"No such thing" as Freedom Rangers!

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itsy

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8 Years
Mar 14, 2011
1,788
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New England
GRR. ARGH. HARUMPH!
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My BF and I went down to our local Agway to special order some meat chickens. Mind you, my BF knows NOTHING about chickens. All of our chicken ventures thus far have been my doing. I've researched the different meat chicken possibilities and have settled on my first batch being Freedom Rangers, as opposed to the Cornish X's that are also quite popular.

So... We go down to Agway today. Their "chicken specialist" who does all of the ordering works on Mondays. We hunt him down and I ask him if he could order me some and how much they would be and he looks at me like I'm a dumb-dumb and says "They're all free rangers! What is it that you ACTUALLY want?" He's talking to me all slow-like while he watches a pretty gal put up a sign for him. I explain that I'm looking for FREE-DOM RAN-GERS and he looks at me like I'm an idiot! He says "There's no such thing!" I was a little dumb-founded because I've been doing a bit of reading on here...and people distinctly refer to Freedom Rangers like they exist. He told me maybe I heard wrong and people mean "free-rangers."

I explain to him the small knowledge that I have on the bird and that I'm not interested in the Cornish X. He INSISTS that there's no such thing and that I must be confused. He turns to my boyfriend while he's talking to me, in my mind to get a man to step in who knows what he's talking about, and the BF keeps quiet. We go back and forth a little bit, all the while I'm trying to be as polite as I can be.

When we left - I was a irritated. Firstly, because I'm not an idiot or his daughter and shouldn't be spoken to like such. And secondly, because both my BF and myself got the impression that he was being a bit chauvinistic in his male-approach to me.

Why is it that he wouldn't know what a Freedom Ranger was and then adamantly denied that anything like that could exist? Am I missing something? Do they go by other names? Is it a patented name like "Kleenex" is to facial tissues?


Thank you for listening to my rant and answering my question if you do!
 
Each hatchery has "pet" names for their production birds to set them apart from all of the others. Some may be copyighted and the breeding of the birds may be under patent as well.
 
first i would tell the"chicken expert" he is full of chicken poop!!!!! go to freedomrangerhatchery.com they are related to jm hatchery which was selling freedom rangers, yes they are a specific breed. they are from french stock. when you get the information printed out, i would take it to the expert, and then ask him how many chickens he has raised.
 
I would print out something on Freedom Rangers, such as what sunnycal linked for you, and take that in. Yeah, that man sounds like someone who'd rub me the wrong way too...
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Thanks, guys! I was thinking the same thing. If I print something out and show it to him - it'll be the professional way to stick it to him
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That link is great... unfortunately, they won't have chicks until 6/8 and I was hoping to get them sooner. Anyone else sell them? I wonder if I should settle on the Cornish X's. I wanted to get the FR's because I've read on here that they're tastier.
 
Chick sales at Agway and TSC are of short duration, and in most instances the staff knows "diddly squat" about what they are selling. That being said he had no right to treat you in a condescending fashion. Print out some literature and go back and "educate" him. Sadly enough our Agway went out of business about a year ago. There are only a very few still in business in NJ.
 
I was going to suggest the same thing--educate the guy and show him you know what you're talking about! In my area the farm and feed stores order from the same two large hatcheries. Neither of those hatcheries sells Freedom Rangers and some of the clerks have no idea what I'm talking about either. FRs are still relatively unknown in some areas. Most of the meat poultry producers here raise CX and only a few are familiar with FRs.

Another year or two, maybe our local feed stores will know what they are--as more people ask for them. Actually I saw somewhere (on BYC??) that someone did see a batch of FRs at their feed store.

To answer your question about names, FRs or similar birds are also called colored, Dixie, Rainbow broilers and probably other names as well. Freedom Rangers are being offered by some other hatcheries this year and drop shipped by Freedom Ranger Hatchery (you can tell by the description and photos in the hatchery catalog). If you want fewer than 25 maybe you could find someone local to share a shipment with? Or (gasp!) maybe your Agway would even give them a try?
 
Freedom rangers have only been sold by one hatchery. (I believe Mrs Mucket when she says they are now available from a few different places.) There is no reason for the clerk to know about freedom rangers if they aren't sold by the hatchery his store uses and he is not a member of backyard chickens.

Why waste you time on some minimum wage clerk? Just be glad you aren't stuck in his job and get on with your life. He's his own worst punishment; the poor guy has to live with himself. There's no reason for you to worry about him.
 
Hello,
I have read somewhere on her that the original place that sold FRs stopped.
Is this freedomrangerhatchery a new source or was the thread i read wrong?
thanks
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