What's up with Freedom Rangers / Colored Rangers this year?

[Sparklee]

Mrs. Mucket :

Out of 25 we have about 6 hens (hard to count when they are so active) and three of them are yellow.

We got about an even, it seems by just eyeballing them, boy/girl ratio. Last year we had more boys than girls. I split a group of 50 w/a friend this year and I didn't think to ask her if she got more boys or girls.

I hope you'll be able to find time to report back ove the next year on what happens with the pullets you'll be keeping. Mine started laying around 16 weeks last year. (I got a bit behind on harvesting.)​

 

[Sparklee]

Quote:
Wow. 2.5 days at the PO and still in that good of shape? Wow.

Though I get what you're saying, I don't think JM are greedy on the tri-colors, but that they don't have very many breeding adults of that color and so they end up with fewer eggs to hatch from their breeders that are tri-colored. Last year we got 4 out of 50 that were tri colors. This year, I have a difficult time calling these yellow-y barred birds tri-colors because they are a lot lighter than last year's and lighter than the photos on the JM Hatchery site.

Last and this year the tri-colors were bigger than either the dark red, golden, or yellow birds. I wonder if I have a tri-color hen that might be worth keeping. I think I'd have to separate her out immediately so that she stopped getting the meat bird feed and get her switched to regular grower at a lower protein percentage. I don't know, though. I don't think I would know which birds to put her in with since (if I have one) she wouldn't be the same age as anyone else and could get picked on.

Truth be told ... I like the lighter coloring on this year's barred Freedom Rangers because the lighter feathers will mean a better pluck. Those dark feathers leave behind dark bits on the skin no matter how careful I am.

 

[TimG]

I had 14 females and 9 males this year.

I don't have any tri-colors, but that may be because I got the remains of a big order the others might have selected the chipmunk type chicks (though I don't remember there being that many). I prefer the red or yellow, anyway. (As keepers, doesn't matter which type go to the freezer!)

 

[eKo_birdies]

Quote:
well that's how far they COULD roam if they chose to, usually they opt to make the trek up the driveway to stare in through the windows and peck the sliding glass doors... i will say though, occasionally i'll be hiking and i'll see a ranger w/ the guineas waaaaaay in the back meadow.

i like the sound of "Ramblin' Rangers"!!!!!

 

[jakobvanschagen]

My Rangers are pretty consistent in size. Like the standard CXs though there are a few (about three) that are smaller and they are all pullets.

I ordered 100 and got a large variety of colors. there were 2 tricolors, and the rest were close to 50/50 for reds and yellows.

For the yellows some are all buff, some have some very light barring, and some have the Columbian pattern (look very similar to the CobbSasso150 hens)

For the reds some are a dark red (like Redbros) and some are a lighter red color with white feathering on their wings.

They are 8 weeks old now and are on free range with 100 Cornish X birds. They are all on about 5 acres and cover most of the ground especially early in the morning and in the evening.

I'm planning on selecting out a few well built, fast gaining birds and seeing what i can hatch.

 

[Sparklee]

Quote:
The brochure on the web site for CobbSasso150 shows (at least that's what it looks like to me based on a quick look) a golden breeder and then white and gold flecked birds as the birds to be grown out by the chicken growers.
http://www.cobb-vantress.com/Products/ProductProfile/Cobb_Sasso150_Sales_Brochure.pdf

So you've got some yellows with the barring, too. I looked closely yesterday and it looks like I have three yellow birds with the light barring and two diluted tri-colors.

With the additional info you've given me, it confirms they did something different this year for at least a few batches. I saw another thread her at BYC that shows Freedom Rangers that look just like mine did last year, so it would seem that some batches were more like last year's chickens. I'd like to know what was done differently, but I'm not so interested that I feel the need to call Joel who might tell me, might not, considering it could be a trade secret of some sort. It wouldn't surprise me that it's a trade secrent especially when I keep hearing how so many want to keep a few hens back and hatch out some Freedom Rangers of their own. For me, I don't have the time to do the generations of work that it takes to try to get the genetics right and I don't want to have to learn about dwarfism, etc., etc. There's a lot more to it (breeding a good slow-growing hybrid) than I imagined before I looked into it. For me, it's a better use of my limited time and brain power to just order those great tasting JM Hatchery Freedom Rangers as chicks from the hatchery.

 

[hensonly]

I also have never had Rangers before (nor any other meat birds!) so have nothing for comparison...but my flock of 30 were fairly evenly sized by gender. Also just about 50/50, roos/pullets. Maybe even a few more roos...

There were a few boys that were really really big but the rest were pretty consistent. I got two of the flecked ones - both roos unfortunately; I'd have kept pullets just because they were gorgeous birds. They were both on the large side. As for the rest, they were evenly divided between red and gold. Though I don't recall many roos that were gold; they were mostly reds...gee, we just had them processed yesterday - how quickly my elderly brain forgets! Of course, I wasn't really paying attention to color, it's just what I seem to remember!

We processed at 12 weeks because that's what JM told me when I ordered them...but I should have had them done at nine weeks. They were so big they cost extra to process, and the guy gave me a break because no one told me about that! So I have no complaints about these birds, except that they're so gorgeous and so friendly and mellow and curious that I really hated to see them go - I actually miss having them around now! However, they are as beautiful as carcasses as they were as live birds.

We'll cook our first one tomorrow night for dinner with Mom. Looking forward to it!

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

Does anyone know if there are lace pattern genes in the Freedom Ranger lineage? One of our pullets is getting to look a lot like a golden laced Wyandotte.