Crossing my Red Ranger Hens.

[BlueBaby]

I have some of my necked necks that seem to be almost bantam size.... none of the parents just the juvies, come to think of it they tend to not make it to adults??? Curious

Could they have had some inbreeding going on in the past generation's?

 

[Compost King]

I have some of my necked necks that seem to be almost bantam size.... none of the parents just the juvies, come to think of it they tend to not make it to adults??? Curious

I have an issue with my Dorking's similar to that, the pure bred dorking that is. Not so much on the small bantam sized part as that not many of them make it to adult hood. They get lethargic and struggle for a month then ended up dead. Its why I started breeding them back to the Meat Birds I made from crossing them with Red Rangers. I just wanted to tinker with the offspring to make a columbian Pattern and now I Just want to improve the Dorkings with a burst of new genetics. I have no expectations of getting it right but I will have my own line of dorkings and maybe someone else can take from what I have and improve it to SOP. It would be nice to save this ancient breed for its Utility and history. Great Meat Bird, very broody, prolific winter layer. And using Red Rangers to improve them could improve meat qualities and help them to mature sooner. Egg size increase could be a decent result too.

 

[Compost King]

I broke out the camera to share some photos.

Female CX with buddy birds. I plan on getting a separate coop for each CX in the same pen to share with their buddy bird. I fear that having 3 CX females means 3 female CX will sit around waiting for feed and the 3 buddy birds will just buddy with themselves. But for now I only have one Coop in that pen. I better get to work on that. If my work load is too heavy then they all share one small coop but they will have plant space when I let them out.

The Males CX with buddy birds. They really do not need Buddy birds but I needed a place to stick them so I put them in with the CX who will be butchered rather early. I like my chickens at 5 pounds and male CX will get there soon.
They were really easy to sex, as I suspected the females feathered quite rapidly and early. They were actually bigger than the males for the first 2 weeks but that changed. The Males developed their Combs earlier and then started growing faster than the females.

My lone surviving Dorking x Red Ranger rooster. He is officially a Yellow Columbian so with the hens he happens to be with he will shoot red or buff and white Columbians. I have him with a Light Brahma and a Delaware. The Male Delawares crosses will have the Delawares barred Columbian pattern. In the future I want a Barnyard Mix flock that only produces Red and Black Sex link offspring. So I am mixing Columbians, Mixing Barred birds and mixing Reds (for a rooster). Hoping to get beards and 5 toes and feathered legs etc. A real mix of traits that will be interesting for people to hatch out. Bantams will be mixed in if I can get any, I have Red Bantams but no columbian or Barred. Fun long term project. In this particular breeding the males will be great for the table. The White Columbian Females will go towards that Mixed flock I am planning and the red or buff females will be sold cheap to people wanting generic egglayers.

New saddle feather growing in on the Red Ranger who was wore out by crossings this year, Currently a young rooster is in with them and they are hen pecking him. Its one of their sons and a half naked neck. Going to breed him back to the Red Rangers and see if the rumored recessive dwarf gene exists. Hopefully the Rooster mans up about the time they start laying.

Slow White Broiler, as far as size goes she is not as impressive as the Red Rangers. I believe she has started laying because I am getting a huge odd sized wrinkled egg from her flock so I believe its hers. But I am not certain. First I am breeding her with the Naked Neck but after I get offspring from that I am crossing her with a Single Comb Rhode Island White because he has a good square frame and I believe the 2 were meant to breed together.

The Rhode Island Red Rooster, I mentioned him above. What ever flock he ended up in he was the Dominant cockerel or rooster. Currently he is in a secure pen full of the females who did not stay contained in the general population pen. I got sick of returning them everyday so I put them in with him just to keep him occupied until I am ready to breed him.

The door to the integration brooder is open, the Dorking's (1/4 Red Ranger) are about to start foraging in the back yard. They are already larger than the flock before them and no integration problems have been seen today (first day of liberty for them)

Splash Jersey Giant Rooster. TSC Had them, I got them. They had Black Blue and Splash all in one bin. Normally I would get black because thats the largest but in this case the blacks were bred from Blue Jersey Giants and would not be the largest variety. I bought splash because if I were to make a meat bird I would want splash. Whether the final meat bird made from them is Blue or splash is yet to be seen. They will be fun for making crosses.

To give you a size comparison, the birds eating broiler feed not eh ground are the same age and much bigger. Jersey Giants grow slow and not great meat birds. Maybe their crosses are great meat birds maybe not, gotta cross them and find out.

To show you size differences the chickens at the bottom left are the same age and from the same stock of eggs. Same father likely different mothers but the mothers are sisters. One has twice the frame size as the other. If the smaller one ends up bantam sized I am going to attempt to make Dorking Bantams. I have 2 runts from this breeding. 3/4 Dorking 1/4 Red ranger. There are 2 Ayam Cemanis in the picture if you want to know the size of a genuine chicken.

Picture of my feeder in a feeder casing. This keeps poop out of the feed. notice the lack of spilt feed. Most breeds spill tons of feed. One of the big positives of dorkings (and their crossings) they eat the spilt feed first, then they eat from the feeder. So yeah they eat too much for the amount of eggs they lay but they make up for it with efficiency.

 

[BlueBaby]

@Compost King Thank's for sharing the update pictures. I like the idea of that chick feeder poop guard. I have 2 of those just like it, plus I have a metal one too that doesn't have as many feed holes in it. A guard like that would help to keep them from trying to roost on it, like I have caught some doing before.

 

[Compost King]

@Compost King Thank's for sharing the update pictures. I like the idea of that chick feeder poop guard. I have 2 of those just like it, plus I have a metal one too that doesn't have as many feed holes in it. A guard like that would help to keep them from trying to roost on it, like I have caught some doing before.

The way I built mine I was putting the brooder waterers on top of it but by the time they can get up there they can drink from one of those black rubber water bowls. The top of that thing gets a huge layer of manure but it stays out of the feed so I don't mind. It dries out and I scrape it off every 3 weeks.
that poop guard was probably the simplest thing I ever built for the chickens but by far the most effective. Chickens love to climb on it and hang out on top especially if they were getting bullied. The size of it allows bottom of the pecking order chicks to have something to run around to evade bully chicks. One big surprise benefit, chicks will push the feeder out of it when its empty so I can spot it being empty much sooner. I guess they struggle to get the last of the crumbles and end up pushing it out as they struggle. Its right outside my back door which is the only door I use so I walk buy it 10 to 20 times a day. and usually when its empty the water bowl is full of droppings and its time to change that out too. I should make a contraption that keeps them from roosting on the edge of the water bowls.

 

[Compost King]

The Red Ranger who laid the giant sized eggs has passed away. Such is life as a meat bird. She lived 17 months. Not sure the cause of death, not all that concerned because its live stock and its not a breed intended to live long although I believe they can live a very long time with very little effort. I still have one Red Ranger left and will keep breeding her. I am breeding her back to one fo the half Red Rangers now when she finishes replacing her feathers.

 

[Newyorkrita]

I guess she got many months of bonus living.

 

[aliciaplus3]

I ended up with 3 red broiler hens and I managed to move one to the hotel suite with my Nn boy blue foot.... man is she solid! Wow! I know what everyone else in that pens eggs look like, so I will be able to get a few of the red's eggs in for a hatch! Yeah.

 

[Compost King]

I ended up with 3 red broiler hens and I managed to move one to the hotel suite with my Nn boy blue foot.... man is she solid! Wow! I know what everyone else in that pens eggs look like, so I will be able to get a few of the red's eggs in for a hatch! Yeah.

I really love the results of My naked Neck over a Red Broiler, I still have a bunch of cockerels running around waiting for cool enough temperatures to endure a processing.

 

[aliciaplus3]

I really love the results of My naked Neck over a Red Broiler, I still have a bunch of cockerels running around waiting for cool enough temperatures to endure a processing.

I have a Deep love of necked neck! They are getting crossed with everything here. Love the lack of feathers at processing time! Of course it helps that 2 of my main roosters are Necked necks and good boys!

blue foot hanging out with some Nn girls he has thrown some interesting babies.... have some more eggs out of him in the bator so we can see what else he will throw