Delaware Freedom Ranger cross?

[Mt. Baker Quail]

Has anybody tried keeping Freedom Ranger roosters and crossing them with Delaware hens?

 

[Mt. Baker Quail]

Or has anybody tried crossing the Freedom Rangers with any other breeds or breeding it back to itself to see what the offspring of a ranger would grow like?

 

[lazy gardener]

I think when doing a cross, I'd rather cross a Delaware roo over a Ranger hen. Or were you thinking of going the other way to try to get a sex link? IMO, the Ranger roo may be too big and an aggressive breeder, so, I'd rather go the other way. I held back one of my Pioneer pullets to try to beef up my mixed breed flock, and she's a wonderful layer. But, her feather quality is not the best. Wondering if she's sacrificing feather quality for egg production. Any how, I'm setting a second batch of eggs. So far as I can tell, none of hers hatched the first time. Hoping for success next time around.

 

[Kev]

I agree, best to use delaware or almost any breed roo over the ranger type hens than the other way around.

I have black and freedom rangers. Tried for months to get fertile eggs from a black and a freedom roo over NN hens. Zero from the freedom, despite the fact he was among the smallest roos... a few from the black.

I put the freedom roo with freedom hens, he was finally able to breed successfully, but still, he messed up the hen's feathers really bad.. and one day, two hens had the skin totally ripped from their backs down to their breasts and one had deep open scratches down her side.

I have to keep him separate from all hens and only put hen in with him either until he breeds her or take her out after 10 minutes.

The older he gets, the more he fills out and it is becoming obvious he is having more difficulty breeding even the really big freedom hens. Struggles to get on, stay on and get the vents to meet.

btw- the blacks are taller and not as heavy as the freedoms, still they are bigger than most LF hens. The freedom is not able to breed them either. Right now he can only really breed the two massive hens that are almost as big as him.

 

[lazy gardener]

One option for using these big awkward roos in a breeding program would be AI.

 

[Jenlyn9483]

I have a pair of Pioneers I recieved from MMH in October I kept back from processing. The rooster I kept was not the largest of the group but I feared the larger ones would eventually suffer heart attack or leg problems. At 7 Months old he is 8.13 oz which is 2 lbs larger than my 1.5 yrd old Deleware rooster and 1 lb larger than my Cuckoo Maran rooster also from same order from MMH. So far I have had him running with the other two roos and about 20 hens. Although he is second on pecking order to the Delaware he has been at least apearing to mate with all the hens as much as he can. Today I put him in his own pen with my 4 largest hens which are the Pioneer hen, a speckled sussex, a white rock and a dark cornish. Going to leave them in there for a while and see if i can hatch some decent dual purpose meat birds. Excited to see what happens.

 

[lazy gardener]

My EE x Pioneer chicks have some nice size to them. they have the barring that the Pioneer roos had, and have the blunt wing feathers. If they lay half as well as their Pioneer mother does, I'll be very pleased.