I want a good meat bird that can reproduce and forage...

So this kind of makes me wonder, with the rangers, if you were to breed them, and then just take the biggest from the second gen. and breed them, and so on and so forth, you may, eventually end up with a consistantly large bird. Maybe keep two different parent flocks, to help with inbreeding. Is that oversimplifying ? You know that could be kind of fun.
 
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Mike~ you know...if a few or several people were into this, we could exchange birds to keep inbreeding down.

Who mentioned adding in a heritage breed to the experimentle flock? Would you do this to add some size stabilization in future generations?
 
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JM is the only hatchery with official Freedom Rangers. Try doing a search for colored broilers. They won't be exactly the same, but that is basically what a Freedom Ranger is.

Search for Redbro, or poulet rouge. You can contact Hubbard or SASSO and ask who has a license to sell their colored broilers in Canada. Freedom Ranger is kind of a marketing name JM Hatchery uses. Freedom Rangers include the RedBro which is the breed name given by Hubbard-ISA who produced the genetics.

http://www.sasso.fr/yellow-coloured-chickens.php?produit=farmhouse-chickens&lg=en

http://www.hubbardbreeders.com/products.php?id=11
 
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i believe you're right. they've been likened to the old-school barnyard mutts,

Who likened them? They aren't anything like barnyard mutts. They come from very carefully bred and developed lines meant to produce a particular result.

Yes they are a patented genetic breed like the cornishX developed by Hubbard-ISA for the french label rouge program. Designed to produce real broilers at medium growth. Freedom rangers include the RedBro, which is the breed name given by Hubbard. Other colored broilers may be anything unless you know which breeder lines they come from. Hubbard or SASSO both make colored broilers designed to be broilers.

They are a hybrid and so do not breed true, but that doesn't mean you can't do your own selective line breeding and develop your own de-hybridized flock of freedom rangers. The inconsistencies of successive generations won't make that much of a difference to the home producer. They can and do breed easily, unlike cornishX which can't even live long enough to reach maturity.

http://www.hubbardbreeders.com/products.php?id=11
 
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slc~ thanks for the info. I think you are right, I don't see why, while variables are being worked out, this would bother a home producer, because what's not fit for selling to friends/fam is certianly fine for the owner to make stew from. I might have to check this idea out further, and buy some this summer. I like the heritage breeds my self, and am wishing I ordered a couple of roos extra for my Australorp flock.
 
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I think their growth is slow enough were you could try some breeding projects with them. I wouldn't cross them with each other but introduce an outside large dual purpose bird to cross them with like a white rock, buff, or buckeye.

Mike, do you mean buff Orpingtons? Buff is not a breed, just a color. Orpingtons are also available in black, or white. (some breeders are working on other colors, I don't know if any others are accepted by the APA yet)

There are other breeds that come in the buff color, too, there are buff Brahmas, buff Cornish, and others, those are the 2 that come to mind right away.

JoAnn, the Freedom Rangers are a nice option, I think, and from what I've been reading about them, I see no reason you couldn't keep some for breeding. If you do decide to cross a heritage breed with some, you might want to get a strain from a good breeder, and not use hatchery stock. The hatchery birds of so-called "heavy breeds" tend to be on the skinny side, not what you want to add to a meat strain.

I've had Brahmas, both buff and light, they're very nice, but slow growers. My light Brahma hens are great brooders and good moms. My best crosses to date have been with a standard dark Cornish. I only had hens, so the cross was bass-ackwards, with Cornish hen, X what-ever roos, but now I have a DC roo, to cross with various hens, and see what that produces.

I've also heard good things about red broilers and black broilers, they seem to reach butcher weight at about 12 weeks, and are active, healthy birds. Not as plump as the Cornish X's, but with a reasonably good sized breast, definitely bigger than most heritage breeds.
 
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I think their growth is slow enough were you could try some breeding projects with them. I wouldn't cross them with each other but introduce an outside large dual purpose bird to cross them with like a white rock, buff, or buckeye.

Mike, do you mean buff Orpingtons? Buff is not a breed, just a color. Orpingtons are also available in black, or white. (some breeders are working on other colors, I don't know if any others are accepted by the APA yet)

There are other breeds that come in the buff color, too, there are buff Brahmas, buff Cornish, and others, those are the 2 that come to mind right away.

JoAnn, the Freedom Rangers are a nice option, I think, and from what I've been reading about them, I see no reason you couldn't keep some for breeding. If you do decide to cross a heritage breed with some, you might want to get a strain from a good breeder, and not use hatchery stock. The hatchery birds of so-called "heavy breeds" tend to be on the skinny side, not what you want to add to a meat strain.

I've had Brahmas, both buff and light, they're very nice, but slow growers. My light Brahma hens are great brooders and good moms. My best crosses to date have been with a standard dark Cornish. I only had hens, so the cross was bass-ackwards, with Cornish hen, X what-ever roos, but now I have a DC roo, to cross with various hens, and see what that produces.

I've also heard good things about red broilers and black broilers, they seem to reach butcher weight at about 12 weeks, and are active, healthy birds. Not as plump as the Cornish X's, but with a reasonably good sized breast, definitely bigger than most heritage breeds.

Yes that is what i meant sorry for the confusion.
 
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I will keep in touch with this board. I think I will likely keep a few of the one I have now so we could exchange hatching eggs in the future? It will be a few months before I would get any I have some New hampshire reds and white rocks that I will probably try crossing with the rangers also. I am not trying to create a new breed or anything but would like to experiment with it. My main goal is like that of everyone else tuning into this: a good meat bird that can reproduce, forages well, and has a nice size. My neighbors already think I am crazy I have like 60+ chickens on my 2.5 acres (2 layer/ breeding coops and 1 meat bird tractor) a few more wouldn't hurt anything.
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I think by introducing an outside standard breed would help obtain offspring with more consistant genetic traits (minimizing the variability of ranger X ranger offspring sizes) while at the same time keeping some of the desired traits. I know there is another board on the meat bird index that someone is crossing X's with buckeyes I believe. I am also watching this to see how his turn out. I think the freedom rangers are more fit (than X's) to keep longer without having to restrict there diet as much since they forage better.
 
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