The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Rancher3535]

That top one isn't a Rhode Island Red is it?

Irishman and Fred

Not my bird or picture but it looks like a Barnevelder because of shape, color etc. If you look at it closely you will see the lacing on the chest and saddle feathers. So was the first bird a Barnevelder Fred?

 

[desertmarcy]

Oh my gosh, could only happen to you. lol You can keep all those crawling things your way. I don't think there are many things that I absolute any worse then a snake. I don't care if they are 5 inches long or 5 feet long. To me a snake is a snake. I just hate them. Glad you got it taken care of and hope you don't have that happen to you again.
Jim

Shucks, I raised snakes for over 30 years before I ended that hobby and took up poultry instead. I think a lot of hatred of things has to do with not understanding what they are all about and what to expect. I see a snake around my place several times a week I'd say, this time of year. Mostly Western Diamondbacks. I just watch out where I'm moving. Last night, I went outside and smelled rain. We haven't had any rain for months and they predict summer rains will start tomorrow. Well their predictions are notoriously wrong, and I'd left my electric sawsall outside. Thought I'd better go get it, so went out in my sandels and T-shirt with flashlight, and there was Mr. Rattlesnake, laying right across my path, just finished eating a mouse, so I had to take the long way around and on the way back, he/she was finished and moving off into the prickly pear so I was able to walk by. I figure they are doing me a big service, I've got way too many rodents here. They get used to my presence and learn that I am meaning them no harm so they are not aggressive. I did have one eat a chick earlier this year but that doesn't happen very often, mostly by the time I put the chicks outside they are too big for the snakes to eat. But any new young chick outside grow out pen I build from now on will have 1/2" wire towards the bottom instead of 1"x2" welded wire to keep them out.

Here's another mouser we have now: Western Screech Owls. These things are so tame. One was standing on the porch step landing last night and I literally squeezed by it, 6" away from it, and it just stood there. They are adorable.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

We have a great horned owl around here somewhere. We hear it almost all day long. But it has not made an appearance since last fall. Last summer it did fly right at my Dh though. My Dh is on the big and tall side but he said he still got spooked and the owl was more than twice the size he expected. For the rest of the summer and all of fall, when Dh went out in the dark to the coop, he had a shovel or rake with him.

 

[desertmarcy]

We have a great horned owl around here somewhere. We hear it almost all day long. But it has not made an appearance since last fall. Last summer it did fly right at my Dh though. My Dh is on the big and tall side but he said he still got spooked and the owl was more than twice the size he expected. For the rest of the summer and all of fall, when Dh went out in the dark to the coop, he had a shovel or rake with him.

That owl must have had a nest nearby it was protecting. It could do some serious damage if it hit someone! My deceased partner, who was a falconer, called the Great Horned Owl the coyote of the bird world---expanding their range, very adaptable, will eat anything it can catch. Around here, cats and small dogs can be prey to a GHO as they are to coyotes. He used to get so upset with them. He'd be watching a Cooper's Hawk nest, waiting for the right time to take a young one out of the nest to train (legal, he was licensed for it) and would come home disgusted---a GHO had cleaned out the nest of all the young--and he showed me the GHO feather he found under the nest as proof. I think that happened twice that year, he was trying to get a young Cooper's Hawk to train.

Sorry, off topic, but it's kinda slow on the threads right now and too hot here to go out and clean pens.

 

[michaelf]

Just thought I would post a picture of "Pretty Boy"

 

[cmom]

Here are some of my juveniles from this springs hatch. There are some pretty nice looking birds. I am letting them grow out to see what I will have. I'm not culling for quite awhile as I want to let them grow and fill out more. These are descendants of the birds I got from you Matt.

 

[immyjay54]

Just thought I would post a picture of "Pretty Boy"

Pretty nice bird there michaelf.

 

[immyjay54]

Here are some of my juveniles from this springs hatch. There are some pretty nice looking birds. I am letting them grow out to see what I will have. I'm not culling for quite awhile as I want to let them grow and fill out more. These are descendants of the birds I got from you Matt.

Very nice group shot cmom. It appears that they have some nice leg color.

 

[cmom]

Quote: They all have nice yellow legs. I changed their feed from starter/grower crumbles to a grower/finisher pellets, the same feed Matt feeds his birds. It is higher protein pellets and they gobble it up.

 

[michaelf]

Thanks, the credit goes to Steven (Sgribble) these are some of his I got from him last year. He really does a good job!!