The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Fred's Hens]

Sheri, proving once again there probably isn't one right way, eh? LOL

 

[hellbender]

Total Aside: I will try not to make any Death Bed Requests.

My dad and his dad before him begged all of us to make no efforts to exercise the broodiness from our Turkens/NNs. My father honored the request as have I. My son is aware of past requests but I told him to breed them as he wishes and to go so far as to eliminate the flock any time they become too great a burden upon his life.

So...to that point, he has hatched out more than 400 chicks and as far as I know, there was no effort to chose eggs from hens that have shown lack of broodiness but rather for general good qualities...as usual.

That is all...........

RON

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I realize it may be considered BYC blasphemy, but I wash every egg I set. Hatched 13 of 14 last Sunday. The 14th was infertile, so I'm counting that a 100%. You might be surprised how many breeders sanitize their setting eggs.

Sally, these are Fogles. You remember the sire(s) I used.

I do remember those roosters. They were great at being nice roosters but not fully grown yet. I'm sure they must look wonderful now. My two are awesome. I'm only using the better of the two right now but maybe if I decide to set some eggs this summer I'll use the back up rooster. The main difference was how fast the back up matured. it was about a month longer for him to start crowing and mating.

I may have to try setting some washed eggs and some dirty eggs just to see if either method works for me.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Sally, they both turned out marvelous. Typical, strong Red type that Ron Fogle is pretty famous for, in my eyes, anyhow. One is better than the other. Once we raise out the birds, this fall, late, around Thanksgiving maybe, we'll choose a couple two or three of the youngsters to use next year and we'll only keep the better of two older cockbirds.

We wanted to get as many chicks on the ground as we could this year, so we went ahead and used both of those males. We've rotated them for a month over a pair. We've marked the chicks by pen and cockbird so we will confirm our sense of which we like better by evaluating which clicked better with our females.

They were too shy to come and pose for me. Nice, nice birds and thanks again for your help and Ron's breeding. We won't blame for whatever we've bred this year. LOL They're ours now.



.

 

[RedRidge]

Thought I'd share one of my little Underwoods I hatched this year...

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I got a somewhat dirty egg today from my favorite RIR hen. I sanded off most of the dirt / poo and am now storing it for hatching.
My question is how likely is an egg to hatch if it is say 2 weeks old instead of the 10 day limit recommended by most. "I have a few eggs from the past couple of days that I could set on the 15th but if it is pointless I would rather eat the eggs.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Thought I'd share one of my little Underwoods I hatched this year...

OH how sweet is that? Really nice.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I got a somewhat dirty egg today from my favorite RIR hen. I sanded off most of the dirt / poo and am now storing it for hatching.
My question is how likely is an egg to hatch if it is say 2 weeks old instead of the 10 day limit recommended by most. "I have a few eggs from the past couple of days that I could set on the 15th but if it is pointless I would rather eat the eggs.

Well……. deep subject. Sorry. Personally, I'd eat it. I find the whole incubation process tedious, I guess you'd say. I really, really want 80% or better hatches. That's just me. 12 days or less is ideal for me and if there's a real good reason I will extend to 14 days, but that's it. Again, everybody find there own way on these things as everyone's temperament is different.

You mentioned earlier how one cockerel matured a month earlier than his hatchmate. We had the same thing happen with the two Nelson males we have. I'm almost hesitant to use the second male, except at a DNA backup should something happen, God forbid, to the alpha male. These "heritage" old line birds often are painfully slow to grow out and mature and if anything, I'm pushing for earlier everything concerning them, not slower and slower. Just me.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I'm very hesitant to use my backup but I'm also wondering if maybe it took him a bit longer to reach maturity because he was not the alpha. Of course it could have been the slower growth that caused him not to be the head rooster too.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I'm very hesitant to use my backup but I'm also wondering if maybe it took him a bit longer to reach maturity because he was not the alpha. Of course it could have been the slower growth that caused him not to be the head rooster too.

Debated that in my mind as well. I don't have 5 decades of experience with these Reds like I do with the Rocks.

What settled it for me was that after my partner, Nanny, took the alpha, he still took his fine sweet time to blossom. So for me, no. It wasn't a matter of him being lower in rank. He is just flat out a slower developing bird, or his brother is just flat out a early bird. If there were only a few weeks difference? I'd use the slower guy. In our specific case, it was/is two full months. That's a huge differential.

Having these two guys 35 miles apart is just out safety measure. We simply cannot afford to have a catastrophic event and lose them both. Call me gun shy. Once we get a few dozen of these marvelous birds on the ground I'll breathe easier. They are just too precious to me.