What i did in or around the hen house today

[Xenopus]

Almost certainly you don't have real RIRs. That's an endangered heritage breed and there are very few of them. What you probably have is Production Reds, bred from RIRs with other breeds for heavy production of brown eggs.

If you breed your own flock, you can have heavy production of green eggs too, as I have.

[AnIowan]

* Adding some old aluminum storm windows over the current windows in our barn to keep leaks to a minimum

* Called on another 20 - 25 bales of straw to insultate for the winter

* Gather another 8 eggs...I LOVE the fact we are averaging about 8 eggs a day....yum!!

[Chickengirl]

not exactly IN the hen house 

Discovered another mamma chook has hatched out 9 chicks. One got separated but...

...I've been adopted by said chick  - mum is not interested!

Also found where one of the other bantams is sitting, as well as a nest with two chooks on it.

Our first mamma still has her five - no hassles with goannas or chicken hawks so far!

so far we have 14 chicks, with more to come. It means we'll be adding to the freezer in the future, but we're missing out on eggs atm 

And a duck - but she is a muscovy, and our drake is not, so I doubt she'll hatch anything. She's so damn cranky though no-one is game to get near her to clear the nest.....

[akaskip]

not exactly IN the hen house 

Discovered another mamma chook has hatched out 9 chicks. One got separated but...

...I've been adopted by said chick  - mum is not interested!

Also found where one of the other bantams is sitting, as well as a nest with two chooks on it.

Our first mamma still has her five - no hassles with goannas or chicken hawks so far!

so far we have 14 chicks, with more to come. It means we'll be adding to the freezer in the future, but we're missing out on eggs atm 

And a duck - but she is a muscovy, and our drake is not, so I doubt she'll hatch anything. She's so damn cranky though no-one is game to get near her to clear the nest.....

 I'll bet the rest of the chicks will be jealous when your newly adopted little guy/gal tells them his/her's new mom is Chickengirl

[Chickengirl]

  he wont get to now, he died this morning 

Dunno what was wrong with it, but it was not very well this morning, so he got to sit in my cleavage to stay warm (yeah, I know, but it's warm, and there is a hearbeat, and I could cluck to him  ), and we dripfed him some water, cause we thought he might be dehydrated - came good for a bit, but not enough

DD wont be happy, although she knew there was a fair chance he wouldn't make it before she left for school.

I'm wondering now if there was a reason he was abandonded, or if he just got lost


Other chickens are good though 

[akaskip]

  Sorry Chickengirl

[urbanfarmer]

I wanted to chime in that I have NOT been impressed with Americanas as far as egg production goes, either.  I wanted to have some novelty eggs on hand for barter, plus the birds are damn cute, but the American barnyard favorites such as my RIRs and Dominiques win out hands DOWN!  I've got a couple layers that crank out two in a single day(RIRs)!  The EEs are cute, but not so cute that I need to keep them for pets.  I wish I knew the rate of lay for my Welsummers, as they might need to go as well!

Anyone seen a Mahogany RIR?  IF that's what I recently acquired, they seem to be taller, lankier, and rose combed.  Interesting, no?

The RIR can have a single or rose comb. Some of the smaller hatcheries that specialize in heritage breeds have the real deal. If the bird is very dark, more likely that you actually have a true RIR. mypetchicken.com was selling them last year.

[urbanfarmer]

Chickengirl, sorry to hear about your baby.    Sounds like mom knew something you didn't.

[Chickengirl]

Chickengirl, sorry to hear about your baby.    Sounds like mom knew something you didn't.

That's what I'm thinking 

no worries akaskip, it's part of having chooks, esp when you let them breed.

Weedeater - a friend of mine has Arucanas that lay coloured eggs, she has had no complaints as far as production goes, but isn't comparing them either. Don't know if they are the same as Americanas though? (sometimes different breeds are called different names according country?)

[urbanfarmer]

The true Araucana is from Chile and is rumpless. What we have in the US are the Ameraucana or Americana.

Edited: I typed that backwards. Only the North American standard Araucana is rumpless. So if you have a green/blue laying hen that has a tail, it is an Ameraucana/Americana.

[ajhammered365]

Almost certainly you don't have real RIRs. That's an endangered heritage breed and there are very few of them. What you probably have is Production Reds, bred from RIRs with other breeds for heavy production of brown eggs.

If you breed your own flock, you can have heavy production of green eggs too, as I have.

Trying to post a pic of her to see if she was a true RIR or a Production Red. My wife is a Face Book wiz and would know how to do it in a sec. Oh well let me figure out this whole internet thing and I'll post a pic. Sorry. 

[Xenopus]

Trying to post a pic of her to see if she was a true RIR or a Production Red. My wife is a Face Book wiz and would know how to do it in a sec. Oh well let me figure out this whole internet thing and I'll post a pic. Sorry. 

I don't think I can tell from a picture. They look very similar. Main difference is real RIRs are a lot more expensive!!



Here are some of my busy chooks working away in my future veg garden.

[WeedEater]

Well, I have the RIRs from Welps Hatchery, and the plumage varies a great deal.  The Mahoganies are very dark and slick, like the hatchery rooster.  There is something much more wild about them, although "skittish" would hardly be the word, as they are fairly tame around me.

I took the risk today to put my bantam silkies in with the general population.  The roo, a buff that I named "Chewbacca" has quite a bit of fight in him against aggressive hens that want to give him a hard time.  Thankfully, he isn't big enough to be noticed by the other roosters.  I had to help him with a few hens that were overpowering him with a boot to the vent, but since I had them caged inside the main yard for a week, it seems the pecking order has been fairly well established through the fence, as it were.

Very happy our nearly four solid days of rain has ended. I was worried about all my newbies the Mahoganies, the silkies, being forced out in the yard by my alpha PBR.  He wouldn't let any of them( well the silkies were caged) in the coop to roost, so I would have to put them in there after the main flock was on the roost and it was pitch dark.

I have been so focused on work that I have had very little time to observe.  Culling my roos is now a full month overdue.  Some hens are really getting humped to death, there are some obvious favorites in the flock.  Nothing like a bald, bare-bunned hen to really turn the boys on!

My dominique roo is really filling out to be more impressive every day.  I wish he had the size to be the alpha, but he doesn't come anywhere close.  He is exactly halfway between my alpha PBR and my bantam silkies.

Observed a "dusting orgy" today in the coop when I went in to collect eggs.  A group of about twelve hens and one roo were rolling all over each other dust bathing in the deep litter in the coop.  I had noticed "extreme dust bathing" behavior when I had caged a male and female PBR separately in a dog crate for nearly a month.  Once I released them into the flock again, they bathed almost continually for nearly four days.  I think it was because of all the rain and the muddy yard that they did it.  I have been continually adding pine tags to the yard so the birds have a deep bed of litter to scratch in, and in a feeble attempt to keep it less muddy.  At least I have a place for the pine tags to go.

One of these days I'm gonna cull, cull, cull!

[urbanfarmer]

That was a good read, Weedeater. I have a question, what is a PBR? Back in my college days, that was a Pabst Blue Ribbon! 

[Xenopus]

Good post, Weed! Much sympathy with being way behind on the butchering. I'm about caught up on the chickens, but I have 20 ducks to do and I've had a cold and felt weak and feeble and couldn't face it. And they are getting bigger and bigger with every day that passes.