Ranger Grow-Out Journals

[TimG]

The slow but steady mortality -- I'm down to one cockerel and two pullets -- has me thinking that it really isn't feasible to keep Freedom Rangers year round in a breeding program. I have some eggs in the incubator and am still curious about the offspring, but will probably shift my efforts to a dual purpose breed, I've been thinking about New Hampshires for a long time. Turkens are UGLY! And, will their naked necks really do well in a Maine winter?

I will likely do another batch of Freedom Rangers for the freezer this year. I know it costs a bit more than Cornish Crosses, but they seem so much more chicken like...

I raised two turkeys (broad breasted whites -- impulse purchase at the feed store last August) and enjoyed the results. They ran with my layers and ate the same food, so they might not have ended up as big as they could have, but the one I've eaten was very tasty, the turkey pie was delicious. I'll probably raise a few more this year, though space is at a bit of a premium. I can probably manage Freedom Rangers, New Hampshires, layers, and a couple turkeys, but that's about my limit at the moment.

 

[Jared77]

How old can you sex them? I've often had the thought of sexing some and then putting them on a layer feed, something, anything to slow their growth down. Keep them off the rocket fuel feed and deliberately alter their rate of growth. The genetics are there just don't let them get big/fast. Or do this with some colored broilers. Order extra and any that you think might be hens, yank them and put them in a seperate pen to be raised deliberately slow. Then put something like a NH or Delaware over them to get some better egg production passed along and hopefully get those slow grown broiler hens to lay.

Even if you got a few eggs from them their offspring would be bigger birds and then you work from there going back to the father, or keep a roo back too (again soon as you can sex one or 2 move them out and put them on that slow grow diet) roo back to take the new generation back to and then work from there. If you could keep them alive long enough to get eggs out of them you could tap into their genetics.

I haven't done this myself but I've wondered if it could be done just enough to get the genetics passed onto the next generation.

 

[TimG]

Jared, I was thinking along similar lines: use a New Hampshire rooster to inject some stability into a Freedom Ranger line. I still might try that at some point, but lately I've been thinking it might be more worthwhile to simply attempt to grow big New Hampshires (or whatever other dual purpose breed you like).

I don't know much about flip, but I wouldn't want to breed a tendency toward susceptibility to flip into what I had hoped would be a sustainable line. I figured I was over the danger period for flip, the last victim, at 9-10 months of age has discouraged me a bit.

As far as sexing age, I don't remember exactly, but it's pretty early. You could look back in this thread, but I seem to think I was making pretty good guesses by 4 weeks.

 

[pigfarmer]

Hi Tim
Turkens are a good cold climate bird... believe it or not. Done my homework.
I know they are ugly, but that is what makes it appealing to me, and not many people have them.
As for a dual purpose bird, Buff Orpingtons seem to be up there... good processing weights and layers.
I will avoid cornish x at all cost... they were tasty, but just an all around nasty bird, much uglier than a turken... lol

If you do FR, post it please, I will go in on it again

or email me

Brian

 

[mstricer]

I saved only one hen from my group of 25 from last summer. She is in my Marans coop. She has just started laying these huge double yolkers. She roost at night with the marans and the roo isn't as rough on her as the FR roo's were. I hope she will stop laying the double yolkers so I can hatch out some of the chicks and see how fast they grow. She probably isn't as big as Tim's birds. I choose one that looked healthy and not beat up by the FR roosters ratio of boys to girls were a bit uneven. I would say by looking she's probably 9lbs. Tim did your girls start laying odd shape then huge eggs?

 

[TimG]

The hens had typical odd eggs at first, but they quickly became a consistent 1.9-2.1 ounces with normal shape. Recently they have started getting bigger, I have not weighed them recently, but they are not huge. I never noticed any double yolkers.

I had one runt in my batch of Freedom Rangers. A spunky girl who is about the size of my regular layers now. I say spunky because she is the only hen I have that will peck at my feet when I go in the coop.

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

My FR eggs have been interesting. I have a layer breed flock just a month older, so I've compared as both groups started laying. The FRs (now 8 months old) took longer to get in the groove.

They laid more shell-less eggs and for longer, still lay varied sizes from medium to super jumbo, and their shells are always chalky compared to the other breeds' eggs. I had two that laid huge double yolkers but one of those pullets died. The other one doesn't lay such big ones so often anymore. I also still find FR eggs in the middle of the coop, indicating they may just drop them or not be as concerned about laying in dark nests as the other hens. I have five FR pullets left and never have more than two eggs a day now, so I'm not sure how many are laying. Of course it is winter, too.

The pullets I kept continued to grow for a while. The biggest birds we processed (at 13 weeks) were 6.5# dressed, but one of these pullets I kept recently weighed in at 11#. I'm wondering if size affects laying capacity--can they get too fat to lay eggs?

We plan to incubate some eggs this spring and see what offspring we get. We'll also try some eggs from some of our dual purpose hens X the FR rooster and see if he has any size effect on the chicks.

 

[Jared77]

Jared, I was thinking along similar lines: use a New Hampshire rooster to inject some stability into a Freedom Ranger line. I still might try that at some point, but lately I've been thinking it might be more worthwhile to simply attempt to grow big New Hampshires (or whatever other dual purpose breed you like).

I don't know much about flip, but I wouldn't want to breed a tendency toward susceptibility to flip into what I had hoped would be a sustainable line. I figured I was over the danger period for flip, the last victim, at 9-10 months of age has discouraged me a bit.

As far as sexing age, I don't remember exactly, but it's pretty early. You could look back in this thread, but I seem to think I was making pretty good guesses by 4 weeks.

I go back and forth a lot on this too. Part of me thinks its important to be part of the heritage chicken movement that I've been following on another thread. Breeds that are already established, and its more of a known quantity. But then I'm not breeding to an SOP, but to produce big, meaty, faster maturing birds for my own purposes. At times I feel like Id be doing the breed an injustice by doing that and not adhering to the SOP. I have absolutely zero interest in showing chickens, (horses and hunt tests with my retrievers already cost me enough) I just want a flock of birds for my own enjoyment and they provide for my family. So at times the heritage birds are a real tough sell for me.

4 weeks gives me hope for being able to select out some hens for breeding and slow their growth down and hopefully be able to get something out of them before I lose them. I was thinking closer to 6 or 7 weeks, but 4's very encouraging. We'll see though it may all be a wash.

And for those of you who've kept FR's back did you raise them normally and then hold back a couple of hens?​

 

[TimG]

Yeah, I'm not concerned about SOP either. But, I would like a line of something that would produce consistent offspring. (It may be best for growth/size, if it was a cross of two lines/breeds.)

I don't think heritage for heritage breed's sake is important. When I think heritage, I think of what was done on farms in the 18th and 19th century. I don't imagine farmers then concerned themselves too much with color. If I breed chickens for meat and egg production, I am being heritage conscious, just not "heritage breed" conscious. And, that's quite alright with me.

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

Jared, we didn't have space to separate our keepers so we kept them all together for 13 weeks on meatbird feed. After processing the rest of the birds, we put the keepers (two cockerels and all six pullets) back on grower feed till the pullets started laying. Their feed consumption had slowed down by then. Still they kept growing and the pullets are now over 10# and the cockerel is well above that. Sometimes I wonder if they are too big or just have genes for size?

We go back and forth about keeping the FR breeding stock. One cockerel and one pullet have since died of unclear reasons. Another pullet limps from time to time. We had some serious pecking issues and some of the hens seem really passive and skittish. They are providing us with eggs though so we'll keep them till we see what we get from a spring hatch. We like the idea of heritage livestock, but the bottom line for us is right now is efficiency, and the FRs mature much quicker and are meaty. With two cycles, we can raise 100 birds outdoors per summer in our climate.