# Red Ranger Broiler



## AdamA (May 1, 2013)

A guy came into work today talking about his red rangers or red broilers. He said he liked them because he didn't have to change the diet. Has anyone raised this breed for meat? How soon do you kill them and was their plenty of meat?


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## EdisNiksic (Apr 1, 2013)

AdamA said:


> A guy came into work today talking about his red rangers or red broilers. He said he liked them because he didn't have to change the diet. Has anyone raised this breed for meat? How soon do you kill them and was their plenty of meat?


Never had them but have heard good things about them. I think they are ready for eating around 12 weeks. They are supposed to have a better tasting meat than the regular chicken that you would get at the market (cornish x rocks). And they are supposed to be a hardier healthier bird that can live a long happy live unlike the cornish crosses. They are also supposed to be good foragers that do well free range.


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## AdamA (May 1, 2013)

Thanks a lot for the information! I did a little research yesterday and I guess I won't know until I try but one thing I did read was the a Cornish hen is a hybrid so I wouldn't really be able to produce my own where as I could hatch red broilers myself without having to buy from a hatchery all the time


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## mama_hen (Jun 5, 2015)

i have a pet broiler can they eat them selves to death if so how much should i feed her and what


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I gotta step in here, there is absolutely no reason why a Cornish broilers can't live a long happy life. They're seen as Frankenstein's monster and it simply isn't true.

Red broilers are a hybrid just like Cornish broilers. They do not breed true, so while you can hatch out both, you likely won't achieve the growth rates of the parents. The males tend to get too big to mount properly so fertility can be an issue. I use a very large heritage rooster over my Cornish broilers and I'm liking the results so far.

My broilers are fat. There's no doubt about it, they get obese easily. If you want to keep them as layers, you need to slow feed them from day one to ease the stress on their organs and bones so they don't die suddenly later in in life from complications that occurred when they were a few weeks old. Once they hit 14-16 weeks they start to lose weight, slim right down, and are very normal. They always maintain that hefty appetite but it is no where near the voraciousness of their younger selves, so will they eat themselves to death? No. Can they get too fat and have complications because of it? Yes. 

I keep a few Cornish broiler gals, they lay like the dickens (some "years" are better than others at this because the hatcheries do change up their breeding every year and thus you will never get the same genetic makeup twice even though the birds look the same), roost, forage, mate and the chicks I hatch from them are nice beefy babies with good growth rates - they are a lovely midpoint between the squat fat thickness of the mother and the tall long build of the father. I think they will be a tall bird who is longer than they are wide with a 40/60 light to dark meat ratio.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Here are some pictures of my fat-bottomed girls, just cause I love showing them off 

















Here's one of their eggs next to an extra large production leghorn egg:


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## MichaelZ (Feb 27, 2015)

Once I go to the large feeder I will take the food out at night so they are forced to take a break from eating. Seems to help them to stay a little less plump and I think it encourages more foraging for natural feed in my chicken tractor.


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## OldBrickHouseFarm (Sep 30, 2014)

AdamA said:


> A guy came into work today talking about his red rangers or red broilers. He said he liked them because he didn't have to change the diet. Has anyone raised this breed for meat? How soon do you kill them and was their plenty of meat?


I have raised a few batches of Freedom Rangers from Freedom Ranger Hatchery. I don't think they're exactly the same genetics as the Red Rangers that some other hatcheries sell. The FR genetics were purchased from French stock that adhere to the Label Rouge program of raising slower growing meat. They still grow very fast. While the CornishX makes a Cornish game hen at about 3 weeks. The FR go about 4 to reach the same weight. 
They take close to 2 weeks longer to reach the same broiler weight. They still grow super fast and if let go to 8 weeks or more, the males are too big to fit into a large vacuum seal bag.



EdisNiksic said:


> Never had them but have heard good things about them. I think they are ready for eating around 12 weeks. They are supposed to have a better tasting meat than the regular chicken that you would get at the market (cornish x rocks). And they are supposed to be a hardier healthier bird that can live a long happy live unlike the cornish crosses. They are also supposed to be good foragers that do well free range.


The better taste comes from living longer. Older birds tend to taste like chicken rather than the less flavorful fast growing CR.



AdamA said:


> Thanks a lot for the information! I did a little research yesterday and I guess I won't know until I try but one thing I did read was the a Cornish hen is a hybrid so I wouldn't really be able to produce my own where as I could hatch red broilers myself without having to buy from a hatchery all the time


I'm not positive about the Red Broilers but the Freedom Rangers are hybrids as well so they don't breed true. 
We're working on a Slow Foods project to produce an alternative meat bird. It is White Wyandottes crossed with New Hampshires.



Fiere said:


> I gotta step in here, there is absolutely no reason why a Cornish broilers can't live a long happy life. They're seen as Frankenstein's monster and it simply isn't true.
> 
> Red broilers are a hybrid just like Cornish broilers. They do not breed true, so while you can hatch out both, you likely won't achieve the growth rates of the parents. The males tend to get too big to mount properly so fertility can be an issue. I use a very large heritage rooster over my Cornish broilers and I'm liking the results so far.
> 
> My broilers are fat. There's no doubt about it, they get obese easily. If you want to keep them as layers, you need to slow feed them from day one to ease the stress on their organs and bones so they don't die suddenly later in in life from complications that occurred when they were a few weeks old. Once they hit 14-16 weeks they start to lose weight, slim right down, and are very normal. They always maintain that hefty appetite but it is no where near the voraciousness of their younger selves, so will they eat themselves to death? No. Can they get too fat and have complications because of it? Yes. ...


X2



MichaelZ said:


> Once I go to the large feeder I will take the food out at night so they are forced to take a break from eating. Seems to help them to stay a little less plump and I think it encourages more foraging for natural feed in my chicken tractor.


Do you have light on them 24/7?
Giving them at least 8 hours of darkness will slow them down a bit.


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## MichaelZ (Feb 27, 2015)

I have them in a chicken tractor, so they get about 16 hours of light per day. I lock them up at night on one end of my pen.


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