I'm just starting a small chicken buisness and everything has been going well I have my layer flock and then I have a 2-3 month (Depending on breed) rotation of meat birds but I made the mistake of buying 5 RIR(Straight Run), 5 Red Rangers(Straight run) and 5 Red Productions(Pullets) in my mix just to play around and see what I could do with them. I wanted to keep my 5 RIR birds for my Flock and the other 10 for meat birds the only thing is I didn't marked them with zip ties or anything to tell them apart well now they are about 7 weeks old and they all look the same. Except one set is really dark red, one set is extremely bigger then the rest and the other 5 are just average size but a lighter color in other words I need a way on how to tell all of them apart so I can mark them off and know who is who
Photos would be helpful, but I suspect that the ones that are 'extremely bigger' are your rangers - they tend to grow like most broiler types and will usually outdistance the others in terms of growth. The difference between your Rhode Island Reds and 'Production Reds' is probably going to be minimal if you ordered your RIR's from a hatchery. Realistically, most birds that come from hatchery stock is so watered down that they aren't all that close to most breeder quality stock so separating them may be a task. Your business plan is to sell Rhode Island Reds or do you plan on keeping the flock integrated? Selling hatching eggs or table eggs?
I agree with Owen. I would add that the "production" in production reds refers to egg production, They are not usually the best choice for meat birds. They will usually be great brown egg layers. The dark birds might be the RIR. With hatchery stock though it's hard to guess.
Ok makes the most sense the Info you guys helped alot. I was trying to keep RIR as my layers. I'm trying to keep a more heritage breed layer flock along with buff orpingtons and so forth and eggs will be used for table but maybe I'll just keep the production reds and RIR for layers then I'll have a few extra birds incase something happens the size they are now I wouldn't get much at 3 months the rate that they are growing anyway for meat def won't make this mistake next time. thanks guys!
