RIR for meat

[greyfields]

Yeah, good point. Get really familiar with the Standard of Perfection. I show chickens at the fair only, but am still a bit overwhelemed until a judge points out an obvious flaw and stuff. They're very nice about it. So, my point is to enter some competition and get the best advice you can. The SoP is for looks and appearance and you can get as 'true' as possible by following it. However, you may just want a flock which is high laying and utility. Either way is fine.

However, having an egg laying operation or meat is a good excuse to justify your breeding experimentations. Some people hatch hundreds of eggs a year then kill them all but a few. That's not why I'm in farming.

 

[snowydiamonds]

Since we live in a remote area and fresh eggs are not to be had any other way, along w/the price of shipping cases of frozen chicken too costly, I'm thoroughly enjoying my hens and don't want a rooster tearing them up at all.

Those hens were so happy to have me back home after gone a week since I normally clean their bedding and nests each Saturday, the day I got back home (surgery for one of my dogs) I cleaned the coop and got 11 eggs from 8 hens! They normally top off at 9, regularly.

My reason for a roo is to have fertilized eggs for an incubator when and/or if each Spring I need to replenish my own flock or for 4 different friends to keep up a flock. I won't need much in additions very often as my coop is clean and heated, along w/free feeding w/treats and those hens are also "pets."

The man I got mine from doesn't have too many now, he inherited a mean roo from one of my neighbors along w/his experimenting w/feed and price cutting so he's down to a few. He found scratch cost only half what a bag of feed costs w/shipping and handling. While his coop is heated and lights, too, feed is very important along w/I'd never keep a roo that tore up and killed my hens. He also tells me they aren't meant to be pets, but mine are, for and to me.

The neighbor who gave him the mean roo, she is building a bigger coop and only had two hens w/the roo but they weren't laying, she didn't have enough light for them all winter, along w/too small nesting boxes and never cleaning the coop.

Another friend is down to one old RIR hen and 2 Americana's so I gave her two of my 10 pullets but they don't have enough light for decent laying unless its summer and then I don't remember her allowing the hens to be outside the shed that also houses two sheep.

After writing this, I'm wondering why I'm thinking of how to help them enjoy and be better care takers of chickens...to get better results?

In fact, the one neighbor who really enjoys my hens wants to get a flock sometime in May- she & her dh want to use an insulated building they own, with windows. He's going to run base board heat in, and I should be calling tomorrow a.m., to change my order to all pullet chicks as they want, that I can keep in the house until they are put into the neighbor's building!

She wants my flock inside w/hers, too, but I've warned them about the young ones not being safe w/older ones so they want to put chicken wire up, to separate but house together. She just won a fight over cancer so has to be careful with dust, etc., so she helps w/my flock a bit but I think I'd be doing more cleaning their coop for her health.

I've got more yard space and chain link fence for their enjoyment to free range protected, summers. Its nice to enjoy the hens, eggs, and spinning wool together. Plus, they've owned geese in the past so can give me pointers but never bred theirs to hatch eggs.

I must have Spring Fever and be totally addicted. Yep...since I've ordered a large bag of starter, I'd better change the order to pullets! Our winters are six months long and summers only three at most so they are in the coop most of the year.

And I'd really like to keep my flock near me, those hens are going to look so pretty out in the yard all summer...think I'll stick w/the original plan.

 

[blue90292]

Quote:
my neighbor did that. her BR's started wanting to breed and they were going crazy with her hens. the thing is, she had 50 hens and only about 5 boys so i didn't understand what the big fuss was about. they were eventually going to calm down. but either way, she did NOT like how the boys were going crazy. i told her, pen the boys up for a couple of weeks and then let them out. they'll be a little calmer after their hormones settle a bit, but instead she just killed all of them except one that she thought was nice. last week, she told me she had to kill that one because it started attacking her and her husband.

 

[greyfields]

I typcially only allowed my Barred Rocks in with my laying flock. There is something about the breed (or at least my birds) which make them excellent guardians, regulators and they aren't very hard on the girls.

Now, the problem with 5 roosters to 50 hens is too much competition. Each boy is going to try to pass along his genes to as many hens as possible. And, with so many males around, they are going to try to tap the "other guy's" hens when his back is turned. So therefore they're really aggressive about passing their genes along.

If he/she had only left 1 cockrel in with the 50, it would have been nowhere near as intense. OR, with that many hens, two cockrels probably would have been fine as well. I generally allow one rooster in with the hens, but sometimes another one will fly in. Two in there doesn't seem to caues a problem. I have about 60-70 in the main portable netting/shelter with 40-50 rebels who sleep in the rafters in my worksop. They'll be re-assimiliated once teh muddy season is over.

 

[snowydiamonds]

Well, after thinking on my long post and the original plan I've decided not to try RIR roos for meat at this time.

I ordered medicated starter feed previous to the chick order (they didn't have non-medicated) so this morning I called Triple D and he said he'd change the order to only 2 RIR roo chicks and 8 Buff Orphington pullet chicks.

I would have ordered one of the cockerels as a buff orp but there is not one available at this time.

So whether or not a roo works out, there are people who'd take them for their flocks and I'll have what I wanted, a flock of RIR's and also the Buff Orps. They'll each have their own coops and runs, segregated and the geese will be segregated w/a pond.

The meat chicks can go out in the country to my cabin with a 10' x 12' coop & run. That leaves the quail and pheasant for last as planned, giving me time to learn more.

Sticking w/the original plan, it also works well with my backyard neighbors who want their own RIR egg laying flock as they would like to sell eggs as a combined effort. (He is not crazy about a noisy roo)