The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[RoseMarie1]

There's no need to mate all 10 of your females for breeding purposes, in fact, it isn't breeding at all to do that, mere propagation. Single breeding and charting and recording both the male and female parents is ideal, but… that may be beyond what you wish to do. My suggestion is to do this. Select your very best 3 females and pen them with your best male.

At this time of year, those 3 females can produce 12-16 eggs per week and in a month, give you over 60 fertile eggs to set, likely as many as you'd ever wish to hatch, I don't know. Be specific about your goals for the offspring and make match ups that do the breed justice and helps to take your birds forward in style!!! Just my 2 cents.

Thank you Fred I VERY MUCH appreciate your 2 cents worth. I didn't get to hatch out any last year and wanted to hatch out some this year for myself. Well I did hatch out 3.... but that's not many. Thank you again!!!

 

[RoseMarie1]

Fred is correct, but I like to experiment. I have a large pen that I had 4 of my top males. I sold 2 and have 2 left in that coop and pen. A judge at a show that I had talked to quite awhile ago suggested for me to pick out my best and what he does he called Flock Breed so I thought I'd try it, All of my birds are banded so I know what hatches they are from. I am very careful of what females go with which male. I have one large coop and pen for the Flock Breeding Red Project. Those eggs are now in the incubator. I have 7 coops and pens with my Reds in them and 3 coops and pens with my Whites. In a little less than 3 weeks I'll know some. I'm putting in another 100 eggs this week as test hatch #2.

If you have another coop and pen you could split the girls and put some with each male. It is almost impossible to introduce a male into a existing flock. The males will fight. The males I have together, grew up together. Put some hay in a milk crate, bucket or tote box for a nest. No matter how many nest boxes I have in my coops the girls don't seem to use them all and many of them insist laying all their eggs in just a few. I do have some milk crates in a couple of coops with hay in them and sometimes the girls will lay in them and some insist on laying on the floor. I haven't put any golf ball in them yet.

I am also trying Flock Breeding in another large coop and pen with some Whites. Good luck and have fun...

Thank you!! Actually these two males grew up together as well, but I moved the one because of the fighting since I only had the 7 females. Now I have 10 so that's why I was wondering. Someone told me to hatch eggs from the one and then try the other one to see which one produces better off spring. I'll have to hunt me some more milk crates. Yep that's how mine do to, you have 10 nest and they all want to lay the same two. lol

 

[cmom]

Quote:
When I take males to a show that are in with other males, usually I can't put them back together because they will fight even though they have only been separated for a couple of days, especially if there are girls in the coop and pen. If you have one male in a pen and want to put another male in place of the 1st male then you'll have a waiting period for the girls to clean out of at least 3 week or a month to be safe. Maybe split the girls and look at the girls and try to match the females with features they have with a male to complement. I hope that makes sense. I have sold most of the females that don't conform to the APA SOP.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

When I take males to a show that are in with other males, usually I can't put them back together because they will fight even though they have only been separated for a couple of days, especially if there are girls in the coop and pen. If you have one male in a pen and want to put another male in place of the 1st male then you'll have a waiting period for the girls to clean out of at least 3 week or a month to be safe. Maybe split the girls and look at the girls and try to match the females with features they have with a male to complement. I hope that makes sense. I have sold most of the females that don't conform to the APA SOP.

Hi, cmom. I see you plan to try Flock Breeding, and that confused me a little (which doesn't take much), because you normally follow the approach you just mentioned... match the females with features they have with a male to complement.

I understand the attraction for this type of breeding due to having fewer breeding pens to deal with, but if you don't mind me asking, what advantage does flock breeding have over rotational line breeding of selected individuals?

 

[cmom]

Quote:
This is my first attempt at Flock Breeding. I have never done it before. I talked to a judge at a show quite awhile ago about this and had been thinking about it. I am doing what he suggested. I am anxious to see the chicks. He told me I would probably get some that won't cut the mustard, but I should also get some very fine birds. I guess it's really kind of a crap shoot. I have a very nice boy (my boys and girls) that I put with very nice girls but the chicks weren't really show quality or potential show quality, and I do like to show the birds. I sold the culls to people who just want some pretty lawn ornaments. To their eyes they were beautiful but the people were mainly concerned about egg layers. I moved the boys and girls around. All the birds are banded so I can tell them apart.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

This is my first attempt at Flock Breeding. I have never done it before. I talked to a judge at a show quite awhile ago about this and had been thinking about it. I am doing what he suggested. I am anxious to see the chicks. He told me I would probably get some that won't cut the mustard, but I should also get some very fine birds. I guess it's really kind of a crap shoot. I have a very nice boy (my boys and girls) that I put with very nice girls but the chicks weren't really show quality or potential show quality, and I do like to show the birds. I sold the culls to people who just want some pretty lawn ornaments. To their eyes they were beautiful but the people were mainly concerned about egg layers. I moved the boys and girls around. All the birds are banded so I can tell them apart.

Thanks for the reply, cmom. I've talked to a couple of HRIR breeders who've said the same thing about mating show quality birds that produced non-show quality chicks, and bred non-show quality birds and ended up with champion birds. Genetics don't follow a defined line, that's for sure. If it were easy, everyone would be champion breeders, right? The reality is that many HRIR don't "cut the mustard", even through careful and selective breeding. I've yet to get started with my breeding program (got to have birds for this to happen), but I know in order to have a selection of good breeding stock, heavy culling is necessary. I've read every article I can find that Bob wrote on the subject, and know that I'll have to put lots of birds on the ground to find a select few to build the flock with. I'm anxious the get the ball rolling. When do you think you'll be able to start shipping eggs?

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I have eggs in the incubator for my test hatch. I put 200 eggs in and will put another 100 eggs in this week. I feel comfortable sending eggs whenever. The birds have all been in their breeding pens long enough now. I always send extra eggs. I have a Houdini RIW pullet that is an escape artist and she has not gotten into my 2 main RIR breeding pens YET, but she has managed to get into a couple of others. I put a special band on her so I know it's the same girl. I haven't bred a BR male to RIR females. I think the chicks form a BR male and RIR females will most likely come out with some barring and some lighter colored red chicks but they will NOT be Sex-Links, both sexes can come out either with some barring or reddish color. I know if you breed a RIR male to BR females you will get Black Sex-Links. I use one of my HRIR males with some SC RIW females and get nice Red Sex-Links. I have some in the incubator now. I did a RC RIR male to RC RIW females and got these chicks. The white chicks and the black chicks are from the RC RIR male/RC RIW female cross. I gave all of those chicks away except 2 of the white chicks thinking if they were Sex-Links they should be sex-able by color and should be males. The 2 white chicks turned out to be females and excellent layers. They rarely skipped a day. I am duplicating that project and this time I will keep all of the chicks.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

I have eggs in the incubator for my test hatch. I put 200 eggs in and will put another 100 eggs in this week. I feel comfortable sending eggs whenever. The birds have all been in their breeding pens long enough now. I always send extra eggs. I have a Houdini RIW pullet that is an escape artist and she has not gotten into my 2 main RIR breeding pens YET, but she has managed to get into a couple of others. I put a special band on her so I know it's the same girl. I haven't bred a BR male to RIR females. I think the chicks form a BR male and RIR females will most likely come out with some barring and some lighter colored red chicks but they will NOT be Sex-Links, both sexes can come out either with some barring or reddish color. I know if you breed a RIR male to BR females you will get Black Sex-Links. I use one of my HRIR males with some SC RIW females and get nice Red Sex-Links. I have some in the incubator now. I did a RC RIR male to RC RIW females and got these chicks. The white chicks and the black chicks are from the RC RIR male/RC RIW female cross. I gave all of those chicks away except 2 of the white chicks thinking if they were Sex-Links they should be sex-able by color and should be males. The 2 white chicks turned out to be females and excellent layers. They rarely skipped a day. I am duplicating that project and this time I will keep all of the chicks.

Thanks again for the reply. Just after I posted that BSL comment, I realized I had gotten my wires crossed about crossing a BR roo with RIR hens... that's why I went back and deleted it. Can't quite get black sex-links like that! I do, however, have 6 BR pullets that I'd like to cross with an RIR roo. Sorry... the coffee hadn't quite kicked in.

When crossing a red roo to a white hen, male chicks inherit the gold allele from the father and the silver allele from the mother. Since silver is dominant, male chicks are normally white. The mother can't pass the silver allelle to her daughters, so the father's gold allele is the only gene present, making the female chicks darker. Your project completely reverses this process. That is quite interesting.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
Since I gave most of the chicks away from my RC RIR male to RC RIW females. I don't know if the sexing held true for the dark chicks and the other white chicks I gave away, so I am repeating the project.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

Since I gave most of the chicks away from my RC RIR male to RC RIW females. I don't know if the sexing held true for the dark chicks and the other white chicks I gave away, so I am repeating the project.

I'd love to know the outcome of this project. It seems to defy logic when RSL breeding charts showing the cross between a red male and white female typically results in white male chicks and buff female chicks. The only variable in this equation is the comb, and I can't see how a RC vs. SC causes a color change in the offspring. Keep us posted!!!