I tried them both and I love the big eggs the most

[Ra_]

I didn't see an egg category so are eggs included in the "ETC" portion of this forum?
I suppose big birds are desirable for meat but I love them for their extra jumbo eggs.
I've just had to stop eating mine though, because I'm saving them for hatching.
So I'm eating the smaller Barred Rock eggs & I also give 3 hard boiled eggs to my Serama each day.
An additional bonus from the large birds is that the manure from the smaller birds tends to get mixed into the dirt or pine chips and can be used for gardening... but the big birds give huge nuggets that are easy to collect and I've got feed bags full of their manure aging, from just a few massive Dixie Rainbow hens.

 

[snow5164]

Why are you aging their poop?for compost ??

I definitely don’t have time to do that , but I get it they are easier to clean up after

 

[Ra_]

Why are you aging their poop?for compost ??

As fertilizer and yes, as a slurry to heat up the compost pile.

 

[dunnmom]

Yeah, I don't eat my birds yet. But I like the big eggs my Orps give. The year before last I mixed spent bedding into the raised garden over the winter, which ended up not being the best idea. We got tons of green foliage, but not much tomatoes or peppers.

This year we had a bedding dump area, so I'll probably shovel some of the stuff that's underneath into the bed this year, since it's had time to compost. We'll see what happens.

 

[Ra_]

Ya, chicken manure is a strong source of nitrogen but plants will need potassium and phosphorus when they're ready for the fruiting stage.
You can dry out banana peels for the potassium.
For the phosphorus, there is a flowering variety of fish emulsion or you can get a bat guano that is rich in phosphorus. That would be the plant eating fruit bats, not the insect eating bats.
A $15 dollar bag goes a long way.

 

[Compost King]

Throw Banana peels in their bedding, they will peck the white stuff out and let the rest rot into the bedding. then you have a great compost with potassium too.
I kept 2 Red Rangers for breeding. Their early eggs were a little on the small side but after 2 weeks their eggs became huge... full disclosure I used a Serama Egg and an Old English Game Bantam egg for comparison so its not really as huge as it looks in the photo. But they are significantly wider than any egg I have ever seen from a chicken and do not fit in the egg cartons. They might also still be getting bigger. To be honest, I would rather just have Bantam eggs since they eat so much less feed. So I have to crack open 3 bantam eggs to equal one Red Ranger Egg, 3 bantams eat much less than 1 Red Ranger. The Red Ranger is a daily layer and most bantams I have are every other day layers. Eventually I will get my hands on some leghorn bantams and that will be the most efficient feed to egg conversion ratio.

As you can tell by my screen name, composting is a big deal to me, the one bonus about Red Rangers is that they will free range and will create a lot of poop. But they also spend a fair amount of time at the feeder if you let them. my "day Job" is producing evergreens and the chickens are just a supplemental hobby I can tinker with.

 

[Newyorkrita]

Those large big eggs are very impressive.

Are Dixie Rainbows and Meyer Rainbow Rangers the same? Or Similar?

 

[Ra_]

Those large big eggs are very impressive.
Are Dixie Rainbows and Meyer Rainbow Rangers the same? Or Similar?

I don't think so. My Dixie Rainbows weigh 11 and 12 pounds.

 

[Ra_]

The year before last I mixed spent bedding into the raised garden over the winter, which ended up not being the best idea. We got tons of green foliage, but not much tomatoes or peppers.

I know that post is a year old but chicken manure does have a decent amount of phosphorus and potassium.

 

[Newyorkrita]

I don't think so. My Dixie Rainbows weigh 11 and 12 pounds.

View attachment 1836894

Awesome!!