How do Freedom Rangers do in hot weather?

Buster52

Songster
10 Years
Jan 28, 2009
3,635
45
228
Geronimo Oklahoma
Can they beat the heat? Gets way too hot here to raise CX in the summer, so we are on our last batch, and that is pushing them into early June. We are suspending during the summer and picking up during the fall. It would be nice to have something to grow during the summer months.

Anybody have any experience raising Freedom Rangers in hot weather? Like 105 to 110 degrees hot?

Thanks.
 
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Sorry, no experience for me to relate to you. Personally, *I* wouldn't stay alive in that heat for that long! Don't know how you do it, but glad someone can!

So here's a BUMP to see if anyone can answer your question....
 
I would say that the FR that I raised did alright into the 90's, but they didn't like it. I would be hard pressed to raise any sort of meat bird in temperatures that high.
 
It was in the low 90's today and my 11 week old FR's are clearly uncomfortable. (They *should* all be in the freezer by now, I'm running behind. :( )

I'm not getting any more until mid to late August so they'll finish in November right around our first frost date.

-Wendy
 
It was 91 in the shade here today and all my CX were in and out of the full sun, foraging all day. They took one break in midday but it was brief. They are 5 wks old...the only thing I noticed them doing to compensate for the heat was holding their wings out from their body as they foraged. I guess they were ventilating.

I took this video today about 9:30 am and it was already 80 in the shade.
 
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We've decided to forego raising any type of meat birds in the summer here. We've lost free range dp birds to the heat at times. I can only imagine what it would do to meaties.

Thanks for all the helpful input.
 
I don't like butchering in the heat. So the next batch will be purchased so they get here when it is still warm, then cooling as they go out to forage, and cool enough to butcher when they are 8 weeks old.

I'd be afraid of losses to heat exhaustion if the temps were over 100 degrees. You can do a lot with fans and ice, and they would need a lot of space so they could spread out, but they really aren't designed to be hot weather birds.
 
Awesome video Beekissed, I'm thinking of buying electric netting for my next batch of FR's, did I hear correctly that they just go through your fence even when its on?
 
I'd be afraid of losses to heat exhaustion if the temps were over 100 degrees. You can do a lot with fans and ice, and they would need a lot of space so they could spread out, but they really aren't designed to be hot weather birds.

Pretty much my thinking. Gonna be 97 today "in the shade" (and this being the plains, we don't have much of that) and it is just the first part of May.

Going to be another long, hot, dry summer, methinks. I just hope the meaties I have now will make it. Our last batch winds up mid June. Fortunately I haven't presold many of those. We are going to only presell 50% of those, just in case.
 
Awesome video Beekissed, I'm thinking of buying electric netting for my next batch of FR's, did I hear correctly that they just go through your fence even when its on?

Half of them do, half do not....some are just more brave, I guess. But then, I have the wrong kind of fencing...mine is for sheep instead of for poultry(much larger squares in the netting). I had chosen that kind because it had the ground in the bottom wire but I didn't realize it only came in the sheep fencing. To send it back would have cost me $50 so I just kept it. The poultry electric netting has smaller holes that will allow the younger chicks to go through but probably not past the age of 3 wks.

It's 98 in the shade today and my CX have been out since early this morning and are still out right now....steadily foraging. I don't know how they are tolerating it because I certainly couldn't be out there in the sun walking continuously....give me a fan and a cold beverage!
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