Ideals Red Broilers, Have you had them?

[bradleyjpyle]

I have MANY Ideal "Red Broilers" somewhere in the range of 120

They are from different orders.

My first order is maybe 6 weeks old

Good:
Just as you stated they are very active and have good livability. None have dropped dead aside from a few shortly after arriving
-Ideals shipping from TX to NY was only 1 day
-Ideals customer service was awesome and they immediatly refunded me for lost birds, no questions asked
-Will order from them again for sure.
-Tough, tough little birds. Its 20-30 degrees at night (Central NY and they were launched out to the coop last week) and they forage all day
during daylight hours.

Negatives:
-They are meat birds not pets (So all things considered)
-They are VERY VERY noisy
-They are skidish as all get out. All my other birds are so much more mellow, very high strung.
-I am dissapointed with the feed conversion (But they did feather Very very fast)
a. I put them outside really early so energy is being used up to stay warm
b. the growth rate isnt "Super" *My Buff Plymouth Rocks are growing AS FAST as these turds"



My second order was a mess.....

1. lost like 15 birds (in climate controlled environment)
-every couple days i find another dead one

2. My next batch of Buff Rocks is growing as fast/ faster than them (Those are not for eating though)


Overall Opinion:

Price was my motivation for purchase. They were really inexpensive. Next time I am going to buy cornish crosses and do it in the cooler summer months. If you just cant stand the "big business" of the meat bird industry I suppose the red broilers are "ok"

-I would never, ever, ever pay $1.97 ea for them.

-If they are on sale again during summer months I would consider only for pasture raising. They do a decent job foraging but just arent "superstars"

 

[Jared77]

Would you mind sharing where you got your buff rocks from? PM is fine too was just curious.

 

[bradleyjpyle]

couldnt tell you. Tractor supply company I believe. I have no idea who there supplier is.

-Brad

 

[Cedarknob]

Had them, have them still. Good birds. Kept some hens back for breeding. They actually lay pretty good, . I have one hen that consistantly lays big double yolkers. Yum. Put some roos in the freezer. Good meaty birds. Breast are longer than a cornish x but have quite a bit of meat. Not as "plump" in the breast, but alot more thigh and leg. I like them. Though there are alot more feathers to pluck than a cornish x. I did have two of my largest roos drop dead, not sure what went on there.

From what I've read on the internet, true Freedom Rangers can have the same type of heart issues as commercial white broilers as they reach maturity. Breeders must keep even the parent lines on restricted diets.

 

[bradleyjpyle]

I'm thinking hybrids are about worthless hobby farm animals

 

[trifecta]

No. The law of random assortment says that you have a 50% likelihood of inheriting a certain gene from each parent, right (each side has 1 set). In a purebred, these genes are very consistent between the 2 parents- so these 2 parents tend to produce offspring that pretty consistently look like their parents. In a crossbreeding between 2 breeds, that becomes very random and is hard to stabilize in the first 3-4 generations or so... so I guess theoretically you could get something that looks alot like one of the originial parent breeds, but often get something even more "mutt like" with very little predictability.

I have black broilers from Ideal. I have mixed feelings about them- the roosters were VERY aggressive. I mean, take a broom out to the pen to keep from getting flogged kind of aggressive. And I handled these chicks daily from day 1. I butchered at 12ish weeks, they were tiny, but I was sick of getting nailed by them. I have 2 hens left over, who are nicer, but again for the amount of handling not very tame. Its interesting because I think they are getting close to laying. Ultimately, they will end up in the freezer, but they were super pretty and good foragers so I kept them around for a while.

I agree, they eat a ton and don't put on the weight. I ended up switching mine to layer feed for the past few months- they just weren't having a rate of gain to justify the higher protein feed. Indidentally, I don't think they grew any slower on the layer ration.