Line breeding Murray’s Big Red Broilers

[Healthandhonesty]

Does anyone know what comes from breeding a Murray’s Big Red hen with the same hybrid rooster? I thought I was buying Freedom Rangers, not a hybrid and I really need to start breeding our own meat chickens for our family!

 

[123RedBeard]

You'll get red chickens ...

Freedom Rangers are "Hybrids" too ...

 

[Compost King]

I have never done it but I suspect every generation will get smaller and develop slower. I imagine its still better than depending on heritage breeds for meat. I prefer to cross my meatiest heritage roosters to meat hens. Currently I am doing it with Red Rangers but I have a rationed fed Cornish X and a Slow White Broiler coming along and will do the same with them. Getting some decent results but I am not going to out produce the pros at a lower cost or anything like that. My Avatar is a dressed out Dorking X Ranger cross.

 

[levisharvest]

I have never done it but I suspect every generation will get smaller and develop slower. I imagine its still better than depending on heritage breeds for meat. I prefer to cross my meatiest heritage roosters to meat hens. Currently I am doing it with Red Rangers but I have a rationed fed Cornish X and a Slow White Broiler coming along and will do the same with them. Getting some decent results but I am not going to out produce the pros at a lower cost or anything like that. My Avatar is a dressed out Dorking X Ranger cross.

I have this female turken, i want to breed her to the red rangers. I saw you had a mix like this. Do you think it helped to make the turkens more meaty when you mixed the two breeds?

 

[Compost King]

I have this female turken, i want to breed her to the red rangers. I saw you had a mix like this. Do you think it helped to make the turkens more meaty when you mixed the two breeds?

Every Heritage breed I crossed with a Red Ranger improved the growth rate. I will soon be dressing out the first of the Naked Neck Red Rangers. At 11 weeks (last Saturday) he was 4.7 pounds, this Saturday I will be weighing him again and once they hit 5 pounds I eat them. He should be 5 pounds already. So far I am liking the Naked Neck X Red Ranger.

 

[levisharvest]

Every Heritage breed I crossed with a Red Ranger improved the growth rate. I will soon be dressing out the first of the Naked Neck Red Rangers. At 11 weeks (last Saturday) he was 4.7 pounds, this Saturday I will be weighing him again and once they hit 5 pounds I eat them. He should be 5 pounds already. So far I am liking the Naked Neck X Red Ranger.

Thanks for getting back to me, i see you go by Compost King, do you have compost and chickens together by chance? i just started a pile in the run with mine.

 

[Compost King]

Thanks for getting back to me, i see you go by Compost King, do you have compost and chickens together by chance? i just started a pile in the run with mine.

My entire purpose of having chickens is to produce my own compost for my Nursery. I collect free leaves from the curbs and let the chickens scratch them up, come spring when I run out of all those free leaves I mow lawns for neighbors and let the chickens scratch up grass clippings... I found Leghorns so far do the best job of breaking down Leaves, Straw, small sticks and grass clippings with their obsessive scratching. While I am having chickens anyways I went and bought a variety of breeds to work with, crossing some, breeding some pure breeds. Learning a bit as I go. creating Meat bird crosses are the most fun but the least rewarding financially. Costs too much to feed them. Leghorns seem to be the most beneficial to what I am doing, they eat less store bought feed, forage well and scratch up leaves/straw/Hay/Sticks/ and grass clippings better than other breeds for better composting. Old english Game Bantams are great for the same reason and go broody to make up for the leghorns not going broody. I also dabbled in various breeds and crossings to see what I would get. Taking advantage of the chicken infrastructure I created to learn a bit about chickens. Honestly the plants make much more money on less effort so my future after I finish playing around will involve having leghorns and some broody breed and then just leave them be to scratch up what I bring them. If I get hooked on eating my own chicken meat I might keep Dorkings too but with a sliver of Red Ranger DNA in them because they are not hardy enough to survive to breeding age without being mixed with something.

 

[Parront]

My entire purpose of having chickens is to produce my own compost for my Nursery. I collect free leaves from the curbs and let the chickens scratch them up, come spring when I run out of all those free leaves I mow lawns for neighbors and let the chickens scratch up grass clippings... I found Leghorns so far do the best job of breaking down Leaves, Straw, small sticks and grass clippings with their obsessive scratching. While I am having chickens anyways I went and bought a variety of breeds to work with, crossing some, breeding some pure breeds. Learning a bit as I go. creating Meat bird crosses are the most fun but the least rewarding financially. Costs too much to feed them. Leghorns seem to be the most beneficial to what I am doing, they eat less store bought feed, forage well and scratch up leaves/straw/Hay/Sticks/ and grass clippings better than other breeds for better composting. Old english Game Bantams are great for the same reason and go broody to make up for the leghorns not going broody. I also dabbled in various breeds and crossings to see what I would get. Taking advantage of the chicken infrastructure I created to learn a bit about chickens. Honestly the plants make much more money on less effort so my future after I finish playing around will involve having leghorns and some broody breed and then just leave them be to scratch up what I bring them. If I get hooked on eating my own chicken meat I might keep Dorkings too but with a sliver of Red Ranger DNA in them because they are not hardy enough to survive to breeding age without being mixed with something.

I also liked the energy of the Leghorns I used to have. Where did you get your Dorkings, might I ask?

 

[Compost King]

I found a breeder on Craigslist, I had bought them from hatcheries and they always died. the trio I purchased from a breeder had some flaws but the meat qualities were good and all three survived to breeding age. Their offspring do not seem to live very long. Currently I am hatching 3/4 Dorking 1/4 Red Rangers in an attempt to make dorkings with vigor. I will also make various colors of dorkings.. Buff, Red, Silver Grey (original) and Columbian (white/red and Buff). the White Columbian (known as Light Dorkings) will be my biggest focus as its my favorite pattern. It can be used to make sex links and dresses out as a nicer carcass.