Ranger breeding project

[Parront]

Good point! Thank you.

That was what attracted me to the white rock chicks I got from Ideal. I want to see how large they get, and they are advertised to lay ~200 eggs/year. It would be the hen I might like to have a RR male for next summer. We can not keep roosters, but a young one might last long enough to try & get some fertile eggs.

 

[speedy2020]

I have a Red Ranger pair a few years ago. The rooster died around 5 months the hen live until 2.5 years. She was doing very well and big. I have to butch her because the rooster and hens in the block no longer like her. They chase her round for no reason. They eat less than CornishX so do live much longer.

 

[Morrigan]

I shared this in another thread, but I've been very pleased with crossing my Naked Neck rooster over a red ranger hen. I've incubated 8 of her eggs now. All fertile all hatched, all huge healthy chicks. She is over a year now and still looking pretty good, although she still lays an occasion soft shelled egg and struggles a bit in the hot weather. I've got a mister set up in the shade, and she isn't afraid to get wet, standing under it to keep cool. The cockerel in front is one of the NN/RR offspring. The cockerel behind him is a NN over a slow white broiler. At 13 1/2 weeks they dressed out at 4 1/2 lbs and 4 1/4 lbs respectively.

I've been very happy with these results, but I need to think about some fresh genetics, as I have exactly 1 NN rooster and 1 RR hen. I'm thinking I can breed one more generation before things get wonky. Then I need to thinking about saving one of the NN/RR cockerels, get some new red rangers when eggs become available, and save some of the hens. I'd love to find a way to keep the naked neck gene alive in a bird with some of the size of ranger.

 

[Compost King]

I shared this in another thread, but I've been very pleased with crossing my Naked Neck rooster over a red ranger hen. I've incubated 8 of her eggs now. All fertile all hatched, all huge healthy chicks. She is over a year now and still looking pretty good, although she still lays an occasion soft shelled egg and struggles a bit in the hot weather. I've got a mister set up in the shade, and she isn't afraid to get wet, standing under it to keep cool. The cockerel in front is one of the NN/RR offspring. The cockerel behind him is a NN over a slow white broiler. At 13 1/2 weeks they dressed out at 4 1/2 lbs and 4 1/4 lbs respectively.

I've been very happy with these results, but I need to think about some fresh genetics, as I have exactly 1 NN rooster and 1 RR hen. I'm thinking I can breed one more generation before things get wonky. Then I need to thinking about saving one of the NN/RR cockerels, get some new red rangers when eggs become available, and save some of the hens. I'd love to find a way to keep the naked neck gene alive in a bird with some of the size of ranger.

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I found Naked Necks and Red Rangers to be a great combination. The Naked Neck I was breeding with was very calm and non aggressive and it offset the aggression in the Red Rangers I had. The meat was great and very easy to process due to less feathers. I skinned mine because the plucking process to me isn't worth the skin being saved. But even with skinning less feather makes it easier to peel that skin off.

 

[nicalandia]

This is veryyy interesting for me!

I currently have 2 Red Rangers out with the flock breeding, and I have had some neat results. My chicks grow faster and have a nicer sized breast, not like the ranger but better than the hen breed. I got a 5, almost 6lb carcass (gutted) at a little over 4 months old with my Brahma x red ranger cockerel im still using them and seeing how the offspring turn out as I'm still seeing how the pullets end up. My goal is to make a heavier dual purpose while still holding good egg laying traits! (Especially with the easter eggers, I want a heavier dual purpose easter egger)

I have a few Sasso colored Broilers(the use the same line of dwarf hens crossed with different type of males/sires to produce slower growing broilers for different markets) I am also saving a CornisX pullet to cross it with a Isa Brown Rooster.

 

[Parront]

I found Naked Necks and Red Rangers to be a great combination. The Naked Neck I was breeding with was very calm and non aggressive and it offset the aggression in the Red Rangers I had. The meat was great and very easy to process due to less feathers. I skinned mine because the plucking process to me isn't worth the skin being saved. But even with skinning less feather makes it easier to peel that skin off.

Here is a little NN that I am almost positive is male I got from @BlueBaby

He is Nn with feathers on the neck, but ~half of the chicks would carry the Naked gene. I am hoping to do what you did with some nice white rock female chicks.

This is taken today at 2 weeks old. Check out the feet on this girl. First to the feeder, first one to scratch in the grass and roll in the dirt. Ideal does not sell the males unless you get the females, so NOW I want to order the St. Run and see the males.

 

[nicalandia]

Genetically speaking it should not matter with RR. It might with the CX because of the dwarfing gene.

Both are known to carry the sex linked recessive dwarf gene(dw)

The Sasso(Hendrix) SA51a dwarf hen(3 pounds live weight at pounds 20 weeks of age)
https://africa.sasso-poultry.com/en/sasso-products/females/sa51a/


These dwarf/Bantam hens are the reason of the "Slow" to mature colored broilers, but their sire are full blown, full grown by 8 week of age type of broilers but colored instead, here you can compared the growth of one of these full fat colored broiler progeny(C44 male crossed with SA51 hen) at 12 weeks of age should be 9 pounds, when the same dwarf female is crossed with a Cobb500 Sire(sire of CornishX) you can see that at 12 weeks of age these are 9 pounds too, you can see that both sires when crossed with the same dame produces the same progeny but one is colored and the other is mostly white.

SASSO RED C451
http://gallsa.com/en/products/sasso-red-c451-chicks/


SASSO CERTIFIED COBB 150
http://gallsa.com/en/products/sasso-certified-cobb-150-chicks/

More info on the CobbSasso Broilers
https://thepoultrysite.com/focus/cobb/cobb-sasso-the-natural-choice

 

[speedy2020]

I will be working on the Ixworth x Bress project soon. Will see how that turn out. I have been busy moving the box coop and re-do the run.

 

[nicalandia]

What is so special about the bress breeds? Their type seems like regular european

 

[Compost King]

What is so special about the bress breeds? Their type seems like regular european

I am told its the texture of the meat, Half of which comes from what they are fed more than genetics. If Had access to affordable Bresse I would get them to see what they fuss is but I get the feeling if I take any decent type of Dual Purpose bird and feed them Milk Soaked Grains for the last couple weeks of their lives they probably will be comparable to Bresse. I won't know until I do a side by side comparison though.