The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[onarres]

Last year at this time I was thinking about getting "a few chickens".

Then I read this thread while looking for a breed to select. Next thing you know I'm spending most of my days off building stuff.




The left is the coop for the hens, The right is the rooster coop, the middle is the grow out pen I just finished.



It's 6x12 I can use as a brooder/grow out pen, then I can have it divided into 3 breeding pens




at almost 7 weeks it was time to move them out from the kiddie pool.



My broody hen with my second batch of chicks. I had forgotten to turn on the egg turner for the first 10 days, after day 18 I put the eggs in her nest, she hatched out 80%. It's okay, didn't need to buy another kiddie pool, she is doing all the work.

So much for "A few chickens"

I don't plan on showing, I'm more into the science of genetic selection, I'm breeding to the standard to improve upon the breeding pairs I picked up. One day I may try to show them just for conformation that i'm not screwing things up.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Had this little K outside in the bright sun for the first time today, just to get a decent look at him. His sire (a bird from Ron Fogle) is knocking on 5 years of age and we wanted to get a few last chicks off him.

 

[Fred's Hens]

This is a year old male. Nanny nicked him "Rambo" for his sttitude. LOL Anyhow, he was a thick bird, carrying his width all the way back through his tail. Great bone with legs like broom handles. His feather was excellent and he was rich down to the skin. However….

I never did like how his comb didn't follow down the back of his head and his tail was a wee bit over done. Those are just things and wouldn't have been too bad. But his wing carriage bothered me greatly. He would never hold his wing together properly. His primaries always sagged exposing the secondaries which gave him a crossed X wing carriage look. That wasnt appealing. He had a very brief mating period, just to test his offspring, but that's it.

My neighbor invited him to dinner last weekend. Soaked him in brine for two days and said he was very tasty indeed.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

Last year at this time I was thinking about getting "a few chickens".

Then I read this thread while looking for a breed to select. Next thing you know I'm spending most of my days off building stuff.




The left is the coop for the hens, The right is the rooster coop, the middle is the grow out pen I just finished.



It's 6x12 I can use as a brooder/grow out pen, then I can have it divided into 3 breeding pens




at almost 7 weeks it was time to move them out from the kiddie pool.



My broody hen with my second batch of chicks. I had forgotten to turn on the egg turner for the first 10 days, after day 18 I put the eggs in her nest, she hatched out 80%. It's okay, didn't need to buy another kiddie pool, she is doing all the work.

So much for "A few chickens"

I don't plan on showing, I'm more into the science of genetic selection, I'm breeding to the standard to improve upon the breeding pairs I picked up. One day I may try to show them just for conformation that i'm not screwing things up.

"A few" means different things to different people...

I know the feeling... I spend much of my free time building something chicken related. I'll be putting OSB on the walls of my elevated 12' x 16' coop this afternoon when I get home from work. I'll start on the inside this weekend, and hope to have the run strung up sometime next week. I don't think it ever ends, but at least there are a few breaks between projects...

Laying house (right) and growout pen (originally intended as 3-stall breeding pen)...



12' x 16' coop specifically for HRIR...

Had this little K outside in the bright sun for the first time today, just to get a decent look at him. His sire (a bird from Ron Fogle) is knocking on 5 years of age and we wanted to get a few last chicks off him.

Hope he turns into a champion bird for you, Fred! I haven't spoken to Ron since last year, and I suppose I should give him a call to see how he's doing. I keep wondering if he ever got more birds...

 

[cmom]

The chicks are growing. Haven't had much time lately as we are harvesting. That time of the year for us to put the gardens to rest for the summer. Have a few things yet to pull like the beets. A lot of the stuff goes to the birds. They got some cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and such that has gone by and they devour the plants. We blanch and freeze a lot of the vegies. Back to work.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

This is a year old male. Nanny nicked him "Rambo" for his sttitude. LOL Anyhow, he was a thick bird, carrying his width all the way back through his tail. Great bone with legs like broom handles. His feather was excellent and he was rich down to the skin. However….

I never did like how his comb didn't follow down the back of his head and his tail was a wee bit over done. Those are just things and wouldn't have been too bad. But his wing carriage bothered me greatly. He would never hold his wing together properly. His primaries always sagged exposing the secondaries which gave him a crossed X wing carriage look. That wasnt appealing. He had a very brief mating period, just to test his offspring, but that's it.

My neighbor invited him to dinner last weekend. Soaked him in brine for two days and said he was very tasty indeed.

Combs and feathers are things that can be worked on, but low wing carry is not something to take lightly. If a male carries his wings low, he'll normally pass the gene to his female offspring... which can be difficult to spot since they tend to hide it much better than males. If it goes undetected, it only perpetuates the problem. Best served with noodles...

 

[daxigait]

"A few" means different things to different people... I know the feeling... I spend much of my free time building something chicken related. I'll be putting OSB on the walls of my elevated 12' x 16' coop this afternoon when I get home from work. I'll start on the inside this weekend, and hope to have the run strung up sometime next week. I don't think it ever ends, but at least there are a few breaks between projects... Laying house (right) and growout pen (originally intended as 3-stall breeding pen)... 12' x 16' coop specifically for HRIR... Hope he turns into a champion bird for you, Fred! I haven't spoken to Ron since last year, and I suppose I should give him a call to see how he's doing. I keep wondering if he ever got more birds...

congratulations!

 

[waddles99]

"A few" means different things to different people...

I know the feeling... I spend much of my free time building something chicken related. I'll be putting OSB on the walls of my elevated 12' x 16' coop this afternoon when I get home from work. I'll start on the inside this weekend, and hope to have the run strung up sometime next week. I don't think it ever ends, but at least there are a few breaks between projects...

Laying house (right) and growout pen (originally intended as 3-stall breeding pen)...



12' x 16' coop specifically for HRIR...

Thats quite a coop there! Now, is it raised because of predators, or is there another reason?

 

[daxigait]

I don't know about ur, but I do it for predators and to provide additional shaded space for summer and a covered area in inclimate weather.
It is also helpful in tractors or small coops to get it up to my level for cleaning, access, and hanging food and water underneath out of the weather.@waddles99

 

[waddles99]

Yeah, Ive seen what they call "combination coops" with an underneath area under the coop. Its hard and expensive to make a run, so it is smart to make every sq ft available count. I can't have chickens free range where I am....too many hawks. So they have to stay in an enclosed run all the time. It gets dirty and cramped in there with too many birds, so it really sets a limit on what you can have. I will have to look into this method. It seems like a good idea.