The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Fred's Hens]

These are cockerel pens. With the dirt, stink, dust and relentless crowing, I'd have to get a new wife to keep them in the basement. LOL
After 44 years, I don't think I'm gonna do that.

 

[waddles99]

These are cockerel pens. With the dirt, stink, dust and relentless crowing, I'd have to get a new wife to keep them in the basement.  LOL  
After 44, I don't think I'm gonna do that.  

I have to deal with all the above(besides crowing) with mine in the basement. It's the only way I can monitor them properly and make sure they are well. My grown birds are at a property 15 minutes away, so going there multiple times a day for checking on sick, injured, or baby birds isn't feasible. I just clean out the cages often and keep the door closed. Most of the time the smell isn't a problem. No one else in the house really minds unless they start to smell. Id imagine if I brought a couple cockerels over and started crowing though they would start to get annoyed. Do you put the cages in the barn or leave them outside covered? I was thinking of modifying a dog kennel and seeing if the owners of the property would be open to me getting a cockerel and some pullets and maybe trying a little breeding.

 

[Fred's Hens]

They'll either be in the big barn or perhaps in the brooder barn. It has to cool off though. It's still too hot. I'm kinda over the whole summer thing at this point. LOL


The cockerels need to be separated now. They're starting to get too mature and I don't want bloody combs, torn feathers or broken beaks. I haven't chosen any birds as show bird candidates, so I want to protect them all, at this point. I handled a couple tonight to see if they were 100% feathered in and no. They are not. Want to take good care of these final feathers coming in as those are ones the judges will see.

I will also weigh them all. The Standard calls for the males to be no more than 34 ounces, in bantams. Going over by 4 or 5 ounces will disqualify them in my eyes.

The Large Fowl need to be well, LARGE. LOL. The bantams score better if they're smaller. Otherwise, the standard for the breed, the Red, is the same. This makes things both interesting and challenging.


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[waddles99]

They'll either be in the big barn or perhaps in the brooder barn.  It has to cool off though.  It's still too hot.  I'm kinda over the whole summer thing at this point.  LOL  


The cockerels need to be separated now.  They're starting to get too mature and I don't want bloody combs, torn feathers or broken beaks.  I haven't chosen any birds as show bird candidates, so I want to protect them all, at this point.  I handled a couple tonight to see if they were 100% feathered in and no.  They are not.  Want to take good care of these final feathers coming in as those are ones the judges will see.  

I will also weigh them all.  The Standard calls for the males to be no more than 34 ounces, in bantams.  Going over by 4 or 5 ounces will disqualify them in my eyes.  

The Large Fowl need to be well, LARGE.  LOL.  The bantams score better if they're smaller. Otherwise, the standard for the breed, the Red, is the same.  This makes things both interesting and challenging. 


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You're telling me. I already lost a pullet to heat exhaustion and almost a couple other hens. I had them in a box coming home from a show and they just....went downhill. I had a couple hens in the basement recovering after that incident, lol. Since then I've been extra careful about heat. I've been putting electrolytes in their water, putting out frozen fruit, etc. I have so few birds I can really give them specific care. In my next place I need to have a big fan in the run, lol.

So you separate all your cockerels? I have never kept any but I always heard if there are no females they won't beat up on each other. Of course, that wasn't a show person, and all the show people I know I have seen their setups and they keep their birds in separate conditioning pens. Still, it made sense to me. How old are your cockerels? At what age would you say they are fully feathered out and ready for show? Would that age apply to pullets as well? I have a couple pullets I would like to show this fall but don't know if they will be feathered in by then.

I've never weighed any of my birds, ever, but that brings up an interesting point. I never really payed as much attention to the weight as much as the visual characteristics. After all, it's not like judges walk around with scales( or maybe they do at your shows). Still if you're breeding I would definetly weigh them just to be sure.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I've started to separate my cockerels too. We built a couple of new coops not long ago. It's been so hot but I finally got the pens built for the coops. Now I have to move more of the cockerels and band everyone. I covered the pens because we have had some hawks around. If the crows see them they will chase them off so that was another incentive to get the pens built as I don't want to let them out to get picked off by a hawk. I have all LF. I don't weigh the birds but I don't think it is as critical as with bantams as long as they are within the guidelines of the SOP. Good luck at the shows.

 

[Fred's Hens]

If you can keep your cockerels from fussing with each other, that's ok and brooder mates usually last longer together. But there's few things worse than having one of your very best tore up in a fight and have a comb ripped or whatever. Doesn't matter much if you're not gonna show, but at this age, I have to assume that most are eligible for finishing off and can't take a chance.

I know a lot of this stuff is hearsay, or "I've heard this or I've heard that". Experience of your own and mentoring by those who teach you goes a long way to achieving more success with less trouble along the way.

A lot depends on the disposition of the birds themselves too. All I can tell you is these Red bantams are maturing faster and the males are scrapping and quite nastily I might add, at a younger age. Separation is the only known way to finish them off, so that's what's happening here. YMMV. Having a few backyard birds and showing a few purchased birds is one thing. What is required in block management and infrastructure to breed successfully and show successfully is a whole 'nother world. I hope folks get the chance in life to do so.

 

[RCleghorn]

Three down, five to go.

That is a great idea. If you can find some used ones, it can be done rather inexpensive compared to building conditioning cages. Are you using them for bantams or large fowl? Or both?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Yes, I have several sizes.

 

[waddles99]

What do you do for the door? Cut some kind of notch out? Would the pine shavings or whatever you use come out there?

 

[Fred's Hens]

There is a door, in fact two doors on these of course. You can put the "curb" board across in front of the door. There's plenty of room to handle the bird over the curb. To clean, just remover the bird, pull that particular curb board and sweep it out. Done. Not hard at all.

There are as many ways to create cockerel and/or cock pens as there are people with ideas. I do like to keep breeder males outside, in the weather. I'm not concerned about them and I like small pens such as this.

It takes a LOT of infrastructure to keep all these breeders and chicks and hens and show birds and grow outs, etc It just sort of takes over an acre or two or three after while. Pens, pens and more pens. LOL




I sometimes wish I had even another half dozen of these to be honest, but at my age, I'm learning to say NO to myself. LOL. I'm trying to cut back some and make life a bit easier for myself.