Ranger Grow-Out Journals

[pigfarmer]

I don't think mine have laid yet, but think the time is very close... from actions I have seen.
The boys are doing their thing and a few girls are getting the butt twitch thing going on.
My rangers are separate from the rest of the layers, for now.

 

[pigfarmer]

I have seen an egg sack/yoke, no shell, today.

I HAD A BIG ISSUE this morning... Monday morn of all days........................
An EVISCERATED meat hen from the other meats.... guts hanging out and her sitting there like life is good

I had to put her down, unfortunately.

 

[ixnay]

Hi Tim and all -

This is a somewhat random reply, given that I have not read the entire thread ...

Today we just butchered the remaining 12 pullets from the 25 we received from you back in March. I did not deal with live weights (way too much work), but overall the dressed weight of these birds, exclusive of giblets, came out well over 6 lbs apiece. We used a (barely) portable tractor, and they clearly ate a lot a grass.

This last bunch - which should have been processed a couple of weeks ago, but life intervened - had an awful lot of body fat. Definitely will do the deed earlier next time. Also, many of them were full of egg yolks - another sign we should get on the job earlier.

So: What will I do different next year? (1) get more chicks (2) maybe get chicks from Tim if he's successful in breeding? (3) Be astonishingly grateful that my DH built me a Whiz-Bang plucker (4) aim more toward 10 to 12 weeks processing age.

Rangers are great birds. They act like chickens. They're no stupider than the average laying bird. They're not white, so they don't look filthy. And they taste yummy. We have let all the birds rest in the refrigerator for 2 days prior to roasting or freezing, and they have cooked up moist and tender, but not mushy like supermarket birds. And the stock from the innards and bones has been superlative.



To anyone who has not used a Whiz-Bang, or the equivalent:

Find one to borrow or rent. It is an amazing improvement on hand plucking or drum-style pluckers.

Nan

 

[pigfarmer]

I am working on making my own plucker...
And I also got my birds from Tim, and also am breeding them...
I did find some info that is disappointing tho..........................
These birds are a hybrid of 4 parenting birds, and breeding may produce most recent father or mother offspring?????
Some info I got has the bird parenting in some code fashion.......... If anyone knows this stuff, I can send the link.
We will find out.

It might be a few $'s more to raise, but a better bird to have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It looks and responds like a "normal" chicken.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
The questions are: How far from the original will they drift? How varied will the results be? Can they be stabilized?

I don't expect to be saving money by breeding them, though I don't think it will cost much when you factor in the culls/mistakes will go to the freezer. And, I can imagine that there would be a market for chicks from a stabilized line.

 

[TimG]

Found a dead Ranger pullet in the yard today (must be about 16 weeks old now). No sign of foul play, nor was there any sign of a sick chicken.

 

[TimG]

I found a dead Ranger pullet in the yard today. 19 weeks old. That's three Rangers I've lost this summer, two pullets and one cockerel. No apparent foul play and no warning signs that I can tell. There were a couple of maggots on the ground under her, so she might have been dead a day or two when I found her. (I suspect someone can tell me the minimum time from death to maggots, but I don't know what it is.)

The dozen or so Rangers that I kept have been running with my dozen or so layers and I have not lost any layers. It has been hot and humid here and I suspect that the Rangers are just not as tolerant of the heat.

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

Tim, I'm sorry to hear of your losses. Does anyone know if the Rangers might have any of the troubles Cornish X have living past a certain age?

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

TimG, Pigfarmer and others--should we start a new thread for breeding Rangers or keep adding to this one?

Feeding questions for those of you keeping Ranger breeders:
1. Are you still giving the breeders unlimited feed? Will they just keep getting bigger and will that affect breeding or laying? The Rangers eat much more than our layer pullets that are a month older.
2. Did you switch feed for the breeders after the meat birds left the flock? I thought I'd switch from meatbird feed back to grower until they're closer to laying age (16+ weeks). Does that make sense?

Thanks

 

[TimG]

I switched to layer pellets sometime before 12 weeks. Mine have been staying with my regular layers so have had the same access to food as them, which means there's as much as they want. I don't think they are growing much these days, but it has been quite a while since I weighed them.