The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[FOGELLY]

I have struggled with this too simply because I want to maintain/increase (ha, yeah right) fertility and egg laying.
I think I have a long road to hoe simply because tracking egg laying is not easy unless each hen has their own suite...

But... I am determined to do my best to try to maintain the quality in the line I have which is approaching it's 100th year.

Any advice for different easy methods to track egg laying?

Trap nesting is the most effective, or you could let each hen spend some time in separate pen.

Many of the old time chicken men believed that the faster feathering hens and roosters produced the best layers, as well as the best feather quality.
I tend to agree with this form my experience.

Ron

 

[Fred's Hens]

Trap nesting is the most effective, or you could let each hen spend some time in separate pen.

Many of the old time chicken men believed that the faster feathering hens and roosters produced the best layers, as well as the best feather quality.
I tend to agree with this form my experience.

Ron

Agree.

 

[MumsyII]

Now I have a question about the HRIR roosters. Mine are just at the 25 week mark and the fastest to feather one is having a feather thing on his neck. I see lots of gray / silver feather tubes but no feathers. No skin showing and he is the bossy rooster so I don't think it is from a little disagreement. Is it some kind of molting and new feathers are coming in? Or do I need to watch more carefully and put him in a different pen until his feathers grow back in. My other 25 week old roosters have much smaller spots like this on their necks too. I feed them a high protein feed so it is not a lack of protein or an excess of calcium. I do toss soft veggies out to the compost pile. These HRIR are great foragers. They are out eating bugs and whatever else they like most of the day even when there is feed available. So I'm very confident it is not a food issue but if it is I will change my feeding ways.

Thanks for asking this question Sally. All of my cockerels have that porcupine neck too. Because all the males look scurvy in the feathering, I figured it might be some kind of a neck molt. Shot down my hopes to take one to the show next month. Other than that, They look fantastic.

 

[sgribble]

Thanks for asking this question Sally. All of my cockerels have that porcupine neck too. Because all the males look scurvy in the feathering, I figured it might be some kind of a neck molt. Shot down my hopes to take one to the show next month. Other than that, They look fantastic.

Usually the hackle(neck) feathers and the tail will be the last feathers to come in on a cockerel. At that age they should be fine after this one last molt and have their adults feathers then.

 

[cmom]

Quote: Last year a little before a show that was coming up, I had entered one of my cockerels. He decided to molt a couple of weeks or so before the show, had the pin feathers too so I didn't take him. I have some boys that look like tail-less turkens.

 

[monnie662]

Trap nesting is the most effective, or you could let each hen spend some time in separate pen.

Many of the old time chicken men believed that the faster feathering hens and roosters produced the best layers, as well as the best feather quality.
I tend to agree with this form my experience.

Ron

I have a pullet that was the first to feather out but she kinda drags one of her wings and her tail feathers are whap sided, had my friend check her for me to see if it was her bones but she says it is her feathers so does a pullet like this go to the laying pen because of her deformity?

 

[FOGELLY]

I have a pullet that was the first to feather out but she kinda drags one of her wings and her tail feathers are whap sided, had my friend check her for me to see if it was her bones but she says it is her feathers so does a pullet like this go to the laying pen because of her deformity?

It depends on how many you have for breeding. A lot of times these types of deformities are not genetic. Could be related to hatching or incubation ect...

Ron

 

[monnie662]

It depends on how many you have for breeding. A lot of times these types of deformities are not genetic. Could be related to hatching or incubation ect...

Ron

I hatched four cockerels and 3 pullets from eggs I got from Jimmyjay so if this is not genetic I could really use her to help me to build up my HRIR flock. I snipped the wing feathers when she was smaller, she seemed to be out of balance.

 

[immyjay54]

I hatched four cockerels and 3 pullets from eggs I got from Jimmyjay so if this is not genetic I could really use her to help me to build up my HRIR flock. I snipped the wing feathers when she was smaller, she seemed to be out of balance.

I have some Underwood pullets right now that are 4 weeks old and when they started getting the main wing feathers the 2 or 3 bottom ones really stuck out. I've seen this so many times in all the different lines that I didn't even worry about it. Now I can't even tell which one it was that had that flaw. Unless it is something really serious wrong I don't pay any attention to these little things until they go through their molts. Just saying this so you know that it is not just one line, it can happen with any of them. I also had chicks hatch out last Saturday 2 different lines and one of the chicks had a weird looking wing when it first hatched and again, today I don't even know which one it was. Don't worry to much until they go through the juvenile molt and see how they are. Sometimes we worry ourselves and see things that really don't mean a hoot. lol When I had my very first group of RIR, I had myself a nervous wreck checking them out every day for the first 3 - 4 months. Like mothers with their first child but after she has 12 like my mom (LOL) she was an old hand at it and didn't worry to much about anything. lol

Now believe me, I'm not saying that there can't be a defect, whether it be genetic or hatching etc. Lots of things can happen with these little things.
Jim
A lady that got eggs from me in late February just called me yesterday and sent me pictures of her pullets last night and they look very nice. I really looked close at the tails ( feather color and width ) wing carriage, level backs, length of bodies etc and all was fine. I forget how many Cockerels she said she has but I know she said 10 pullets.

 

[budsbirds]

This is a late April hatch cockerel. I have three full brothers to him, none of them are maturing yet. three weeks ago they all looked very similar, suddenly this one crows and has a comb and wattles. This is my first hatch of birds since I got out of them in the early 80's. Comments are welcome, I'm hoping his tail lifts a little as he grows