Redcaps

[Yellow House Farm]

Flitter, I'm not sure how the toes are going to breed out, but if you get a significant number of 4-toed chicks, I'd cull for that right away and keep hatching until you make quota.

 

[flitter]

Yes, the toes will be a "for sure" cull... it should be interesting. The Dorking roos have magnificent combs and really red ear lobes.

 

[CRAJ]

I also ordered from Sandhill and received five Red Caps chicks on April 30th. They sent me two different blood lines. I lucked out and received 4 pullets and 1 cockerel. I also ordered ten pullets from McMurray and received them June 8th. I have a couple hens from McMurray that continue to produce well in to their 3rd year. I am going to set up a breeding pen and see what I get. I just hope my one rooster will be fertile and that nothing will happen to him.

 

[flitter]

My first Redcaps were from McMurry... later I got from Sand Hill and Ideal. I still have one of the original hens... she's 5 and meets SOP better than any other hen I've had. Good luck with your newbies!

 

[daniel rainey]

Im a redcap man from the UK and after reading a fare amount about and observing more than enough pictures of the American redcaps it seems there mostly quite far off the breed standard and seem not to have the same qualities as the breed should have. But the stock where i am based and around these areas are still very well breed and i think that America could benefit greatly from some new blood! Any one who is interested pm me please

 

[mrsbrcant]

Well I think it would be nice if somebody imported some new blood from the UK but i just got through reading the thread on importing eggs and it sound really difficult and expensive and importing adult birds is even harder I hear. But I did get my redcaps from Sandhill along with lots of extra chicks. They sent them in 2 batches and I ended up with more than twice what I ordered, 25 total! There are two strains, a light one and a dark one. most of the chicks are light like the pictures I have seen here but some are much darker. It will be interesting to see if they look much different as they get older. The first two pictures are from the first batch and are about a month old and the last picture is from the second batch at a little less than a week old.

 

[CRAJ]

They won't look any different when grown. I received mine in April (2 bloodlines) and was surprised by the light vs. dark. At this point I have no idea who was from what bloodline as they look exactly the same. I do have one with a single comb though, which perplexes me and I have emailed Sand Hill for an explanation (not complaining, just inquisitive) and have not heard back. My one cockerel is taller than what I expected. He has somef filling out to do. The rest of mine are pullets.

Craig

 

[flitter]

I got Redcaps from Sand Hill last year. One had a single comb and most pullets and cockerels had hollow combs. I culled most of them and kept the three best pullets. This year I got another single comb and lots of hollow combs from their eggs even though I used a rooster from another line. I sold all the SH as layers. Not a battle I want to fight. The Redcaps have enough problems without adding that into the mix.

edited to add: IMO

 

[CRAJ]

But why are there single combs? They must have done some recent crossbreeding to add size and vigor? I would think this would be bred out prior to selling stock considered pure Redcaps?

 

[mrsbrcant]

I'm not seeing any single combs but maybe I should separate the two lines while I can still tell them apart and then see what happens with the offspring. I wonder if the single comb is lurking in one or both lines