The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Bullitt]

Here is a question my wife was talking about at lunch . How much should a person charge for eggs per dozen on the side of the road to make a profit or pay for the feed at $15. per fifty pound bag.

I did a study with my big reds twenty five years ago and they ate about eleven oz of feed per day feeding them twice a day.

Three dollars seem to be the standard charge for farm eggs.

I am going to order some cheery eggers and go into the egg business next year. Blosls Organic Farm. Any one think I can make a go of it? bob

You certainly aren't going to get rich, but you may make a few dollars. I suggest allowing your chickens to free-range as much as possible to cut down on the feed bill. But then you have to be careful that the chickens aren't attacked by predators or even a stray dog.

White Leghorns have the best feed to egg ratio of any breed. So if you are planning to make money at selling eggs, you might think about getting White Leghorns. However, many people want brown eggs. If you want brown eggs, maybe you can cross a Rhode Island Red rooster with a White Leghorn hen to get more productive hens that lay light brown eggs.

 

[Bullitt]

Just a quick question for people on hens that do not want to give up the broodiness--have you tried putting them in a pen with a spare rooster? As a child that was always a practice at our house, if a hen went broody and we did not desire it she went in a pen with our spare rooster. Within a few days to a week she would be singing and ready to start laying again. I still do this and have found that some breeds need to be in there longer than others but it does break them from broodiness pretty well and keeps the spare rooster happy. Of course if you do not have a rooster of the same breed you may have some crossed eggs for a while.

I have heard people say this will break a broody hen. The hen has to be put in a pen with no nest and with a rooster she is not familiar with. There can't be any other chickens in with the these two chickens. After a few days the hen is no longer broody. I do not know if it works, but it sounds like it may work. It could be the new rooster that does it, or not having a place to nest, or maybe a combination of the two.

People also say putting a hen in a wire cage will break her of being broody. She has no material for a nest and cold air is blowing up her backside, so she realizes within a few days that she is in a bad place to hatch eggs and it breaks her of being broody.

 

[Bullitt]

I have eight heritage RIR hens that are laying age. Two those went broody this spring. I did not allow them to set.
One of the broodies was a pullet that hatched last spring.
Ron

I know it was mentioned that each strain of a breed will have different traits. But I think if 25 percent of the hens went broody each spring, that would be perfect. It is good to have that broody option when needed.

How did you stop the two from being broody?

 

[immyjay54]

You certainly aren't going to get rich, but you may make a few dollars. I suggest allowing your chickens to free-range as much as possible to cut down on the feed bill. But then you have to be careful that the chickens aren't attacked by predators or even a stray dog.

White Leghorns have the best feed to egg ratio of any breed. So if you are planning to make money at selling eggs, you might think about getting White Leghorns. However, many people want brown eggs. If you want brown eggs, maybe you can cross a Rhode Island Red rooster with a White Leghorn hen to get more productive hens that lay light brown eggs.

I've heard this too with the wire cage. Haven't tried it but it does make sense to me.

As for no nest, that doesn't make any difference to my Australian Sussex, I have two of them sitting in two corners of the coop right down on the floor. lol I got the Sussex last year from Greenfire Farms in February ( they were about 5 months then ) and by July or August the hen went broody. I talked with Jenny from Greenfire and she said that that is an inherited trait. I took 3 of her eggs and put in the incubator and 2 of the 3 hatched out pullets and these 2 are the ones that are setting on the floor right now. May be something to it.
Jim Gotta love a determined mother. lol

 

[FOGELLY]

I know it was mentioned that each strain of a breed will have different traits. But I think if 25 percent of the hens went broody each spring, that would be perfect. It is good to have that broody option when needed.

How did you stop the two from being broody?

I have a battery of cages left over from our rabbit breeding days that I use for raising chicks and quail.
About 3-4 days in one of the cages always works well to break up a broody. It usually takes a week or so after they are broke for them to start laying again.

 

[FOGELLY]

Double post
Sorry[

 

[catdaddyfro]

Hum, just curious if you have a nest in with the birds in the breeding pen. You can not have any place for them to set/nest in these break-up pens or they will still set on a nest. It has to be a pen with no nesting area. We raised game and RIR's when I was little and I have LF Cochins, Marans, and Doms right now and it works for them. But it was just a suggestion and I do not know how it works with the Heritage RIR's of today yet. Just throwing it out there....

Oh okay I had misunderstood you there , so yeah I can go along with that and I'd reckon the extra rooster thrown in there may offer a bit more incomfort for her as well but to me the best way to break them up is in a coop with a wire bottom it works well and in a short time too.

Jeff

 

[Robert Blosl]

One method of breaking up a broody hen was to put her in say a 18 x18 inch cage with a wire floor hang the cage from a ceiling where there is good air flow. Every time you go buy the cage you hit it and make it swing. I guess the movement screws up her head and she gets over her broodiness quicker. Old timers called broadness a fever so I guess that is for the open air cage. Does it work I dont know never tried it. When I get a female to go broody I put eggs under her. I had a fellow who lived near me who would let his black rose comb bantams females sit on eggs and then give her more chicks to raise he would have 20 chicks under one hen.

The odds of a Standard Red hen may be 5% I dont have many go broody. If you dont breed from her then in time this trait should go out.
They make great mothers the bantams hens even better.

Here is a secret I got from Ken Bowles on the third Saturday interview 28 years ago. He said you want to know a secret to get a hen to win best of breed next year. I said yes. Let her go broody and raise some chicks. It puts a coating on her feathers after she molts that is stunning.

The broodiness causes a hormone change and thus puts a nice oily coat on the feather after she molts. He said he would do it on some of his best pullets and he knew they would come back as supper hens.
Thus wining best Red Bantam and higher.

 

[immyjay54]

One method of breaking up a broody hen was to put her in say a 18 x18 inch cage with a wire floor hang the cage from a ceiling where there is good air flow. Every time you go buy the cage you hit it and make it swing. I guess the movement screws up her head and she gets over her broodiness quicker. Old timers called broadness a fever so I guess that is for the open air cage. Does it work I dont know never tried it. When I get a female to go broody I put eggs under her. I had a fellow who lived near me who would let his black rose comb bantams females sit on eggs and then give her more chicks to raise he would have 20 chicks under one hen.

The odds of a Standard Red hen may be 5% I dont have many go broody. If you dont breed from her then in time this trait should go out.
They make great mothers the bantams hens even better.

Here is a secret I got from Ken Bowles on the third Saturday interview 28 years ago. He said you want to know a secret to get a hen to win best of breed next year. I said yes. Let her go broody and raise some chicks. It puts a coating on her feathers after she molts that is stunning.

The broodiness causes a hormone change and thus puts a nice oily coat on the feather after she molts. He said he would do it on some of his best pullets and he knew they would come back as supper hens.
Thus wining best Red Bantam and higher.

I for one do not want to breed the broodiness out of my flock. Who knows, I may want to use them the following year. One thing about it, if they do a good job, the power outages don't effect the eggs they are setting on. lol I haven't had a hen with chicks for quite a long time but I do remember how nice it was to see an old hen going around with a bunch of chicks following her and how they would run to get a little bug that she would find for them. Nothing like a good mother be it chickens, cows, pigs, dogs and most of all HUMANS. They all seem to be going by the way side. Thank God for the good ones.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Breed the broodiness out of the SQ Reds and keep a broody breed if you want to use them to hatch. SG Dorkings for example.

It's not a bad idea to keep a couple of Broodies around--Doomsday preppers and all....

Ron