Freedom Rangers

[Salt and Light]

Quote:
I'm on either my 2nd or 3rd batch of Rangers. I've always done well with very few losses. But this last batch has been real bad. I've lost 8 out of 25 birds, including one last week. The birds are about 10 weeks old. This is the most birds I've ever lost...

 

[Kelsey2017]

Quote:
I'm on either my 2nd or 3rd batch of Rangers. I've always done well with very few losses. But this last batch has been real bad. I've lost 8 out of 25 birds, including one last week. The birds are about 10 weeks old. This is the most birds I've ever lost...

Um hey I wanted to get these,

are there more good experiences out there? Why do you suppose they had such a hard time? I can't even have them delivered until March or so because of the weather here in MN but I was going to order them tomorrow. I saw a post somewhere about it being possible that weak ones could be from pullet eggs, can I ask the hatchery about their hens first? Should I scrap it and get red broilers instead?

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
I'm on either my 2nd or 3rd batch of Rangers. I've always done well with very few losses. But this last batch has been real bad. I've lost 8 out of 25 birds, including one last week. The birds are about 10 weeks old. This is the most birds I've ever lost...

Um hey I wanted to get these,

are there more good experiences out there? Why do you suppose they had such a hard time? I can't even have them delivered until March or so because of the weather here in MN but I was going to order them tomorrow. I saw a post somewhere about it being possible that weak ones could be from pullet eggs, can I ask the hatchery about their hens first? Should I scrap it and get red broilers instead?

I got mine Dec. 7th and still have all of them.....They are about 8 weeks now, I've been feeding them whole grains for 3 weeks now, so their growth is not so fast, and its cold, but I'm ok with that.

 

[Blaineiac]

A hatchery near me has "Rainbow Rangers". Is this just a colored broiler? I've been wondering, but i'll still prob go with the CX's

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

SaltandLight and Minnesota--I'm sorry to hear about your losses. I know that is disappointing. I've had trouble with turkey poults surviving and lost three out of five last year.

Blaineiac--Rainbow Rangers sound like a colored broiler. I've seen them sold under different names.

Kelsey--There are a lot of success stories with Rangers too, but like with any breed there are losses, some explainable and some not. I had 26 chicks shipped across the country last May. All arrived healthy. One later died when a feeder fell on it. We raised our Rangers outside and they were happy and active foraging and sitting in the sun. After processing most of them we kept several for breeding, and two of those died this fall--a cockerel of unknown causes, and a pullet that appeared to have died trying to lay an egg. Our remaining cockerel and five pullets seem very healthy.

TimG just hatched some chicks from his Freedom Ranger breeders--success stories at https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=318364&p=1.

 

[draye]

I'm on either my 2nd or 3rd batch of Rangers. I've always done well with very few losses. But this last batch has been real bad. I've lost 8 out of 25 birds, including one last week. The birds are about 10 weeks old. This is the most birds I've ever lost...

Can't see that this ia a fault of the hatchery. 8 weeks, sometimes you just lose some.​

 

[95yj]

I raised a batch last year, they all seemed really health and full of vigor from day 1. I conditioned them for cold in the brooder by keeping it a little chilly (5-10* below usual) and they didn't seem to care, they feathered out really fast and i was able to get them outside really young. Ounce they were outside for a while i started opening the tractor door in the day and letting them completely free range, they found everything that was potentially edible within a quarter mile, and completely weeded our rasberries. At night i occasionally had to chase a few back to the tractor but for the most part they went in by themselves. unlike they CX's which will forage only if they run out of commercial food the freedom rangers will forage and run around even when they have food. I really liked them. Also the people who run the hatchery are incredibly helpful if you ever need to call them for anything.

 

[csr326]

I believe they might hold the patent for the name not the breed. I have seen the same breed with a different name.

Meyer Hatchery has them but they are called Rainbow Ranger


http://www.meyerhatchery.com/produc...ickens&grd_prodone_filter=PRODUCT_ID = 'RRBS'