where to buy colored rangers?

[miss_jayne]

if you have bought Colored Rangers, where did you get them from and/or who do you recommend?

i would like to try these next spring and want to be prepared. thanks all!

 

[perfectly_polish]

We got ours from J.M hatchery. I highly suggest them. The birds got to us in once day, all alive and healthy, great customer service, very friendly, and you can tell they love what they do. Ours are about 7 weeks and are big and fat, and no health problems what so ever.

http://www.jmhatchery.com/Colored-Range-Chicks-p5.html

 

[miss_jayne]

oooh! i was a little worried when i saw the Freedom Rangers pulled up roots to pursue other things.

how much would you say yours weigh at this time? my Cornish X are about the same age.

 

[perfectly_polish]

Quote:
I haven't weighed ours yet, but PC who has half of our order weighed his a few days ago and the biggest one was 4 or 5 pounds. I just switched ours to a higher protein food, 28% instead of 22%. We don't let ours free range, but we have about 20 of them in a big pen on the ground, I haven't had any problem with them digging up roots. They don't smell all that bad, only when it rains.

 

[miss_jayne]

my cornish x don't smell bad either. i move the tractor every day and hose down the area they were in after spreading a little lime. no smell, no flies.

the smell i noticed around the birds isn't poop, it's the smell of the food permeating through their skin because of their body temp. (just like us eating garlic then laying in sun!)

hmm, those are good weights and i am going to seriously consider this! thanks for the info! happy eating!

 

[perfectly_polish]

Not sure if you saw this thread, but I posted some picture of them at 6 weeks:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=84114

 

[miss_jayne]

wow, how gorgeous they are.

prettier on my plate though!

i just read through the thread. i think that seals the deal. i am going to give them a whirl next spring.

i have a really nice hoop house that DH made me and i think that they will occupy that, and use a portable electric fence for ranging. gosh, now i want fried chicken again!

 

[UncleHoot]

My largest male rangers are still smaller than my female cornish x, but they are fairly close in size. They are all roughly the same age. The female rangers, and some of the males (especially the grey/gris), are quite small. They are small enough that I'm starting to wonder what they will look like at 12 weeks, and if they will be a decent size.

Most of my cornish x's go to the processor this week (8 weeks). I'm saving a few for 10 weeks, and the rangers will go at 12. So, if I had to guess, I would say that my largest rangers would probably dress at around 3 to 3.5 pounds if processed today (8 weeks). The smaller ones, perhaps 2 to 2.5 pounds. I'm hoping for 4 to 5 pounds at 12 weeks.

 

[perfectly_polish]

We processed 2 of the rangers on Saturday with PC. They were about 6-7 weeks old, they dressed out at 1-2 lbs. The rest will be processed in 4-5 weeks. We fried up the 2 chickens and they were delicious! It was moist, tender, and just had that fresh delicious taste, I can't even describe it. I sure can't wait for the rest

 

[SandraMort]

How cool that I can actually participate in a thread!! JM sent my 100 rangers wednesday afternoon and I picked them up frm the post office thursday afternoon. Joel packed them in 2 boxes bc the weather was warm. They were taped together and the upper box were perky and loud, but the lower box didn't rev up until we watered them.

Now it's Monday morning. We had one mortality Saturday sometime while we were out, but it may have been trampling by terrified birds during a storm or when they ran out of water (we were delayed during TS Hanna). We have one FTT bird who was getting his feathers picked. My breeder-frend recommended culling but I can't bear to yet, so he's in an aquarium all alone to see if he survives... but I doubt he will. Other than that, 98 healthy birds despite much attemtion from my kids, includng the 3yo toddler. I'm far less emotionally attached to these buggers than I wil be to the layers, so I figured it was a good time to learn to handle chicks safely now.