The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[fowlman01]

I'm of the opinion my starting point needs to be as far along as possible. I have gotten back into showing birds after an 18 year absence and I'm a retiree. I don't have lots of years to get to a decent "starting" point. I need to take advantage of the hard work of others for a jumping off point!

That's why I'm here, to decide where to re-start.

Thanks for the advice, opinions are always welcome!

Dave Anderson here in CA has some good RIR large fowl. There are others as well, but I can't remember who has them.

Walt

 

[monnie662]

My pullet has something wrong with its leg. One hock is bigger than the other and she has been limping lately. What's wrong with her?

She's been laying down a lot, I reckon it's because of the limp.

Occasionally I'll have a hen start limping but instead of getting off the roost correctly, they bale off way up high and hit the ground, splat and go off limping and it takes a little while for them to quit limping. And if they get picked on by the other hens I'll put them in a separate "resting" area until they get better.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Go to this site and open up a account. Take pictures of your birds you need to have us look at. Side poses. Front poses back poses ect get some leg bands with numbers on them so we know who each bird is. Then we can send you a email what birds look promising and which ones need to go. In the beginning as a rookie I don't worry about color. These birds are loaded with color. You just need to make sure you pick two males three good females and you are off. Sell the spares to beginners if you wish as they will enjoy these birds of course any birds with defect or not very vigor's don't share and eat them. So simple I have been doing this for years Photo bucket .com is another great site to post on and there just get on and most of them are free.

Hope this helps feed them good water them good let them do their thing and most of all enjoy their growth and learn from them. Don't get stressed out about going toa show and having someone help you pick the top birds. We can do it by pictures and if we are not sure we hold one extra male and two females to be on the save side. Also, I use to get videos of each bird or group of birds sent to me on a VCR tape. I could look at the tape on my TV just like if I was there. You can post the videos on tape or put them on a dvd and mail it to my house. Any other suggestions? Thanks for the pictures. bob


New York Res did you get a personnel message from me? Thanks for your comments.

http://www.picturetrail.com/members/community/homePage/homePageOwner.php

 

[Robert Blosl]

Quote: He sure does but how does folks on the west coast get some? I don't know how to get them to his back yard. bob

 

[fowlman01]

He sure does but how does folks on the west coast get some? I don't know how to get them to his back yard. bob

Dave goes to most of the shows in CA, so he could bring them if someone makes arrangements. Many people from the northwest go to the PPBA show in Stockton so they could get them that way too.

w.

 

[melroseladi]

I processed our culled Red cockerels over the weekend and am very happy with the results. They dressed out between 5.4 to 6.5 lbs. We did discover that we need a bigger pot for scalding. We scalded at 130-135 degrees and the birds were very easy to hand pluck with no skin tearing. We enjoyed one of them last night for dinner when an unexpected busy day required us to do a crock pot meal. Delicious!

We let my grandkids help with the plucking and cleaning for their first experience with this part of raising chickens. They did really well, much better then I thought they would. We did not let them witness the actual kill this time. We are trying to break them in a little at a time since they have never experienced anything like this in their lives.

I have to say I am extremely happy with the Underwoods as a dual purpose bird and look forward to them being our main flock for both eggs and the table.

Penny

 

[sgribble]

Bob, I am one of those who would really like to have my birds evaluated by someone more knowledgable...
I am hoping your friend just south of Chattanooga can maybe stop by some time this fall and give me his opinion, as I suspect I could learn a WHOLE lot with some hands on evaluation.
I have procrastinated talking with him because I'd like as much age on my birds as possible, but I know a lot of folks are probably coming to Knoxville this winter for the big show, so I was hoping to get someone to come to my place in the fall (or at the time of the show), to get some help.
I am more than willing to pay someone for their time to do this.
If anyone is in the Knoxville/Chattanooga area at all this fall and is interested, please contact me.
My birds are RC directly from Gary Underwood... I'd like to think there are some keepers in there... just need help determining who the keepers are.
I am developing opinions, but would like to have those opinions verified.

I have toyed with traveling to someone else rather than have someone come here(Bob is not too terribly far from me), but I have 20 birds, so that's a lot to haul.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help. In the meantime, I am hoping to put up some pics this fall to get some help here from this thread.

I sent you a pm.

 

[Extra Java]

I processed our culled Red cockerels over the weekend and am very happy with the results. They dressed out between 5.4 to 6.5 lbs. We did discover that we need a bigger pot for scalding. We scalded at 130-135 degrees and the birds were very easy to hand pluck with no skin tearing. We enjoyed one of them last night for dinner when an unexpected busy day required us to do a crock pot meal. Delicious!

We let my grandkids help with the plucking and cleaning for their first experience with this part of raising chickens. They did really well, much better then I thought they would. We did not let them witness the actual kill this time. We are trying to break them in a little at a time since they have never experienced anything like this in their lives.

I have to say I am extremely happy with the Underwoods as a dual purpose bird and look forward to them being our main flock for both eggs and the table.

Penny

Happen to get any photos of a RIR dressed for the table?

 

[Fentress]

I processed our culled Red cockerels over the weekend and am very happy with the results. They dressed out between 5.4 to 6.5 lbs. We did discover that we need a bigger pot for scalding. We scalded at 130-135 degrees and the birds were very easy to hand pluck with no skin tearing. We enjoyed one of them last night for dinner when an unexpected busy day required us to do a crock pot meal. Delicious!

We let my grandkids help with the plucking and cleaning for their first experience with this part of raising chickens. They did really well, much better then I thought they would. We did not let them witness the actual kill this time. We are trying to break them in a little at a time since they have never experienced anything like this in their lives.

I have to say I am extremely happy with the Underwoods as a dual purpose bird and look forward to them being our main flock for both eggs and the table.

Penny

That's a nice weight. How old were they? Could you describe your managment methods, such as feed, how they were kept, free range? etc. Thanks.

Mark

 

[melroseladi]

That's a nice weight. How old were they? Could you describe your managment methods, such as feed, how they were kept, free range? etc. Thanks.

Mark

They were 24 weeks old. These cockerels were not free ranged but they were kept in a 4x8 coop with a 20x15 run with a fenced in, uncovered area outside the run. Run is covered and has a dirt floor and surrounded by woods so they still had lots of access to bugs and worms even when weather would not allow them to be in the uncovered area.

All my birds are raised on free choice FRM game bird starter and then FRM game bird grower, with 3 way scratch as their treat. No vaccinations or medicated feed.

All of my other birds are free-ranged but since I have a dominant mixed breed rooster and a Red cockerel who is beginning to come into his own and also free-ranges, I was afraid for the safety of the Red cockerels so I didn't let them free-range.

Penny