Want to breed my Rhode Island Reds

[jodyb]

With winter settling in, I know I will have to wait. I ordered a variety of chickens last Feb and like the Rhode Island Reds the best. They are unusually friendly, and lay large beautifully brown eggs and they lay often!

I swopped out 8 unfertilized eggs with a neighbors fertilized ones and ended up with with 2 gorgeous Rhodies, one male and one female, Hansel and Gretel. Hansel is very gentle so far and Gretel just walks into my house, jumps on my shoulder and lets me hold her whenever I like. Of course I routinely take her to my meal worm farm in my basement and let her eat all she wants. That is her reward for trusting me so much.

So this spring I want to breed them and perhaps sell some of my young hens of other breeds.

Does anyone have any suggestions for setting up, perhaps, a separate place for her to sit? Any other good ideas from those of you experienced in this area?

Jody

 

[Fred's Hens]

Fun enough to do and enjoyable.

Couple of things, not meant to be discouraging, but enlightening, I trust. The chances are 100 to 1 that they would be true bred RIR, but hatchery type production reds. These reds lay very, very well and this is why they are so popular. However, it is quite likely they are brother - sister and that isn't an ideal matchup for a breeding pen.

Secondly, because they are production reds, most likely, the odds of the female ever going broody are slim to none. You'd have to use a known broody hen or an incubator is you wanted to hatch out some more.

Enjoy your birds, it sounds like you do and take wonderful care of them.