The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[RedRidge]

I'm just amazed that there are those of you still hatching. I hatched over 200 Underwoods this year but have LONG since put away my bators. Way too hot here for any babies. I'm down to about 40 chicks in my potential keeper pens, but have promised myself to wait until August for another cull. I have noticed that most of favorites all came from the same pen - interesting that.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

That is because some of us are in a colder area north of you Red! You'd be wearing a jacket if you were here at my house. In fact several of the locals were and my ride to town had the heat on in their house today! Our season starts later too unless we have room to keep them someplace indoors for prolonged periods!

 

[monnie662]

I'm just amazed that there are those of you still hatching. I hatched over 200 Underwoods this year but have LONG since put away my bators. Way too hot here for any babies. I'm down to about 40 chicks in my potential keeper pens, but have promised myself to wait until August for another cull. I have noticed that most of favorites all came from the same pen - interesting that.

I have so few hens that I have hatched until they have nearly quit laying. I'm letting this last hatch be it until Fall and then I might start over again, the girls are hot right now the temps are in the 90's, but when Spring started it was too cold, they didn't want to lay. But I only have 7 adults so I'll be patient and I'll get there with what I have. I'm not complaining just stating the fact and patience is one of my virtues, my husband calls it bull headed but whatever you want to call it. Been married to him 34 years so must be bullheaded. But love my Reds and that is all I want, people are fascinated by them because they are so big and docile. My neighbor told me the other day you better watch that rooster look at those spurs and I said nope and reached over and picked him up and handed him to her. Don't keep a nasty rooster around, the shotgun fixes that. Just love them.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I'm just amazed that there are those of you still hatching. I hatched over 200 Underwoods this year but have LONG since put away my bators. Way too hot here for any babies. I'm down to about 40 chicks in my potential keeper pens, but have promised myself to wait until August for another cull. I have noticed that most of favorites all came from the same pen - interesting that.

I only had 2 laying hens this season. And they were newer layers ~ I got more than my fair share of 2 yolk eggs. Then the extreme winter came. Looking at the dates and when my newest hatches should start to lay is the only reason I'm not setting anymore right now. I just did not get enough chicks on the ground. Top that with many on my early hatches being mainly roosters, I'm only hoping for 4-6 good hens total going into this coming breeding season. Originally before breeding season started, I had hoped it would be closer to 8-10 great hens.

 

[RedRidge]

I'm just amazed that there are those of you still hatching. I hatched over 200 Underwoods this year but have LONG since put away my bators. Way too hot here for any babies. I'm down to about 40 chicks in my potential keeper pens, but have promised myself to wait until August for another cull. I have noticed that most of favorites all came from the same pen - interesting that.

I only had 2 laying hens this season.  And they were newer layers ~ I got more than my fair share of 2 yolk eggs.  Then the extreme winter came.  Looking at the dates and when my newest hatches should start to lay is the only reason I'm not setting anymore right now.  I just did not get enough chicks on the ground.  Top that with many on my early hatches being mainly roosters, I'm only hoping for 4-6 good hens total going into this coming breeding season.  Originally before breeding season started, I had hoped it would be closer to 8-10 great hens. 

I started with 8 hens in 3 pens. Sold 2 early on so had 3 pens of trios. I began setting the first week of January and set every 5 days through March. I did have one go broody so I let her hatch a clutch of eggs. I was quite pleased that she was a good momma.
So I plan to only keep about half a dozen pullets out of this year's hatches. And a cockerel IF I'm sure he's an improvement.
The interesting thing to note... These Underwoods didn't miss a beat even during the harsh winter. They laid very heavy and I brooded all chicks outdoors even below zero temps. But now that we've hit the 90s they've decided they aren't too thrilled at the prospect of daily laying so they've dropped of significantly. Course the momma skunk I had stealing eggs for a week probably added some stress - but she's gone now so I'm going they will pick back up. Doubt it though as they are now about 14 months old... I'd say heat and molt will keep down production until fall.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

And I'm sitting over here hoping mine start to molt soon so their new feathers will be in by fall. I brooded in my basement but it is barely heated. Even with multiple red lamps and a space heater I still had trouble maintaining temps above 75 in the brooder area on the days that our actual temp went below -20. Thankfully wind chill did not really impact my basement. But at least the brooder heat kept all of our pipes from freezing. Locally the majority of homes had pipes freeze and burst.

 

[Rancher3535]

How many chicks would everyone normally hatch a year? I have 23 out now and 16 eggs in the incy but I think I will do two more hatches and then finish up.

In my opinion even in high quality birds one still needs to hatch a lot of chicks in order to keep a good gene pool and quality in the stock. It is expensive to feed and raise a lot but in order to have a good selection you just need to do it. I just put about 250 chicks out in my out side brooder house from May hatching's. Ouch on the pocket book but I will have a nice choice come culling for next years breeding stock. My bare minimum for any breed around here is 50-75 chicks per breed. I usually run 3-5 pens of every breed and that means about 25-40 chicks per pen. My RIR I have close to 100-125 chicks, CW's 150, RIW about 30-40 but they are out of one female and two males. I am just starting to making my own line in RIW's. I have to say man I have some great looking young birds. Barred Rocks close to 100, Cream Legbars is where I went heavy 125 (8 small pens) but have them culled down to about 15 males and 30 females so far...remaining females go for backyard chickens. Welsummers about 45 which is really low but I used my Welsummer males on my BR hens to start my Welbar line. F1 birds are looking pretty good from what I can tell.

Again I say the amount of chicks depends on how many breeds/pens you are working from. The discouraging thing for many new breeders is only using one male to breed from and then you end up two or three years down the line and wonder why you are seeing problems. Everyone has to do what is best for them but I said it earlier you really need to have at least 25 to 40 chicks per pen in order to keep a good quality selection.

 

[ronniewayne]

I just counted and I hatched a little over 100 chicks this year. have 2 cockerels left of the 15 week old group 25 pullets..and 24 pullets and 10 cockerels left of the 8 week old group. I hatched from 4 cocks this year but I will only use 2 next year.. and maybe my 3 yr old that I didn't hatch from this yr. I don't plan to hatch quite so many next year as they are quite expensive to grow out they are eye candy though..

 

[cmom]

Central Florida Poultry Breeders Association Show, Inverness, FL.
Next show will be October 25th, 2014
9:00 AM TO 4:00 PM
Citrus County Fairgrounds
3600 South Florida Ave.
Inverness, Florida
---> MAP
(U.S. Highway 41 South - 1.5 miles south of the intersection of U.S. highways 44 & 41)
Show Catalog ---> TBA when available
Entry Form ---> TBA when available

 

[th17]

RedRidge, I sent you a PM.