The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[hoosiercheetah]

Just had to share.
Finally after years of hatching and culling my first purebred genetically improved Rhodebars are out of the bator.
SO excited!

What are the specific traits you're hoping to see in the adult birds?

 

[RedRidge]

Just had to share.

Finally after years of hatching and culling my first purebred genetically improved Rhodebars are out of the bator.

SO excited!

What are the specific traits you're hoping to see in the adult birds?

I will keep fewer than half of the chicks above. All of these will have correct barring but only half are homozygous wildtype. The other half have a wheaten gene.
So, the final birds will be 100% easily autosexed at hatch. They will be bred to the RIR standard for type, color, etc. And they will have the correct barring - meaning single barred pullets and double barred cockerels.
So... they are autosexed, barred, standard bred RIR.
These pictured above are actually BC1 generation. I have F2s coming out if the bator soon. Only 1/8 of those will be purebred but will have superior type. A cross of purebred BC1S and purebred F2s should produce awesome stock.

I breed standard bred RIR also - As you can tell from my avatar

 

[hoosiercheetah]

I will keep fewer than half of the chicks above. All of these will have correct barring but only half are homozygous wildtype. The other half have a wheaten gene.
So, the final birds will be 100% easily autosexed at hatch. They will be bred to the RIR standard for type, color, etc. And they will have the correct barring - meaning single barred pullets and double barred cockerels.
So... they are autosexed, barred, standard bred RIR.
These pictured above are actually BC1 generation. I have F2s coming out if the bator soon. Only 1/8 of those will be purebred but will have superior type. A cross of purebred BC1S and purebred F2s should produce awesome stock.

Sweet! Sounds like you've got a lot of effort into this, and I'm happy that it's bearing fruit for you!

I'm still looking for the breeder who's making chickens that look like a hot mess but lay 365 Extra-Large eggs a year until they're six years old. :-D

 

[RedRidge]

Lol... You need some good standard bred birds. You'll never get that kind of longevity out of hatchery stock. They lay heavy, but we butcher all hatchery stock in the fall of their second year. Flash in the pan.
The other lay well until they are 8 -10 years but not as heavy as the hatchery birds. Although I did have one pen laying 85% last winter

 

[Leahs Mom]

@RedRidge

I remember you saying at one point that you keep your layers 4 years. Sounds like you've shortened that?

 

[RedRidge]

@RedRidge


I remember you saying at one point that you keep your layers 4 years.  Sounds like you've shortened that?

Yes we have, for one big reason. Only the very best of each generation from my Rhodebar breeding project gets used to breed. That means I have accumulated a ton of really good layers who just didn't quote meet the criteria for breeding. We butcher all the cockerels, but use the pullets as layers. And these cross pullets lay daily - it's crazy. So in an effort to thin our numbers, even though we sell a lot of eggs, we pulled our layer pen cull back to 2.5 yrs.
We will not have any more hatchery birds after our next cull in 2 weeks so we will then keep all the genetic cross birds simply to see how well they lay and got how long.
So... No more hatchery birds for us. We are now getting enough eggs without them.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

Yes we have, for one big reason. Only the very best of each generation from my Rhodebar breeding project gets used to breed. That means I have accumulated a ton of really good layers who just didn't quote meet the criteria for breeding. We butcher all the cockerels, but use the pullets as layers. And these cross pullets lay daily - it's crazy. So in an effort to thin our numbers, even though we sell a lot of eggs, we pulled our layer pen cull back to 2.5 yrs.
We will not have any more hatchery birds after our next cull in 2 weeks so we will then keep all the genetic cross birds simply to see how well they lay and got how long.
So... No more hatchery birds for us. We are now getting enough eggs without them.

Wow. Sounds like a winner to me. Any plans to sell chicks? :-D

 

[Leahs Mom]

And..
How many birds do you keep in your layer flock?

 

[RedRidge]

Yes we have, for one big reason. Only the very best of each generation from my Rhodebar breeding project gets used to breed. That means I have accumulated a ton of really good layers who just didn't quote meet the criteria for breeding. We butcher all the cockerels, but use the pullets as layers. And these cross pullets lay daily - it's crazy. So in an effort to thin our numbers, even though we sell a lot of eggs, we pulled our layer pen cull back to 2.5 yrs.

We will not have any more hatchery birds after our next cull in 2 weeks so we will then keep all the genetic cross birds simply to see how well they lay and got how long.

So... No more hatchery birds for us. We are now getting enough eggs without them.

Wow.  Sounds like a winner to me.  Any plans to sell chicks?  :-D

eventually
But first I will breed to assure 100% autosexing prior to offering eggs or chicks. And shipping is problematic for me since the closest post office is 45 minutes away.

 

[RedRidge]

And..
How many birds do you keep in your layer flock?

Hmmm... seperate from the breeders? Probably about 100