Infra-structure and Breeding the Reds
To breed the Reds means to help preserve the breed. To preserve the breed means breeding them to the Standard. Selective breeding is how the Rhode Island Red was made in the first place, how it was improved through those early years and how it is preserved still today. The birds we make should be excellent examples of the breed. To accomplish this task, there is so much to learn and to achieve top results requires study and is a life long challenge. We're always learning, always trying to problem solve.
Infrastructure and equipment is necessary. A backyarder with a few birds for eggs thinks in their mind of a coop and run for a a handful of birds, space to roost and a place to lay eggs. That's about it. Oh, the backyarder may have a "rooster" in the mix and collect fertile eggs and hatch them, but this isn't really breeding, just propagating. Breeding, very selective, purposeful breeding, not just flock breeding, requires far more equipment and it's better to comprehend this going in. It is part of "counting the cost".
You can limp along with a singe incubator, but it is far, far better to have at least an incubator for "cooking the eggs for 18 days and then transferring the eggs into another incubator used as a dedicated hatcher for the final 3-4 days of hatching. Meanwhile, the incubator stays clean and another row of eggs can be set on the turners. Hatching is messy and a hatcher keeps all that contained. Clean the hatcher and sterilize it and take on another batch. This allows the hatcher to hatch chicks every weekend, right on through the season. More incubating and hatching options compresses your hatching season.
But there's so much more unique infrastructure that is required. My simple suggestion is to have Multi Purpose, small containment pens. These can used for a variety of purposes. Multiple small pens allow for careful, very selective breeding. Thus, it can be a breeding pen in season. But those same small pens can also be bachelor pads for the cockbirds, isolation pens for individual or small groups of cockerels to keep them separated from the pullets during that awkward 12 week to finish grow out period. They might be used to put up birds for potential showing.
Having a host of small pens is going to enter into the breeders equation and the need for them all becomes clear when pursuing this hobby.
Chicken wire is useful for keeping a chicken out of a garden, but should never be used for keeping a chicken in. It is far too rough on their feathers and tearing results. Hardware cloth or steel welded fencing provide more security from predators and easier on the feathers.
You will need a way to brood all these chicks for 5-6 weeks. Then, you need the capacity to grow out these juveniles in a healthy and predator safe way. More infrastructure. It is far less a matter of land space as it a matter of having the right kinds of spaces or pens for the birds to do all these things.
When you first start, keep it simple and do not over hatch what you are prepared to care for properly. Hatching can be addictive, but the strain can come very quickly and those hot days of summer chores is lurking. Maintain self control only do what you can and what remains enjoyable and affordable. Scaling your goals to meet your energy level, property space, infrastructure and budget is a MUST.
Lastly, you are going to cull, cull, cull. As keeping only 10% of what you hatch is very typical. You will need to devise a plan of disposing of those culls. They will need to be sold or eaten. Starting small and slow allows you to judge your ability to do these things. Small and slow. See how it goes. KISS
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