JM Hatchery's "Colored Rangers"

[tragic59]

If I raise Colored Ranger chicks from JM Hatchery, will they breed true?

If so, what color eggs do they lay? (curious)

In my research on the Cornish Crosses, I determined that they are not the birds for me. So, I am trying to find a good meat bird that I could create a flock that would continue to generate birds on an on-going basis.

I am planning to have dual purpose birds as egg-layers, and will use them for meat if needed. But I am tempted to include some meat-bred birds in the flock to use for that purpose.

 

[PurpleChicken]

No, they won't breed true.

Many of us have tried to develop backyard dual purpose flocks
but for meat birds nothing comes close to Rangers or Cornish.



The egg color will be brown.

If you try to do it I'd be very curious of your results.

 

[tragic59]

Thanks for the reply. I had some suspicions based on what I had read about a couple other "hybrid" birds.

Can anyone explain why that is? I know nothing about breeding, but it seems that the Colored Ranger hens and roosters would both have the same genetic make-up, so why wouldn't they produce a chick with the same qualities?

 

[PurpleChicken]

I wish I could explain it but my gene theory is limited. Because the
mother has a set of genes and the father has another the chicks
are almost all born with the same dominant genes and traits. Once you
go to the next generations you take away that balance and recessive
genes start popping up.

I suppose you can develop a back yard flock that would be close to
the originals. You may also be able to build your own breeding flock
that produces chicks that are very close to the original Rangers.

The reality is however that Joel (JMHatchery) sells his birds so cheap that
it would be better to just rotate birds in and out.


You are making me wanna order some more Rangers. I've only got a
few left in the freezer.

 

[tragic59]

Thanks again! I can't believe how much I'm learning on this site. You guys are great.

I don't necessarily want to start breeding my own line of Colored Rangers. I was thinking I would buy some, keep a rooster and a couple hens out of the group and breed them until their production started to slow down and then start over.

I wanted to be able to pace myself. I'm only going to be feeding my family of 4, so buying 25 meat birds at a time seems a bit excessive. I was thinking we could hopefully hatch 4-8 eggs a month and raise those for meat.

But I'm just a beginner to the chicken thing, so I'm probably either over-simplifying the breeding/hatching idea or over-complicating the ordering/shipping idea...

 

[PurpleChicken]

Your idea makes a lot of sense and I understand not wanting
to raise 25 just for one family.

I'm not sure what area you are in but if you bought 25 at a time,
put them in a brooder, and offered them up for sale for a few bucks
each I'd bet you would find many in your area willing to take some
off you hands. A few of us here in CT split many orders of meat birds.

Don