Freedom Rangers

[Mosherd1]

I ordered all hens from them because I live in an area with close neighbors and the hatchery said they could crow as early as 8 weeks. Do you think that could be a reason they are not as efficient?

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I ordered all hens from them because I live in an area with close neighbors and the hatchery said they could crow as early as 8 weeks. Do you think that could be a reason they are not as efficient?

I know that my roosters were all considerably larger than my pullets regardless of whether we're talking 9, 10 or 12 weeks of age. Now, I don't know whether the roosters ate more than the pullets or simply grew more on the same amount of food, so I can't really tell whether they were more efficient or simply bigger eaters.

 

[WalkingWolf1]

Well -- like the rest of the archives, the opinions on this thread are both for, and somewhat against the FR. As I mentioned earlier, we intended to raise these birds to POL and hatch out some of the eggs. Here are the first three. I'm impressed with the overall size of the chicks and their width. The width is noticeable in the width of their stance as well as the width when viewed from the rear. These pics are at ~ 24 hrs old.

We are looking forward to crossing with our CX roo with these hens. Updates to follow.

 

[kizanne]

Nice looking chicks

 

[cutechick2010]

I am curious about these birds, are they a hybrid like the Cornish X or are they a sustainable breed? Do they have a similar growth rate to the Cornish X?

 

[WalkingWolf1]

I am curious about these birds, are they a hybrid like the Cornish X or are they a sustainable breed? Do they have a similar growth rate to the Cornish X?

They are a "hybrid" produced for the meat market. Their projected grow out rates are from 2-4 weeks longer than CX. These are one of several "red broiler" birds on the market. These come from www.FreedomRangerHatchery.com and are as advertised. In our experience, they have more variability in their individual weights at a given age than the CX. We don't ship off for processing so the variability is a plus for us and we feel the enhanced flavor of these birds makes it worth the effort.

There are several threads that discuss the sustainability of these birds. Of course opinions cover the entire spectrum up to, and including "hybrids will not breed true". While technically correct, the few responses that were provided by individuals that had actually raised up and hatched them show a relatively consistent carcass quality as compared to the original birds. One notable difference provided by one person was the increasing color variability with successive generations. Another point provided, that we think to be relevant, is that the hens should be used for 1 hatching season and replaced with younger stock.

 

[WalkingWolf1]

Well, we finally penned off the FR hens with the CX roo (11/20). We will be collecting eggs in a few weeks with updates to follow. Here is a pic from this afternoon.

 

[Cedarknob]

 

[Jared77]

x2

 

[denasfarm]

My FRs came today! After reading all the threads I decided to play along and try a few myself. I had pretty much gotten out of chickens (We Had 9 breeds and 300+ birds total at one point) I got down to 8 birds....and then I slipped...and today I received 27 Freedom Rangers from Freedom Ranger Hatchery and a couple of other breeds from Welp (but that's another thread) Only one was lost so 26 live out of the 25 ordered.


So my plan is to keep some of the hens and breed them back to a RIR roo and "maybe" keep a FR roo and try and make real Freedom Rangers and possibly ordering some CX, Black and "other red" Boilers and comparing them all in seperate batches.

I am interested in following your success in breeding and learning what works with these birds and what doesn't.

Thanks for starting this thread!! Hope you don't mind if I play along...seemed silly to start a whole new FR thread.



The chick on the right is a "Dark" RIR from Welp. =====>