The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[waddles99]

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.

So what do you do for bad weather or at night? They stay in those cages outside?

 

[Fred's Hens]

So what do you do for bad weather or at night? They stay in those cages outside?

Of course, depending on your climate. Mine stay in pens like that (4x6) until after Thanksgiving. Yes, night and day. In So Alabama, last winter? I saw birds staying in similar pens year round. Winter there is mild and again, the rain doesn't bother them, they're chickens after all. Some breeders have 300-500 beaks on the property at peak times. There's pens and cages everywhere. Look at the posts @cmom has posted many, many times. She's got little shelters and pens and runs all over north central Florida. LOL Just kidding cmom. Once you're south of the Mason-Dixon line, the sheltering requirements for birds is less and less and the need for pens in shade increases dramatically.

When you've got X number of males (which aren't going to necessarily get along, X number of birds you're protecting for shows, X number of breeder birds and X number of grow out birds, and X number of breeders, a little coop and run like they sell at the feed store isn't quite going to cut it. LOL

 

[waddles99]

Of course, depending on your climate.  Mine stay in pens like that (4x6) until after Thanksgiving. Yes, night and day.  In So Alabama, last winter?  I saw birds staying in similar pens year round.  Winter there is mild and again, the rain doesn't bother them, they're chickens after all.  Some breeders have 300-500 beaks on the property at peak times.  There's pens and cages everywhere.  Look at the posts @cmom
 has posted many, many times.  She's got little shelters and pens and runs all over north central Florida.  LOL  Just kidding cmom.    Once you're south of the Mason-Dixon line, the sheltering requirements for birds is less and less and the need for pens in shade increases dramatically.

When you've got X number of males (which aren't going to necessarily get along, X number of birds you're protecting for shows, X number of breeder birds and X number of grow out birds, and X number of breeders, a little coop and run like they sell at the feed store isn't quite going to cut it.  LOL

In NJ those birds would've been buried. At least it's hopefully our last winter here. I want to go somewhere with not a lot of snow, mild winters, and not so baking hot sunmers. Oh, and a lot of land too, lol. And let's not forget neighbors who tolerate crowing! This was our last winter:

Not sure that I would want a dozen or so cockerels living in the barn all winter.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
The males get along pretty well as long as there are no females in with them, as far as my experience. I have a lot of coops and pens and I do move the birds around as some have more nest boxes then others do. The males don't need nest boxes so they get coops that have the fewest. I only have a couple of coops that don't have any nest boxes so I use them as grow-out and bachelor coops and pens. Shade is the main requirement for the birds so each pen has shade trees and a shade/rain table to get under. Most of the birds get under the tables when it rains.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

16 weeks old...

 

[waddles99]

16 weeks old...

Very nice. They're growing up. I really like the cockerel coming in at 0:55. He's nice.

 

[Fred's Hens]

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It is official folks. The National Rhode Island Red meet will be held in conjunction with the APA National at the Ohio National in Columbus.​

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[Fred's Hens]

If you're looking for a somewhat smaller show, but of high quality, consider the Central Indiana show in October. Good way to kick off the fall show season and check out the quality the birds of fellow exhibitors. It's a great way to see if you're keeping up or falling behind on your breeding program and prevents "barn blindness", a condition we must always guard against.

 

[waddles99]

I'm probably going to drive up to the northeastern show in January. It looks good, and may be worth the 4 hour drive. Anyone ever been?

 

[cmom]

Quote:
There goes the grass. All of my pens used to have nice grass but not anymore. Years ago I would let the grass grow back in one pen and move the birds around and put birds in it and let the grass grow in another pen but now I use them all.