Ranger Grow-Out Journals

[Mrs. Mucket]

Today I put some Freedom Ranger eggs in the incubator. This is our first attempt at offspring from the FR roo and 5 FR hens we kept over from last summer’s batch of meaties. We also took the FR rooster to visit our DP laying hens for a couple of afternoons to see if his genes increase the meatiness of the DP breeds. His visits were limited due to wintry weather so I’m not sure how many of the six hens he spent time with, but we’ll probably try more crossing when the birds move outside. And last but not least, though I have tried to keep this 15 # FR roo away from my banties, banty eggs have been showing bullseyes in the frying pan. One of those little girls is sneaky! I don’t know if this egg is fertile or not but we thought we’d see what THAT combo would produce.

So we have 22 eggs in the incubator…
12 @ Freedom Ranger X Freedom Ranger
5 @ FR roo X Rhode Island Red hen/ Buff Orpington hen (hard to tell their eggs apart)
4 @ FR roo X Easter Egger hen
1 @ FR roo X one of my banties (I think a Dark Brahma)

These chicks will be a couple of months behind TimG's.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I'm working on a Red Broiler breeding program. My 14 broilers are 8 weeks old now.

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

Mrs. Mucket :

Today I put some Freedom Ranger eggs in the incubator. This is our first attempt at offspring from the FR roo and 5 FR hens we kept over from last summer’s batch of meaties. We also took the FR rooster to visit our DP laying hens for a couple of afternoons to see if his genes increase the meatiness of the DP breeds. His visits were limited due to wintry weather so I’m not sure how many of the six hens he spent time with, but we’ll probably try more crossing when the birds move outside. And last but not least, though I have tried to keep this 15 # FR roo away from my banties, banty eggs have been showing bullseyes in the frying pan. One of those little girls is sneaky! I don’t know if this egg is fertile or not but we thought we’d see what THAT combo would produce.

So we have 22 eggs in the incubator…
12 @ Freedom Ranger X Freedom Ranger
5 @ FR roo X Rhode Island Red hen/ Buff Orpington hen (hard to tell their eggs apart)
4 @ FR roo X Easter Egger hen
1 @ FR roo X one of my banties (I think a Dark Brahma)

These chicks will be a couple of months behind TimG's.

Candled the eggs tonite (day 11). We have 11 full FR embryos and one cross of FR roo X either BO or RIR. The 12th FR egg had a hairline crack so I removed it a few days ago. Three of the developing FR eggs were the oldest eggs, stored for 10, 13 and 14 days before incubating.

The other cross eggs look like duds, maybe because the roo's visits to the non-FR hens were too brief. A RIR and two BOs have moved over to his pen now so we should get some fertile X eggs for the next incubator batch.

My Dark Brahma banty went broody about the time I started the incubator. She's been sitting on two infertile eggs, so I'll slip her the FR chicks to raise. That should be interesting, as she is quite tiny. They will tower over her in no time.

Hatch expected around March 30.​

 

[BoomChickaRocka]

Quote:
Do Red broilers breed true?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Quote:
No, the under performer seems healthy and is active, just a mini version of the others.

I should have mentioned (and will add it now), that they were inside for a little over two weeks, but have been in the barn for a few days now. They have no heat source despite it dropping into the 30s and 40s at night. I do leave a light on at night so they can see their way to the food.

I'm convinced the old rule of 95 degrees for the first week and 5 degrees cooler each week after that is a terribly over-cautious rule. These chicks haven't felt 80 degrees in a couple weeks.

I had a runt in 26 chicks also. Turned out to be a roo.
I moved mine outside at 3.5 weeks. I did have an I/R lamp in their field house when the nights got cold but overall I think they did really well in the cold from an early age.
I started butchering at 6 weeks and did a few each week.

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

We have a Ranger chick! First hatch this morning. I ended up with 10 viable full Ranger eggs and 2 Ranger crosses, put 6 under a broody banty and kept 6 in the incubator. This first one is an incubator chick, day 19. None of the others have pipped yet.

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

Mind if I add my info?

My Freedom Rangers were hatched on 3/16/11. I ordered 50 chicks and 51 arrived. (We lost one to a raccoon.) I did not weigh them upon arrival. They came in on a Friday, and I had to scramble to get them picked up and tucked in safe and sound before going to work.

The chicks are currently on Lone Star 20% protein chick starter. Once this 2nd 50 pound bag of starter is finished I'm going to switch them to a broiler ration.

Weight on 3/30/11 - (lo/hi/ave) = 7.75/10.00/8.605. If the sample of 10 chicks is representative of the 51 chick population then my little flock weighs about 27.43 pounds which is comparable to what Tim's chicks did at 2 weeks. They've eaten *almost* 50 pounds of chick starter. If they don't polish it off today, I suspect they will tomorrow or the next. (They polished off the last scraps of the 50 pounds on the 3/30)
Weight on 4/3/11 - (lo/hi/ave) = 10.1/15.65/12.92. I switched weigh day to Sunday, since I have more time on the weekends.
Weight on 4/10/11 - (lo/hi/ave) = 15.75/22.7/19.06. They've eaten 3 50# bags, plus about 2/3's of the 4th 50# bag.
Weight on 4/19/11 - (lo/hi/ave) = 27.95/42.9/35.72. The meaties have eaten another 75 pounds in addition to finishing off the last of the bag I spoke about last week. Not sure how accurate the weight gain was from this week to last as there's a couple of extra days of growth, plus I weighed the meaties in the afternoon this week when they had their crops full instead of in the morning like I did last week.
Weight on 4/24/11 - (lo/hi/ave) = 35.15/54.4/43.69. Total weight for all 50 birds is 136.54 pounds. Total food is about 350 #'s.
Weight on 5/1/11 - (lo/hi/ave) = 50.1/73.25/60.35. Total weight for all 50 birds is 188.60 pounds. Total food is about 475 #'s. That seems like a lot of weight gain for just one week, but the feed conversion rate didn't change much, so maybe it's right?
Weight on 5/10/11 - (lo/hi/ave) = 62.25/95.4/76.8. Total weight for all 50 birds is 239.99 pounds. Total food consumed is about 650.
Weight on 5/18/11 - (lo/hi/ave) = 72.75/112.65/90.11. Total weight for all 50 birds is 281.6 pounds. Total food consumed is about 850.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
Yes, please do.

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

Quote:
How are the chicks doing? I'm tinkering with the notion of keeping a few of my chicks for breeding purposes.

 

[TimG]

Sorry I have been remiss in keeping track and keeping the updates coming.

All the chicks are doing well, even one with a dislocated leg.

They are definitely smaller than their parents. I don't think I can draw any genetic conclusions from this small sample size. Especially because I had such trouble feeding them early on. I had them on shavings and they would bury food shortly after I put it down. I wasn't able to feed them hourly, so they ended up with food in front of them only a few times a day. They were also out in the barn at about 4 weeks without any real heat source. They survived freezing temperatures just fine, but must have been burning calories that would otherwise have gone to bulking up.

I will weigh them and report back at some point. But, my enthusiasm for this project waned when I lost pullets over the winter. I have just one hen and one rooster left out of the seven that I had set aside last year. Even the runt that was running with the laying hens is gone. Most of the dead pullets I found on their back, so I'm guessing Flip. Which suggests to me that FR aren't as hardy as I'd like for a sustainable bird.