Homestead mailing list

["Karen L. Black" <karen AT plamondon.com>]

Bev writes:

> Well, I'd never heard of Freedom Rangers, so I googled it and it appears
> to be a meat bird(broiler) that was crossed with a dual breed, probably
> a Cornish X with a RIR???

Not exactly. Freedom Rangers were one of four strains of meat-type chickens
whose bloodstock was imported from Europe via Cananda by Barbara Aaron and
her husband. The birds were intended to be a better choice for pasture
raising, descended from the "label rouge" chicken breeds in France. Chicks
did not sell well enough to keep the hatchery open, so the flocks were
dispersed last year. JM and Mt DI were two hatcheries I know of that had
some of the breeding stock. 

The four strains were a heavy New Hampshire-sized red (Bronze Ranger), a
slightly smaller grey (Grey Ranger), a considerably smaller barred (Gourmet
Black), and a naked neck (Poulet Nu). I raised all four as an experiment a
few years ago. The good things were that they were much more active foragers
and adapted quickly from brooder to pasture. The bad things were that they
grew more slowly (needing at least two weeks longer to get to roughly the
same weight as a Cornish Cross), and the roosters were much more aggressive.
They did better in a day-range system than in a pasture pen. Only the Bronze
and Grey Rangers were of an acceptable size (3.5-4#). My customers who tried
the other two complained they were too small and too tough.

Moyer's Chicks in PA have an Italian meat bird, the K22. It is supposed to
have similar qualities to the Freedom Rangers. I haven't tried them.

Several hatcheries offer "black" or "red" broilers. These are, I believe,
Australorps or NH crossed with a Cornish-cross parent breed. When I tried
them against fast Cornish, they ate about a third less feed and grew
proportionately more slowly. I had a similar result when I tried slow
Cornish from Privett. Some didn't get much above 2# dressed, even after 12
weeks. I kept the rest of the pullets to see how they do as layers.

I wrote an article for the APPPA Grit! Newsletter a couple years ago on the
state of alternate broiler breeds for pastured poultry, and not much has
changed -- for fast growth, you buy Cornish Cross; if you have customers who
want something different, the heavier meat breeds or the new genetics from
Europe may do well, if your customers will pay the premium price.

Karen Black
Norton Creek Farm
Blodgett, OR