Ranger Grow-Out Journals

[Mrs. Mucket]

Well my first Ranger hatch was not very successful. Out of 12 viable eggs, only three hatched and one of those died. So we have one full Ranger and one Ranger X Rhode Island Red--busy little things running around the brooder. I'm putting another batch in the incubator this week--full FR and FR X RIR/BO that we'd like to grow out this summer.

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

Quote:
Sorry to hear that, Tim. Based on yours and Mrs. Mucket's experience I think I may just go ahead and send all my birds to freezer camp. Hard to justify keeping them around if they aren't going to be viable long term.

I'm anxious to weigh my birds on Sunday. I started letting them out this week into a 10 X 20 pen, and when I was putting them up last night, they felt like they have a gained a considerable amount of weight!

Did you follow the FR website recommendations to switch to a 18% grower after the first 3 weeks of chick starter?

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

Thought I'd share this interesting contrast between a full Ranger offspring and a cross of a Ranger roo X Rhode Island Red hen. I can't say if either chick is typical, since they are the only two survivors from my first hatch. Time will tell if it was the Ranger eggs/breeding or my incubator/broody hen debut that affected the hatch rate of the first ones. I had humidity issues last time and also gave 6 incubator eggs to a first-time broody that didn't hatch any of them. I set another batch on Friday, due to hatch April 29.

So here are a couple of pics. The yellow chicks are hatchery White Leghorns I bought for replacement layer pullets. They are probably around a week older than my incubator chicks.
The larger of the two brown chicks is full Ranger, hatched 3/29 on Day 20. The smaller brown chick is RangerXRIR, hatched 3/30 on Day 21.

In the first picture, the full Ranger chick is about 36 hours old (I moved it to the brooder before the RIRX hatched). The WLH are about a week old.

The second picture was taken yesterday. Full Ranger was 12 days old and weighed 6.7 oz. RangerXRIR was 11 days old and weighed only 3.5 oz. Maybe it's just a runt, or maybe that half RIR makes a big difference. Both are definitely squattier and rounder than the WLH, which are slender birds anyway.

I read somewhere that Freedom Rangers can be feather sexed. Does anyone know if that's true?

 

[PrairieFarmer]

Received 25 Freedom Ranger chicks on Friday. All came in great shape, haven't lost a one. They are growing very rapidly and look good. Sure eat a lot! In looks like from reading through some of these posts that maybe keeping a few to breed your own is not working out so well because the grown birds aren't too winter hardy plus new chicks don't seem to be as big/vigorous as their parents were at the similar age? Am I interpreting this correctly?

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

PrairieFarmer--Our Rangers were winter hardy in a coop with run (lows just below 0 F. this year) but I can't yet speak to the chick size or vigor. If reproducing chicks doesn't prove worthwhile for us this year, I probably won't keep Rangers past processing age. Most of the hens do not lay an egg a day (I think one of my five might), so their value is more as potential breeding stock than as laying hens.

But I'd raise FR Hatchery meaties again and again, as long as shipping costs don't rise too much (I'm on the west coast).

 

[DenverBird]

Thanks for all the info here for a meatie newbie.

So I've got a dozen 8-wk old rangers that I've just started letting out of the coop for 1-3 hrs daily over the last week. So far it seems they don't like to range very far from the coop and the feeder - which I have to remove and put out in the grass just to get most of them to come out. They mainly hang around the coop, going in and out, and if I take a few over to a patch of really nice grass they head back to the coop real soon. I can't imagine what kind of coop potatoes CXs must be if the FRs are supposed to be the more adventurous...

Is this normal for FRs?

Thanks!

-DB

 

[Jared77]

Im very curious to see how the FR x RIR chick develops. Might give us hope for crossing in some of the colored broilers into your programs to get size on our flocks quickly.

Pictures are great!

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

My almost 4 week old rangers are fairly active. They all flood out of the coop in the morning when I let them out, and they move around pretty well. I've only seen one chick laying down by the feeder eating. They're also pretty nosy little land sharks. Hubby rigged up a set of nipple waterers today, and they were so curious they started pecking at the nipples before he could even finish it.

I think I've read they get less active as they get older which I guess is good so they don't burn up a bunch of calories playing and chest bumping.

 

[lilwhispers]

Mine are 2 weeks old they are growing very fast and eating lots. I have to fill all my feeders at least once a day and they are going through 2 and a half gallons of water a day for 75 chicks.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Does anyone have pics of their full grown FR?

I am wondering if they are similar/ same as my red broilers...