The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Fred's Hens]

I am interested in a trio or quad of large fowl straight comb. I like the Nelson line but I'm not opposed to others.
I live in Eastern Oklahoma and could travel to Western Arkansas, Fayetteville or Fort Smith, or in Oklahoma I could meet at shows in Tulsa, Shawnee, or Oklahoma City. Looking forward to hearing from someone going to a show in one of these cities with some extra birds. Bret

Sent you a private message.

 

[cmom]

Quote: Matt, they are descendants of your birds and you know I feed the same feed to my birds as you do yours so the parents of these birds have very yellow legs.

 

[waddles99]

Matt, they are descendants of your birds and you know I feed the same feed to my birds as you do yours so the parents of these birds have very yellow legs.

Im confused, you said you feed the same as Matt but you said you fed Purina and Dumor with scratch grains? I dont know too many reputable breeders or poultry fanciers who feed those brands, especially with scratch grains. Scratch grains are just empty calories, you know.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

Genetics are only 50% of the equation...the other 50% is what they eat. That includes the soil type and several other factors. If you brought those birds where I live and fed them the same thing that you are feeding them there legs would be almost white in 2 months. Evidentially your birds are getting what they need based on the area that you live...or your feed has something in it to make them yellow because otherwise the would not be yellow. Case in point is that the source of your stock does not exhibit that leg color without having the proper feed. What they eat is just as crucial as them having the genetics.

Matt

These chicks had bright yellow legs when they hatched, which indicates good genes. They do get to (semi) free-range every day, where they catch bugs and eat grass. Not sure how different the soil is between east central MS and south AL, but I would think the soil is a good bit more sandy down there... while we have some fairly rich soil in my area. Most of the grass my birds have access to is St. Augustine and Bahia grass.

Im confused, you said you feed the same as Matt but you said you fed Purina and Dumor with scratch grains? I dont know too many reputable breeders or poultry fanciers who feed those brands, especially with scratch grains. Scratch grains are just empty calories, you know.

I feed DuMOR and scratch grains. Matt and cmom feed Show Gold Trio, which isn't available in my area.

 

[waddles99]

I feed DuMOR and scratch grains. Matt and cmom feed Show Gold Trio, which isn't available in my area.

Same here. It stinks, doesn't it? I dont know about you, but i live in complete suburbia. Im talking 1/5 acre lots per houses. I dont keep my chickens at my house even. I keep them on a couple acres outside of town owned by someone else. For that reason, stores sell nothing but Purina and Dumor here. No good show rations.

Let me tell you what I do- Take a bag of Purina, Dumor, whatever. Put 25 lbs of it in a trash can. Then put 5 lbs of manna pro poultry conditioner. Thats 20%, which is the maximum recommended amount. Put in 2 cans of quaker oats, and about 5 lbs of black oil sunflower seeds. Mix it all up. You could even add dried, crushed marigold blossoms if you want.

For me, the above works amazingly. The purina is a good base that supplies most of their nutrition, the conditioner supplement is 22% protein, so works amazing for growing the birds into a nice brick shape. The oats and sunflower seeds work wonders for feather quality. Shiny, well nourished feathers. And, of course, marigolds for shank color.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

Same here. It stinks, doesn't it? I dont know about you, but i live in complete suburbia. Im talking 1/5 acre lots per houses. I dont keep my chickens at my house even. I keep them on a couple acres outside of town owned by someone else. For that reason, stores sell nothing but Purina and Dumor here. No good show rations.

Let me tell you what I do- Take a bag of Purina, Dumor, whatever. Put 25 lbs of it in a trash can. Then put 5 lbs of manna pro poultry conditioner. Thats 20%, which is the maximum recommended amount. Put in 2 cans of quaker oats, and about 5 lbs of black oil sunflower seeds. Mix it all up. You could even add dried, crushed marigold blossoms if you want.

For me, the above works amazingly. The purina is a good base that supplies most of their nutrition, the conditioner supplement is 22% protein, so works amazing for growing the birds into a nice brick shape. The oats and sunflower seeds work wonders for feather quality. Shiny, well nourished feathers. And, of course, marigolds for shank color.

It does stink, but I'll do the best with what I have available. It's 30+ miles to the nearest large city, and 100+ to the largest. I'm semi-rural. I live 1 1/2 miles outside of a town that's has just enough population to be classified as a city (2000). My back yard is roughly 1 1/2 - 2 acres, and if I need extra space for my chickens, I can always clear off the other 21 acres behind it. Actually, only 19 can be cleared because 3 of those acres are covered in water... aka... a pond.

I find it easier to mix the conditioner in the scratch grains. It's just easier for me to monitor how much conditioner (on average) each bird is consuming. Individual servings are 1-3 teaspoons, so it's easy to measure out what I need for 11 birds. I also blend my scratch grains with black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS) at roughly 1:1 ratio.

The only thing from your list that I'm not using is the oats. Not sure what kind of oats Quaker uses, but it seems like I've heard rolled oats are the best for chickens, followed by whole oats. I may check out Wally World and Lowe's to see if they're running any specials on marigolds...

 

[waddles99]

It does stink, but I'll do the best with what I have available. It's 30+ miles to the nearest large city, and 100+ to the largest. I'm semi-rural. I live 1 1/2 miles outside of a town that's has just enough population to be classified as a city (2000). My back yard is roughly 1 1/2 - 2 acres, and if I need extra space for my chickens, I can always clear off the other 21 acres behind it. Actually, only 19 can be cleared because 3 of those acres are covered in water... aka... a pond.

I find it easier to mix the conditioner in the scratch grains. It's just easier for me to monitor how much conditioner (on average) each bird is consuming. Individual servings are 1-3 teaspoons, so it's easy to measure out what I need for 11 birds. I also blend my scratch grains with black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS) at roughly 1:1 ratio.

The only thing from your list that I'm not using is the oats. Not sure what kind of oats Quaker uses, but it seems like I've heard rolled oats are the best for chickens, followed by whole oats. I may check out Wally World and Lowe's to see if they're running any specials on marigolds...

Is there any reason in particular you feed scratch grains? I don't, I think scratch grains are empty calories with no nutritional value whatsoever. They don't really have any benefit for me or my birds. What they do is just encourage natural pecking behavior, supposedly. My girls do that anyway, without scratch grains.

Keep feeding the sunflower seeds. Those will have a result. They make the feathers nice and glossy. I used to feed them to my goats. They made their black coat nice and shiny. Plus they liked eating them.

I use the old fashioned quaker oats in a can at a grocery store. People look at me weird when I have a cart with about 20 cans of oats, but they are really good for feather quality.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
You have me confused with someone else. Matt and I use FRM Show Gold.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I give my birds rolled oats in their treat mix. I tried whole oats but they didn't eat the whole oats but do eat the rolled oats.

 

[cmom]

This one has been hanging around and a Red Tailed too.

Sharp-shinned.