Ranger breeding project

[Compost King]

I would suggest you begin with a dual purpose rooster over ranger hens and select from there if you want a bird that will act more like a "normal" chicken.

I put a Dorking over a Red Ranger and had great results, I also had great results with Naked Neck over a Red Ranger, had so/so results putting an Ayam Cemani over a Red Ranger (only the females had the black skin/meat). That grey alien looking carcass in my profile was 1/4 Red Ranger 1/4 Ayam Cemani 1/2 Naked Neck. The Red Ranger long keel remained through 2 generations but it didn't flesh out very meaty.

If you can breed Red Ranger to Red Ranger successfully they will act like normal birds. They may even take to foraging faster than your heritage breeds. I believe only Leghorns foraged faster than Red Rangers out of the breeds I had. Everyone else went to the feed first then foraged. The Red Rangers can be aggressive towards smaller birds in a confined area, but if the area is large enough with enough hiding spots they give up chase rather quickly. If I get my hands on a pair of Red Rangers I plan on breeding them and seeing the results. If I were to choose a bird to cross with them for the sake of Genetic diversity I would pick NH reds from Freedom Ranger Hatchery. High quality Buckeyes might be great too. I would use a Red Ranger male over the heritage breed, then only keep the females in the program because that will keep the Rapid Feathering trait. The Males from that crossing would have feathering rate of the mother. If one of them genetics experts corrects me I will gladly submit to their opinion I do not know genetics I only know my own experiences when breeding rapid feathering bird to not rapid feathering birds.

I have noticed the 4 White Broiler chicks I bought do not act super ravenous, they pretty much act like other chickens.

Although mine died semi young and probably never reached a good grow rate due to what ever problem they had that caused them all to die one by one... I didn't even notice them look like meat chickens. the first week they were larger than the rest of the chicks I had at the time but eventually the other chickens got just as big. They really just resembled white rocks. I wasn't impressed. They didn't forage any better than other chickens either. They just ate from the feeder and scratched for feed from time to time. While certainly they were better foragers than CX they would have been middle of the pack to the bottom half of foragers in a mixed flock of heritage breed birds. Mine could have been sick or had bad genetics since I got them at TSC and not from a place that specializes in meat birds but that's where I got my Red Rangers too and I found them to be the best free ranging meat birds I ever had.

Anyone? There's so many older threads and blog posts about this, there have to be folks with info to share!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/crossing-my-red-ranger-hens.1281099/#post-20657390 this is a thread I had when I was learning about Red Rangers because I happened to get some at TSC. Its not exactly what you are doing, I was crossing Heritage breeds with Red Rangers. All the males were turned into food, and I kept the females alive to see if they could lay. Then I started breeding them to various heritage breeds I had.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/toad-raising.1152440/#post-18045134

This is a guy who crossed a ranger type of bird with CX in an attempt to get CX with larger legs. Its interesting and informative. Its probably one of my favorite threads to read because the guy who started it makes me laugh with his unique sense of humor.

I want to see the results of any project you end up doing with breeding rangers.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I would use a Red Ranger male over the heritage breed, then only keep the females in the program because that will keep the Rapid Feathering trait. The Males from that crossing would have feathering rate of the mother. If one of them genetics experts corrects me I will gladly submit to their opinion I do not know genetics I only know my own experiences when breeding rapid feathering bird to not rapid feathering birds.

I did not know that Rangers were fast feathering. That would explain what you are seeing.

One sex-linked gene pair controls feathering rate. The slow-feathering gene is dominant over the fast-feathering gene. A hen gives her sex-linked genes to her boys, her girls get nothing from her. A rooster gives one of whatever he has to both boys and girls. So the girls get that gene from their fathers only.

If the hen has the slow feathering gene her boys get it. Since it is dominant that boy will be slow-feathering no matter what he gets from Dad. So the boys can wind up with either two slow feathering genes or one slow and one fast depending on what they get from Dad. It can get confusing if you use that boy in a breeding program, you can't tell by looking of he has one of each or both slow.

A pullet will only get what Dad has. If he is fast-feathering he has two recessive fast genes so the girls will have the fast gene. That's what you are seeing.

I don't know how accurate this chart is. It comes from a sex linked thread on here and is by a guy that is a true genetic expert so probably pretty accurate. It shows some fast feathering breeds and some slow feathering breeds. It's interesting to me that many of the dual purpose breeds we normally look at are slow-feathering. That doesn't totally make sense to me but talking chicken genetics that's not unusual.

Compost King, why is fast feathering important to you? I can think of two possible reasons. Fast feathering chicks will feather out faster so they can handle cooler weather earlier. Hens that are fast feathering will get over the molt faster and return to lay earlier.

If you breed a fast-feathering male over a slow feathering female you can tell the sex of the chicks at hatch by looking at the wing feathers.

 

[Geena]

If you can breed Red Ranger to Red Ranger successfully they will act like normal birds. They may even take to foraging faster than your heritage breeds.

I would qualify that with some are like that, because some are most definitely not. I've raised multiple batches of them and they were great, but the ones I got last year were just like cornish crosses. We had to process them at 10 weeks because the cockerels were HUGE and having problems getting around.

I did not know that Rangers were fast feathering.

I've never noticed that they are, but I suppose it all depends on where you get them from.

 

[Compost King]

Compost King, why is fast feathering important to you?

The faster they feather the sooner they start fleshing out. Not that all fast feathering birds flesh out, the leghorn never really does but if I had to choose between Jersey Giants or Leghorns for meat production I would still take the leghorns because I wouldn't be feeding them much as I would process them much sooner. To me meat birding is all about speed first and size 2nd.

 

[Compost King]

I've raised multiple batches of them and they were great, but the ones I got last year were just like cornish crosses.

were the ones like Cornish X really red rangers or red broilers?

 

[jolenesdad]

The original people who owned the trademark for Freedom Rangers before they sold it to the folks at Freedom Ranger Hatchery were once active on this forum, like 10 years ago. There's a really informative thread they posted when they were getting out of the business if you're interested I can try and find the link.

Just about every single colored broiler in the USA comes from Hubbard genetics. The Freedom Ranger is not specifically anything different, it is just the name that is trademarked. The bird is from Hubbard. The Label Rouge birds are Sasso I think?

Hubbard works with each hatchery that wants to keep a breeder flock to "design" the broiler they want using a limited amount of grandparent stock. They are all incredibly similar.

I spoke with a VP of Hubbard this year about setting up a breeder/parent flock. Of all the red broilers on the market in 2020, Murray McMurray's Red Broiler has the best growth rate. In typical backyard settings where you are not buying large amounts of bulk feed, the difference amongst the target growth and feed conversion rates for red broilers is fairly negligible.

When a hatchery uses the same name of a bird (like Welp selling a Freedom Ranger), they are drop shipping from the origin. That happens with anyone who sells a Freedom Ranger or a Kosher King, those are trademarked names.

It's a little grey area with some names whether it is still drop shipped, but they change the name to something generic, or, whether they have their own unique breeder flock, or, whether they just purchase eggs.

Regardless of whether they purchase and incubate eggs, have their own breeder flock and unique line, or drop ship from another hatchery, most all of the red broiler genetics come back to Hubbard. Ideal has their "own line" that they manage and breed, however, they also used to purchase all their stock from Hubbard, so once again, those genetics go right back to Hubbard.

The european and world hubbard sites are more forthcoming with understanding some of the parent stock they use to develop the lines.

For the OP, what you are trying to do is what Murray McMurray did in 2020 with the "Enhanced Broiler Delaware". It is a delaware with meat bird genetics crossed in, and then bred back to Delawares to get closer to the standard for Delaware.

There are several breeders of standard-bred heritage bird flocks with incredibly utility birds... Frank Reese's Barred Rocks, Mike Omeg's New Hampshires, which may be worth a look for you. They're EXPENSIVE and difficult to get your hands on, but, may actually save you lots of money in the long run. They are NOTHING like any kind of heritage bird you've likely seen, and may actually be close to what you are hoping to get to, without having to go through generations of work.

My only other comment is that my hold-over laying hens from my meat bird flocks smash a LOT of eggs. They're just so heavy and cumbersome in a nesting box. If you used roll away boxes this would work to collect the eggs, but I'd be slightly concerned with broodiness in a large bird you're trying to create.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Following - for long term. There's a few years left in me, barring accident, and I'm not planning on going anywhere. Considering a breeding program of my own, if only because I've just started my flock with what I could get at the local farm store (covid 19 essentially shut down all the local mom and pops), so I've got the mix ID'd below. There are traits I like in each of the breeds, and traits I absolutely hate.

Hoping my Cornish (already butterballs at 8 weeks) aren't CornishX (TSC's labels are hardly definitive), or that if they are, they survive to maturity as potential layers, will cull the kids, since its sort of genetic lottery at that point.

More interested in the Brahma and NHReds, the Comets are only to provide lots of eggs near term.

Need a dual purpose free ranger. I fan afford moderate rates of lay, moderate rates of growth, and moderate final weights - as long as they are hearty, not too stupid, and not too slow to grow as to loose any pretense at being worth the cost of feeding them.

 

[Vantic]

The original people who owned the trademark for Freedom Rangers before they sold it to the folks at Freedom Ranger Hatchery were once active on this forum, like 10 years ago. There's a really informative thread they posted when they were getting out of the business if you're interested I can try and find the link.

I would be very interested in reading this if you can find it. Thanks

 

[jolenesdad]

I would be very interested in reading this if you can find it. Thanks

Found it!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/freedom-rangers-i-will-give-you-the-true-story.61284/

what I found most interesting about the thread is on page 2, Joel, owner of JM Hatchery (now known as freedom ranger hatchery), says that they already were producing the “same bird” as the freedom ranger.

Hubbard used the same genetics to create the birds for both hatcheries, but Barbara owned the trademark to call it Freedom Ranger.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I'm going to come back and re-read this when I'm actually awake (more coffee) and can absorb what I'm reading, but I've started along a similar path. I've got Red Ranger types coming this week in the mail and have plans to raise them like normal chickens and mix them with a few different heritage breeds. It's early and I have no strong definable goals yet, but I've done CX plenty of times and while I love the big meaty birds I got, the feeling inside watching the poor frankenbirds not act like real chickens was a bit .....ugh.