Chicken has become a staple in many homes across the US. When growing our own we used to have limited choices. You could butcher older hens for the stew pot, butcher extra roosters from our egg laying chicken, or raise up a dual purpose chicken for eggs and meat. This leads to disappointment most of the time since these 3 options produce a small bird who is often tough and stringing due to their age at butcher time.

A fourth option was raising chickens developed specifically for meat production. The Cornish cross. This hybrid chicken was developed to grow very fast with a unproportionally large breast, since this is what large commercial growers wanted. White meat sells and the faster they grow to butcher size the higher the profit for the farmer.

For the homesteader, Cornish cross chickens often are difficult to grow. They are prone to health problems and disease. We don’t want to see even one of our little chicks die, let alone half of them before they reach butcher age. Cornish cross need special treatment and do not tolerate fluctuations in weather. They are also a bit stupid and like to squish each other overnight. I have been devastated to find that half my chicks had suffocated overnight because they piled up on top of each other.

In recent years we have now gotten another option. The Red Ranger. There are a few variations of this hybrid chicken but for the most part they are the same.

They Red Rangers have become a favorite of the homesteader. These chickens are very sturdy and are great foragers. They do exceptionally well when raised in a chicken tractor. The Red rangers are also butcher size at 10 to 12 weeks. Roosters dressing out at 6 lbs and hens at 5 lbs. I have raised 100 at a time and all survived until their butcher date with no special treatment.

I will be hatching chicks in the spring. If you are interested in a hatch date contact me for more information.