The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Fred's Hens]

My usual weekly hatch of a dozen. Three dozen chicks in the brooder boxes and doing well. I punched these chicks today. I normally toe punch on day 2 or 3. Have another, larger batch of bantams and LF due to come off midweek. That will get me closer to my minimum goal of 60 bantam and 30 large fowl chicks for the year.

These LF chicks were sired by our 4 year old Rickey Bates/Ron Fogle cock bird. We're honestly a bit surprised he still had the "get up and go" to mate this year. We weren't altogether certain.

If I can get take some up close shots, I show what bone looks like in a chick and why you should look for it too.

 

[Fred's Hens]

When observing the 2 day old, 3 day old chicks, those with wide skulls, big freaky big and wide heads are said to have bone. That is something you want to note. This is a trait that holds you in good stead. The chicks with bone under the brooder lamp will be better birds as adults. They'll have size and the weight needed to be good birds. Chicks with skinny, shrunken looking heads under the brooder lamp will always be runty, skinny and have hatchery grade type. Grading chicks with bone is something you can see very, very early on.

The last chick shown not only has good bone, he's likely a cockerel and he's gonna need that to have a proud head that does justice to the breed. Re-read the early section of the Standard of Perfection and note the ugly crow head vis-a-vis the proper rounder head of a quality bird. A Red male with a crow head should float with noodles before his 20 week of life. He'll do you no other good at all.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

When observing the 2 day old, 3 day old chicks, those with wide skulls, big freaky big and wide heads are said to have bone. That is something you want to note. This is a trait that holds you in good stead. The chicks with bone under the brooder lamp will be better birds as adults. They'll have size and the weight needed to be good birds. Chicks with skinny, shrunken looking heads under the brooder lamp will always be runty, skinny and have hatchery grade type. Grading chicks with bone is something you can see very, very early on.

The last chick shown not only has good bone, he's likely a cockerel and he's gonna need that to have a proud head that does justice to the breed. Re-read the early section of the Standard of Perfection and note the ugly crow head vis-a-vis the proper rounder head of a quality bird. A Red male with a crow head should float with noodles before his 20 week of life. He'll do you no other good at all.

Thank you for the valuable information! I knew birds with narrow heads were of no value, but I didn't know it was so obvious so soon. I'm always looking for tips from the pros! Feel free to share any other tips... please!!!

I hope I get to see some gourd-headed chicks in the near future.

I'm only halfway through day 4...

I gently candled the eggs the day they arrived, and carefully traced the outlines of the air cells. There were many that were wobbly, but none detached. The markings on these eggs aren't the actual air cell size (though some seemed a bit large), but simply to show the range of travel. I've never set eggs with wobbly/saddled air cells, so I don't know what to expect. If I were guessing, I'd say the air cells will fill the outlined areas as they grow. When I took this picture, I noticed a dark area under the marked air cells in the front row. I hope those aren't the air cells! I won't candle again until Wednesday (day 7), and I'll know more then.



PS: Beautiful chicks. Just curious... what is it that you see in chick #3 that makes you think it's likely a cockerel?

 

[cmom]

I have been sending out eggs recently. I have gotten some feedback on some of the hatches and they have been pretty good for shipped eggs averaging 70% hatch. Hopefully those whose eggs haven't hatched yet will have as good of hatches.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

I have been sending out eggs recently. I have gotten some feedback on some of the hatches and they have been pretty good for shipped eggs averaging 70% hatch. Hopefully those whose eggs haven't hatched yet will have as good of hatches.

That's encouraging news, cmom. I'm optimistic I'll a good hatch. I've been tempted to candle the eggs the past couple of days, but thought it best not to disturb them any more than necessary in the early stages. Okay, to be totally honest... I accidentally candled a couple of eggs from both incubators, and I did see some veining in each one. I'll definitely be candling all of them on Wednesday evening and logging the results in my journal. Will give you an update then.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Beautiful chicks. Just curious... what is it that you see in chick #3 that makes you think it's likely a cockerel?

Thank you . Yes, a Red chick steals your heart.

It's only an educated guess. I've bred this line for over 6 years now and I know their characteristics pretty well. Familiarity thing. Big head, huge thick legs, light wing patches, etc. All says K. But, I've been known to be wrong in the past. LOL. I'm always excited to see the K's as they just have that flash. It's largely a male dominated breed. They have the flash and such character. Fun to raise and show.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I have never seen any of the K's up close and personal in my area. Here it is mainly Reese/Mohawk for the pure Reds. Do you know anyone in Florida who raises them? Just curious.

 

[Fred's Hens]

One line of Reds we've worked on for a very long time were likely Mrs Donaldson birds and Pecker Reese birds in origin, down through Anna Pearson, Bob Blosl, Andre St Romain, Rickey Bates, Ron Fogle to us.

However, those "cousins" of that line took on a certain touch, due to being bred by those who had them, forming them in the image of their interpretation of the standard and their desires for the birds.

We also got some scrub birds 7 or 8 years ago indirectly from Wilfred Kittle, of Pennsylvania. Mr Kittle is now 98 years old and has been breeding egg production, standard bred, Reds for over 75 years. Lay eggs they do, btw. Because these birds we so popular with homesteaders, I've never abandoned the line, but I've bred it up to much more uniform and much closer to standards bred birds, all the while working very hard not to lose the egg laying abilities the birds have. I'm perhaps more proud of this work than anything, although they're not yet competitive in the really tough world to top notch exhibition birds. Dick Horstman has done similar work with his birds.

A few years ago, we also took on birds from what is called the Don Nelson line, although such birds were shipped to and bred by many exhibitors and breeders over the years as well. We had two "families" of Nelsons, one from Jimmy Rankin and the others from Christine and Will Kitsch. We noticed a big difference in the birds, but just went ahead and have bred "the best to the best, and hope for the best" bringing the two families together as we felt each group brought some admirable qualities.

cmom, when I used the term "K" in my earlier post I was merely referring to a "K", a cockerel.

 

[cmom]

I thought you were referring to the K's as Kittle's in your post.

 

[newbie89]

Fred did you get my last pm?