Freedom Rangers

We decided that this year we would get meat chickens.  And after talking to a local chicken farmer, we decided to go with Freedom Rangers, which were suppose to be somewhere in the middle of Cornish X and a heritage breed.  We got them on June 1st and figured they would only be with us a short period of time, what could go wrong......

I have never hated an animal in my life as much as I hate these chickens.  They stink to the high heavens, they poop EVERYWHERE, they eat ALL THE TIME, they are the ugliest birds ever, I do not think they actually groom themselves and at one point I thought they all had tumors growing out of their breasts. Turns out they grow that way. We have gone through three bags of feed in the past six weeks.  They forage but they prefer the feed over foraging.  I only supplement feed with the egg layers, but these guys think they are going to starve to death and will follow you around until you feed them.  They are vile and disgusting and I actually cannot wait to send them to the farm.  I will never get Freedom Rangers again.   I think next time around we will go with an actual heritage breed.  They may take a little longer to grow but that is okay.  Having raised other dual-purpose breeds I know what to expect.

Freedom Rangers

Our egg layers, of which our three Buff Orpingtons are dual-purpose, do not smell, they forage, and they look like normal chickens.  I love our girls, they are polite and let us pick them up and pet them, they love their little mealy worm treats and kitchen scraps.  I gave them some grass clippings from the lawn mower and they went crazy!!

Our egg layers

So I will continue our quest for a meat bird that is slow growing, docile and doesn't eat like a pig!  I will let you know what breed we try next!!