Everything Home...with Carol: The Chicks have Arrived!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Chicks have Arrived!

Our broiler chicks have arrived. This year we ordered 20 Freedom Rangers instead of Cornish Rock crosses. Why did we switch? Purely economical. To get the few birds we wanted, the Cornish Rocks would have cost us $2 per bird plus shipping. We had friends, however, that were ordering the Freedom Rangers and had already topped 100 birds on their order so they were getting quite a discount.

According to my friend, they are a heritage breed that are better rangers than the Cornish Rock. That means they do better on the grass running around. If you've never seen a Cornish Rock cockerel at 4-6 weeks, they are quite ghastly. They are top heavy because they were bred to have extra large breasts and they easily break their legs from walking around. Because the Freedom Rangers grow a little slower, this isn't supposed to happen. Now, all this information was from my friend, so I ordered them.

After I ordered them, however, Hank Will, editor of Grit Magazine, sent me this article from the Mother Earth News website. According to the author, Troy Griepentrog, this was not his experience. He shared that the Freedom Rangers were not a true heritage breed but a four-way hybrid like the Cornish Cross. He also felt they grew too fast, as well. His final analysis was that the next time around he would purchase a true heritage breed.

No matter the controversy, I have 20 Freedom Rangers in a Rubbermaid bin in my laundry room. They arrived Friday and their wing feathers are already coming in. That is fast. Today we took them outside and put them in the grass under over-turned laundry baskets for a few hours. I intend to do that as long as the weather is nice. Hopefully, I can acclimate them to being outdoors and can get them out of the laundry room sooner than we have in the past.

What do you think? Cute, ain't they?

2 comments:

MonicaMay 3, 2011 at 12:52 PM
We also did the Cornish X a couple years ago. Their breasts were huge! Incredible how fast they grew! We butchered in about 8 weeks time. Would like to know how the Freedom Rangers go. Keep us posted :)
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Carol J. AlexanderMay 3, 2011 at 3:37 PM
Will do!
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TODAY IN THE GARDEN

If you would like to ask anything about my garden, or make comments, please click here.

June 22, 2011--Weeding, weeding, weeding. Mulching, mulching, mulching. Uncovered my Brussel sprouts as the row cover was too small to allow any more growth. They are already waist high and starting to form little sprouts. Also uncovered a row of cabbages because I saw cabbage worm moths UNDER the row cover. SIGH. Have been dusting for potato bugs and cabbage worms. Planted a new row of green beans.

June 16, 2011--Well, here's another update: Harvested all greens and planted some more in a shadier location. (That's lettuce, Swiss chard, and kale.) Harvested all the rest of the original broccoli plants. Planted a row of bird's egg beans. Thinned the beets. Tied up the cucumbers and tomatoes. Planted, mulched, and thinned the corn. Planted watermelons. Planted three hills of zucchini. Dug up potatoes that were volunteers from last year and prepared that area for cantaloupes. Have been weeding like mad.

May 26, 2011--This is an update of all things I've been able to do in between rain showers. WEEDING. Finished planting all potatoes. Put up trellis and planted 18 tomato plants. Installed arching trellis and planted cucumbers to climb up that. The best part...been enjoying lots of salads from all the fresh greens.

May 10, 2011--I'm losing track of time from not posting this right away. But, sometime last week I finished all my walking paths and planted a row of beets and a row of green beans.

May 6, 2011--My broccoli is flowering already and that is TOO soon. I'm afraid I'm only going to get enough for a salad out of 30 plants. So today I put in 30 more little seedlings right in between those. Praying they aren't too late.

May 5, 2011--Put down two more walking paths and tilled two rows. Where the tractor plowed in March is rapidly filling in with grass so we are racing to get the rest of the space covered with paths or tilled.

April 30, 2011--Put down two more walking paths. Planted another row of potatoes and re-seeded my spinach and kale rows that I did on the 15th because the seeds never came up and I fear they washed away in a heavy rain. (We've had LOTS of heavy rain.)

April 26, 2011--Tilled and planted another row of potatoes. Could not do another walking path because out of newspaper.

April 25, 2011 -- Tilled another row and planted potatoes in it. Planted 18 more lettuce plants and 4 spinach plants. Also made another walking path.

April 23, 2011--Planted 30 broccoli plants

April 19, 2011 -- Cut up seed potatoes. Made another walking path.

April 15, 2011-- Planted a row of spinach seeds and one of kale seeds. Also made walking paths with newspaper and straw.

April 14, 2011 -- Planted 16 Brussel's sprouts plants, 9 collard plants, 12 lettuce plants.