The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[cmom]

When a new pullet starts laying how long will her eggs take to get to normal size. I have one been laying about 2 weeks and eggs are half of size of my older hen.

It will take a few weeks. They will gradually get larger.

 

[immyjay54]

When a new pullet starts laying how long will her eggs take to get to normal size. I have one been laying about 2 weeks and eggs are half of size of my older hen.

I've read on here that some folks pullet eggs are almost the size of a large egg from the store bought ones. I've had some that are a really nice size and others that are rather small. I think it depends a lot on the particular hen or the different lines. Hope this helps. Jim

 

[Chickens Naturally]

My Partridge Rock pullets are just starting to lay. Right now they are medium sized.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

Quote:
True. I agree. That's why I am asking. So I know what to look for. Thanks.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

Precisely. The width of and darkness of the lacing is your indicator. I would not breed that female either.

When starting out and are limited on how many birds you have. How do you breed out the lacing. Just get the females i guess that has the least amount and then after hatch do the same till it's gone??

 

[immyjay54]

When starting out and are limited on how many birds you have. How do you breed out the lacing. Just get the females i guess that has the least amount and then after hatch do the same till it's gone??

IF, you have any at all without the lacing, pick them to use as your breeders. It may take a while to get a breeding flock set up but this is about the best way to do it. When we get eggs/chicks from someone, even though they have good stock, all the chicks will not be top quality. You may only get one or two that are good enough to be breeders. It takes quite a while to get a nice little flock of breeding birds. As an old timer said long ago, you have to start with what you have BUT you have to go through your hatches very close to get the better ones. OR, you can contact breeder and get a trio of older juveniles which is a lot more costly. I guess it depends on what you are wanting to do with them. Hope this helps. I'm sure that the guys/gals that are showing look at a lot of birds to pick out the ones that they show.
Jim

 

[Matt1616]

When starting out and are limited on how many birds you have. How do you breed out the lacing. Just get the females i guess that has the least amount and then after hatch do the same till it's gone??

I will give you my opinion but it is simply that. One mistake that a lot of people make is that they want to breed all the pullets they raise the first year to increase the amount of chicks that they can hatch which increases their selection the 2nd year the problem is that if you breed your average pullets you are most likely going to produce average offspring out of those birds. That isn't a hard fast rule but probably the norm. If I have 20 pullets from a hatching season I am likely to only breed 2-3 of those birds the following year.
That leads me to this...you need to concentrate on type and size first. If one of the pullets that has to much lacing is one of your best pullets as far as type and size I wouldn't just cast her away...you must look at the bird as a whole. You also have to look at your males and try to offset the weaknesses in your females. What I am trying to say is if your best birds as far as type and size are the birds with the incorrect lacing I wouldn't cull them and breed the birds with correct lacing and incorrect type and size. In a perfect world your best birds type wise would also have the correct color but we know that we don't live in a perfect world. Type and size come first....


Matt

 

[FOGELLY]

Anthony,
I am sorry I planted a seed that seems to have thrown you off track. The lacing I pointed out on your pullet does not go into the main tail. I mention it to get some thoughts about it.
Matt is correct in his statements as to type or breeding lesser birds. Always look at the entire bird.

Also, I don't think many beginners realize how many birds you can raise with 2-3 hens and 2 roosters. 3 hens will give you 15+ eggs a week times 8 weeks equals 120 eggs. So even at 50% hatch thats still 60 birds. You have 8 pullets, choose your best send the others to the laying pen.
I have a cockerel waiting for you with some nice black in hackles, tail and wings.

Ron

 

[catdaddyfro]

Good breeding tips in the last 3 post, for sure. These should go in the Breeding 101 notebook section of the new wanna bees<(me included) and will save a lot of time=$$ in the long run and get to point B a whole lot quicker.

Jeff

 

[Matt1616]

Anthony,
I am sorry I planted a seed that seems to have thrown you off track. The lacing I pointed out on your pullet does not go into the main tail. I mention it to get some thoughts about it.
Matt is correct in his statements as to type or breeding lesser birds. Always look at the entire bird.

Also, I don't think many beginners realize how many birds you can raise with 2-3 hens and 2 roosters. 3 hens will give you 15+ eggs a week times 8 weeks equals 120 eggs. So even at 50% hatch thats still 60 birds. You have 8 pullets, choose your best send the others to the laying pen.
I have a cockerel waiting for you with some nice black in hackles, tail and wings.

Ron

Anthony and Ron,
I hope I have made myself clear on my opinion on this subject. If not I would like to now...I don't see this as a serious fault and for that matter when I got the RIR's that I have they were culls, not nearly as good as what you have Anthony. It took me a couple years of listening and learning and breeding to get them where they are today and they are still a long way from where I want them. I have had a bit of success showing RIR's the last couple of years but I could take you out there right now and show you faults in the birds that I won with. A friend of mine told me the other day that a beginner asked him... if I got birds from you how much of an effort would it take to breed them to the standard. Well, that is a loaded question because the full name of the Standard is the "Standard of Perfection". The key word there is "Perfection". What that means to me is that it is a description of the "Perfect" bird which in my mind doesn't exist. I also feel like that if you are a show person that the Standard is whatever the Judge that is judging them that day thinks it is. This is not a huge deal...just raise the birds breed them and enjoy them.

Ron, RIR males should have no black in the hackle. The females should have black "ticking" on the base of the hackle but males should not. If you are seeing black in the male hackles you are going to have striping in the females and potentially smut on the back and peppering in the wing. The only reason you should consider using a male with black in the hackle is if your females have none in the neck and poor wing color.

JMO

Matt