to 3 ISAs and wanted the extra heat in the coop. The plan was to butcher them in the spring. Then I changed my mind and just kept them. The hens turned out to be pretty good layers but 5 have just up and died. (Another one was put down due a run in with my butthead GSD) Of the 2 that are left, one lays a cream colored egg and the other lays a brown egg. Eggs are large to extra large size. The roo is doing well and is the mellowist roo I've ever seen. I thought about hatching the eggs just to see what happens, but my understanding is they don't breed true.

Late to this conversation, but interesting year with Freedom Rangers. This is my experience with the breed:

I bought six Freedom Rangers chicks in March of 2020 to add to my flock. I figured dual purpose was not a bad thing, given the way things felt back then.

The chickens grew freakishly fast, fastest I've ever seen. And they became huge by 12 weeks. They were raised with a few Sebright chicks and even though they always towered over them, they were always sweet towards the Sebrights, almost nurturing.

Around week thirteen, two of them just died suddenly. I never weighed them, but my neighbor, a homesteader with a mixed flock, picked one up and said it felt like a small turkey. He said, thinking that they were more for meat, "They seem like they should be in the freezer." They were ginormous.

Two turned out to be roosters, Hector and Billy Bob. I have never known stranger roosters. Hector was free range most of the time and took to hiding in the bushes to ambush us from behind. We separated the two because Hector was just brutal to Billy Bob, chasing him and ambushing him whenever he could. It was almost embarrassing seeing these two fat roosters running, one chasing the other. We are not allowed to have roosters in our town, and they were crowing rarely so we thought we might hang on to them. Well, one day a switch was thrown and they both started singing to each other every minute on the minute, it seemed. So we decided to process them. I gave Hector to my neighbor to process and I processed Billy Bob. On the day the neighbor took Hector,
he chokingly yelled to Billy Bob, "Hey do you want one last shot at this guy, Billy Bob?" and he held Hector about a foot off the ground. Billy Bob made a sprint right up to Hector and pecked him right on the head. It was stunning.

The meat was excellent. The skin very yellow and fatty.

The two girls remaining, Hellen and Gertie, are good egg layers and gave us eggs through most of this winter. They lay medium sized brown eggs. Helen is at the top of the order and Gertie is her enforcer.

Compared to my Australorps and Marans, Hellen and Gertie are not particularly friendly and on the flighty side.

I would not buy this breed again. If I was raising birds to process in the tenth or eleventh week, I would consider them, however.

 

[iwltfum]

Late to this conversation, but interesting year with Freedom Rangers. This is my experience with the breed:

I bought six Freedom Rangers chicks in March of 2020 to add to my flock. I figured dual purpose was not a bad thing, given the way things felt back then.

The chickens grew freakishly fast, fastest I've ever seen. And they became huge by 12 weeks. They were raised with a few Sebright chicks and even though they always towered over them, they were always sweet towards the Sebrights, almost nurturing.

Around week thirteen, two of them just died suddenly. I never weighed them, but my neighbor, a homesteader with a mixed flock, picked one up and said it felt like a small turkey. He said, thinking that they were more for meat, "They seem like they should be in the freezer." They were ginormous.

Two turned out to be roosters, Hector and Billy Bob. I have never known stranger roosters. Hector was free range most of the time and took to hiding in the bushes to ambush us from behind. We separated the two because Hector was just brutal to Billy Bob, chasing him and ambushing him whenever he could. It was almost embarrassing seeing these two fat roosters running, one chasing the other. We are not allowed to have roosters in our town, and they were crowing rarely so we thought we might hang on to them. Well, one day a switch was thrown and they both started singing to each other every minute on the minute, it seemed. So we decided to process them. I gave Hector to my neighbor to process and I processed Billy Bob. On the day the neighbor took Hector,
he chokingly yelled to Billy Bob, "Hey do you want one last shot at this guy, Billy Bob?" and he held Hector about a foot off the ground. Billy Bob made a sprint right up to Hector and pecked him right on the head. It was stunning.

The meat was excellent. The skin very yellow and fatty.

The two girls remaining, Hellen and Gertie, are good egg layers and gave us eggs through most of this winter. They lay medium sized brown eggs. Helen is at the top of the order and Gertie is her enforcer.

Compared to my Australorps and Marans, Hellen and Gertie are not particularly friendly and on the flighty side.

I would not buy this breed again. If I was raising birds to process in the tenth or eleventh week, I would consider them, however.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with them!

Might be just semantics, but I wouldnt call freedom rangers a dual purpose breed. I know some keep them thru and breed them, but they seem to do better after they get toned down by barnyard breeding after a generation or two as opposed to commercial breeding which sort of streamlines them.

 

[PurpleCArTires]

Late to this conversation, but interesting year with Freedom Rangers. This is my experience with the breed:

I bought six Freedom Rangers chicks in March of 2020 to add to my flock. I figured dual purpose was not a bad thing, given the way things felt back then.

The chickens grew freakishly fast, fastest I've ever seen. And they became huge by 12 weeks. They were raised with a few Sebright chicks and even though they always towered over them, they were always sweet towards the Sebrights, almost nurturing.

Around week thirteen, two of them just died suddenly. I never weighed them, but my neighbor, a homesteader with a mixed flock, picked one up and said it felt like a small turkey. He said, thinking that they were more for meat, "They seem like they should be in the freezer." They were ginormous.

Two turned out to be roosters, Hector and Billy Bob. I have never known stranger roosters. Hector was free range most of the time and took to hiding in the bushes to ambush us from behind. We separated the two because Hector was just brutal to Billy Bob, chasing him and ambushing him whenever he could. It was almost embarrassing seeing these two fat roosters running, one chasing the other. We are not allowed to have roosters in our town, and they were crowing rarely so we thought we might hang on to them. Well, one day a switch was thrown and they both started singing to each other every minute on the minute, it seemed. So we decided to process them. I gave Hector to my neighbor to process and I processed Billy Bob. On the day the neighbor took Hector,
he chokingly yelled to Billy Bob, "Hey do you want one last shot at this guy, Billy Bob?" and he held Hector about a foot off the ground. Billy Bob made a sprint right up to Hector and pecked him right on the head. It was stunning.

The meat was excellent. The skin very yellow and fatty.

The two girls remaining, Hellen and Gertie, are good egg layers and gave us eggs through most of this winter. They lay medium sized brown eggs. Helen is at the top of the order and Gertie is her enforcer.

Compared to my Australorps and Marans, Hellen and Gertie are not particularly friendly and on the flighty side.

I would not buy this breed again. If I was raising birds to process in the tenth or eleventh week, I would consider them, however.

Thank you so much for this. Its good to hear I could take a shot at keeping some and mixing them with my RIR for a faster sustainable meat bird. Right now, my Barnyard Mixes and spare RIR roos take about 5 months to get to about 5-6 lbs. Its alot of feed, lol. I dont want to make a new breed, just influence my flock to grow a little quicker and larger lol.