Freedom Rangers

[WalkingWolf1]

Thank you for jumping in on the FR research thread. Hopefully we can compile viable info on how to utilize available "meat" birds currently on the market.

Don't baby chickens look just awesome? I think 1-2 day old chicks are some of the most innocent looking life-forms on the planet. Your peeps are just gorj-usss.

 

[denasfarm]

Thank You WalkingWolf1! Baby chicks are a favorite of mine to photograph. They are so personable!
They Hatched 11/28/2012 so this is their Day 3. I wanted to try and do the same four or five every day or so but I decided that would be too difficult unless I separate them and I cant do that until I get a fourth light.
I am feeding Tucker Chick Starter available 24/7 (Bag One) 50lbs (but I am also feeding 30 egg birds so this wont be exact until I get them separated next week) I also plan to start keeping weights next week.

Life of a Ranger...Day 3 Random chicks chosen.

and WOW Look how fast the wing feathers are popping out!
Mine must be the Buff or Barred FRs They don't look as red as yours do.

They SURE are spunky little buggars! They are already trying to escape the brooder area and Pictures took two of us to control these four!








This one has a faint stripe down its back.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I also decided to keep several of this springs Freedom Rangers and see if I could hatch out some babies in the spring. However, I just butchered my Freedom Ranger Rooster this past Friday. I kept my favorite rooster...a handsome golden barred fellow in a group of mostly reds and browns. I also kept two very pretty and somewhat unusual pullets. The pullets started laying eggs a few months ago (the tinyest eggs I've ever seen in the begining) However, when the rooster was fully matured he became such a bully to all of the hens,and was probably twice the size of some of my other layers I started having second thoughts. When I noticed that one of the Freedom Ranger pullets was bald on her back from his ongoing attentions I caught her to examine more closely. She had horrible open wounds on her sides, under her wings from being torn by his claws. I decided I wasn't going to let this continue all winter in hopes of some babies in the spring. It also didn't seem reasonable to house him in the garage all winter and feed him in the hopes of some chicks.

All butchered out he weighed just a hair under 8 pounds. We had a delicious Coc au Vin for dinner last night. If I get the go ahead from my husband next spring to get some more Freedom Rangers, I might keep another rooster to adulthood, just so that I can have another mature rooster for Coc au Vin.

 

[Cedarknob]

I also decided to keep several of this springs Freedom Rangers and see if I could hatch out some babies in the spring. However, I just butchered my Freedom Ranger Rooster this past Friday. I kept my favorite rooster...a handsome golden barred fellow in a group of mostly reds and browns. I also kept two very pretty and somewhat unusual pullets. The pullets started laying eggs a few months ago (the tinyest eggs I've ever seen in the begining) However, when the rooster was fully matured he became such a bully to all of the hens,and was probably twice the size of some of my other layers I started having second thoughts. When I noticed that one of the Freedom Ranger pullets was bald on her back from his ongoing attentions I caught her to examine more closely. She had horrible open wounds on her sides, under her wings from being torn by his claws. I decided I wasn't going to let this continue all winter in hopes of some babies in the spring. It also didn't seem reasonable to house him in the garage all winter and feed him in the hopes of some chicks.

All butchered out he weighed just a hair under 8 pounds. We had a delicious Coc au Vin for dinner last night. If I get the go ahead from my husband next spring to get some more Freedom Rangers, I might keep another rooster to adulthood, just so that I can have another mature rooster for Coc au Vin.

If you keep just a few females under a male, you might benefit from searching 'chicken saddles'. I've never used them, but believe even I could make some if I felt the need..

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

If you keep just a few females under a male, you might benefit from searching 'chicken saddles'. I've never used them, but believe even I could make some if I felt the need..

I actually have 9 hens, two are the young Freedom Rangers but the rest are either 12 or 18 months of age. I think the one girl had it so bad because the Freedom Rangers aren't as quick on their feet as the other hens. He'd chase them all over the run but often they could out dodge him. The other girls also started spending more time up on roosts in the run or on top the crate that is in the run to give them a shady spot. The Freedom Ranger pullets may have been to heavy to fly up there to escape the Rooster. If I had some sort of championship rooster and prize winning hens I would probably invest in some chicken saddles but even then, he was so big I thought he might injure the ladies just with his weight.

 

[denasfarm]

Day 7 Freedom Ranger chicks hatched 11/28

I separated them from the Barred Rocks, DRIR and EEs since the are SOOOO much bigger. They are now living with 10- six week old mixed breed chicks.
Some have ample wing feathering and some have none! They are pudgy little roly polys that sleep more than eat. I found one dead yesterday. It had wet food oozing out of the corners of its mouth so I think it may have choked. No marks or injury otherwise.


They are happy little butterballs, they don't freak out like the RIR chicks do at picture time.

Heres todays updated pics...

Question...is the wing feathering (or lack thereof) a sex link trait? Sizes are generally the same.


Feathers



No Feathers


One week FR and Six week mixed chick


If we don't look at her she doesn't exist!


Sleeping as usual


With older chicks


The one with the stripe down its back

 

[denasfarm]

12/16/12

I still have the 2 1/2 week old FRs with the older (7week old) chicks however the FRs are becoming very aggressive
towards the older and now smaller/lighter chicks. I will have to move the older ones this week
before any of them are injured.

 

[WalkingWolf1]

Had some hatch last night and today. This is FR and laying hen flock with FR roos and 1 CX roo (before we penned them separate). We tried to separate the eggs in what "looked" like FR eggs vs. the regular laying flock eggs. We obviously missed a couple of Australorp eggs in there. You can see the FR chicks and I think there are three from the CX roo. Three of the chicks have the lemon-yellow heads and one of those has some tan shadowing in the down. We have 18 more of these eggs in the incubator. We will raise these out and see what type of carcass it will produce. We are now saving eggs from the pen of FR hens and CX roo -- these are the eggs I'm anticipating to see how the cross will grow out.

Some of our recent hatch.

1 day old mixed flock



3 lemon-heads



These last two I tried to show how yellow the chicks are.

 

[Life is Good!]

Day 7 Freedom Ranger chicks hatched 11/28

Question...is the wing feathering (or lack thereof) a sex link trait? Sizes are generally the same.

I found in our flock of FR's that the chicks who had wing feathers early typically became cockerals. This was also true with our CX chicks. While I did not band the birds to verify, the pullets feathered out both wings and tail feathers last, with the smallest pullets feathering out nearly a week after the largest cockeral. The size differences became quite apparent by about 10-14 days old. Hope this is helpful! (We ended up with 14 cockerals and 9 pullets in our batch last May)

 

[denasfarm]

Had some hatch last night and today. This is FR and laying hen flock with FR roos and 1 CX roo (before we penned them separate). We tried to separate the eggs in what "looked" like FR eggs vs. the regular laying flock eggs. We obviously missed a couple of Australorp eggs in there. You can see the FR chicks and I think there are three from the CX roo. Three of the chicks have the lemon-yellow heads and one of those has some tan shadowing in the down. We have 18 more of these eggs in the incubator. We will raise these out and see what type of carcass it will produce. We are now saving eggs from the pen of FR hens and CX roo -- these are the eggs I'm anticipating to see how the cross will grow out.

Some of our recent hatch.

1 day old mixed flock



3 lemon-heads



These last two I tried to show how yellow the chicks are.

They look like "real" Freedom Rangers to me! So the Yellow ones are possibly CXs? That's the cross I want to see! Please keep growing pics of them coming!! What kind of Laying hens are you using (besides Australorps)? Hope they are big girls!