Foraging And Feed Effeciency Comparing Breeds

[Beer can]

Beer can,what town are you in? I grew up in prattsburgh, in the finger lakes, near Hammondsport. My first chicken was a leghorn I got for a dollar.

Masonville, small town between Oneonta and Binghamton. Where are you in PA? I have family that lives in a little town of Sherman, my uncle remarried though after his wife died and now lives in Honesdale, PA, I think. I read your jabber, do you really have Cemani's? If you have some available in the spring (that are affordable, if my wife lets me) maybe I could pick some up and visit my uncle also, kill two birds with one stone (hopefully no birds die! Lol).

 

[maranfarmer563]

You sound like me,every time I visit the inlaws in Ithaca I check Craigslist first to see if anything I need up there. I'm just south of Athens pa,not far from Binghamton.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: LOL your Grandma is a hoot!! lol

I do love having he roosters afr ound as they always are on duty watching for predators. I have far too many of them , just ofr that reason.

Yup I think you summed up the situation just right. Lines of birds can be selected for different reasons , each one good for that purpose. If the 15 eggs a day from 15 hens is too much then maybe 10 eggs from 15 hens is good enough for your uses. Meaning erhaps the birds DIck H has will tickle you pink. He is actually a well known breeder of very good birds. You will only know by trying them.

If high production is important to you, with a lot of egg customers, then 15egg/ 15 hens is what you need. If you want to put the cckls in for a roast perhaps DIcks birds will be meatier. Though your birds sound pretty big at "huge" Do you have wieghts??

What I have seen is the more the hen lays the more food intake she needs. So when not laying, feed consumption drops around here.

 

[Arielle]

Last spring I hatched out some Rhode bars a auto sexing breed. I ended up with 5 hens and 3 roosters. They are great foragers. Now I have to see how they lay through our cold Pennsylvania winter. Going to be 7 on Tuesday night.

7 degrees????? I'm NOT ready for this artic blast!

 

[Arielle]

Quote: You are correct. On all points.

Here is a thread that I keep handy. TIm has put a lot of effort into this, and the possibilites are almost endless for sexlinks when crossing different breeds.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261208/sex-linked-information/0_20

I now have red roosters . . and only ONE silver hen left.Generally I dont have a reason for sexlinks now. Last year I ran a blue Am rooster ( which is a black) on all my barred hens of every type. Made for a fun group. THe chicked were sexlinks and they had both brown and blue shell genes for green. THe shades of green varied based on the shade of the mother. A cuckoo marans lives in that group as well as a BCM x sexlink hen. Makes for chicks I can sell for those wanting fun egg colors.

 

[maranfarmer563]

I have 2 more chicken tractors to empty and get inside. Inside pens are all built just need latches on the door s

 

[RedRidge]

My RIR Roo was hatched by a friend, and his parents were hatchery birds. my hens came from two different Friends, so their history is not known to me :/ . they most likely are hatchery birds though. I also used a couple of Dominique's as well.

The last chickens I had before this group were Golden Comets when we moved to our house. They are a sex link, they are made from a Production Red male and the Rhode Island White female. Supposed to be a super egger like the other sexlink hybrids, but I was not impressed. They were beautiful hens, but their egg laying wasn't that great, and then they started eating their eggs, then a bunch got sick and died on me, don't know why. Before we moved I had 15 RIReds, probably production ones I ordered them through a local feed mill store, (they didn't have a big selection but they had Araucanas and I think they were the real deal, said tufted and rumpless blue egg layer). Those RIRs were the egglayingist birds I have ever saw. Once they started they never stopped! 15 eggs a day every day for over a year (so I don't believe the figures the hatcheries give on egg production), and when they molted they took turns so I still had way to many eggs! I gave half the birds to my Grandma and still had too many eggs, but the dogs sure liked them! I got four RIR roos from a local large farm stand/farm. I planned on keeping the best and giving my Grandma the next, those roos were HUGE. She didn't want one though, said "I wont have any of that business going on in MY henhouse!!". I thought I was going to hatch out some when one went broody, but nothing... Asked a guy at work that raises hundreds of chickens for selling eggs and he told me production reds have been bred for so many years for production they have forgotten how to raise little ones, they might go broody, but they wont do it right they have lost the instinct. My fathers RIRs always raised their own, must have been heritage bred. I recently found a site, Dick Horstmans, and he has both kinds of heritage RIRs straight comb and rose comb like we had when I was a kid. And says his birds will set and are good mothers. Probably don't lay as good though.

You can get some pretty straight forward advice from Jimmy about the productiveness of the various lines of standard bred rir on his Web site. For heavy laying the Hortsman line wouldn't be my firt choice. http://jimspetsandpoultry.weebly.com/rhode-island-red-breedersowners.html

 

[RedRidge]

 
I was reading something recently that said the chicken you buy in the store contains arsenic, they are allowed to feed them arsenic!

I feed layer pellet because I get good shells on the eggs without any supplements (oyster shell). Though I am thinking of not feeding it anymore, can't be the best for them (corn and soy isn't the best for chickens, though I've heard some corn in winter is OK)but cost is the biggest factor for me I'm not rich.
I try to free range as much as possible. Soon I want to experiment with sprouting grains, oats, corn, sunflower, etc. From what I understand you can get four times the feed value from sprouts or fodder, and the sprouted grain is much more digestible and nutritious for them. I work at a dairy plant where I can get free cottage cheese occasionally and they love it.
This summer when the kids catch a bunch of little bluegills I run them whole through a old meat grinder.
I wanted to try a maggot bucket, hang a bucket with small holes in it with a chunk of road kill in it, the flies do their thing and maggots drop out for the chickens, free protein. My wife wont let me try that one though.
I have heard it is easy to grow your own meal worms, and have saw some giant live ones for sale online, maybe I'll try that, in a old fish tank.
I have to try to cut costs, I plan on raising Jersey Giants in the spring and hear they take forever to grow. I also plan on trying Delawares and maybe Bresse. I also plan on getting a bunch of 'frypan special roosters' cause their cheap and I want to try caponizing on them before I try it on the expensive roos.
That's going to be a lot of chickens to feed!

I recently saw a video on raising your own black soldier fly larvae.  I was very intrigued by that.  Also, I've begun fermenting my feed and they go through A LOT less feed, even with winter approaching.  The volume of droppings and odor to said droppings has also drastically reduced. It may be worth looking into and it's a simple process. 

We have been fermenting our own ground and mixed grains for over a year now. Quite pleased with the results. But more importantly it's the BSF. Because we rotationally graze our poultry all summer we do not feed the BSF we raise all summer, we freeze them and then feed them over the winter so the poultry had quality animal protein year round. Free and easy at the same time. ;-)

 

[RedRidge]

Last spring I hatched out some Rhode bars a auto sexing breed. I ended up with 5 hens and 3 roosters. They are great foragers. Now I have to see how they lay through our cold Pennsylvania winter. Going to be 7 on Tuesday night.

Rhodebars are a auto sexing breed that breeds true right? Not a one time thing? Boy their roos are amazingly beautiful!
Correct me if I'm wrong on this to, other sexlink hybrids like red sexlink do not breed true so are considered a dead end bird? Now I understand they might not be sexlinkable, but shouldn't they still be good egglayers? They still have the genetics, and we are not talking about tomato hybrids, or CornishX.

Yes Rhodebars are true autosexed birds created from Brussbars and standard bred RIR... they are not a hybrid and have all the genes necessary (or should any way, many do not) to produce 100% autosexable chicks which should simply be an autosexed, properly barred version of the standard bred RIR.
They forage beautifully and efficiently. Most I've seen are tremendously lacking in type, consequently have no breasts. When butchered compared to standard bred stock their dress weight was only 1/2- 2/3 what the standard bred Reds were. In the first generation F1s their dressed weights improved dramatically.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Yes Rhodebars are true autosexed birds created from Brussbars and standard bred RIR... they are not a hybrid and have all the genes necessary (or should any way, many do not) to produce 100% autosexable chicks which should simply be an autosexed, properly barred version of the standard bred RIR.
They forage beautifully and efficiently. Most I've seen are tremendously lacking in type, consequently have no breasts. When butchered compared to standard bred stock their dress weight was only 1/2- 2/3 what the standard bred Reds were. In the first generation F1s their dressed weights improved dramatically.
Sher, would you expand on this . . . do you mean to cross the rhodebar back to parent stock???