Rhode Island Reds ( hens )

blowin · Rhode Island Reds ( hens )

Buying RIR's that were guaranteed to lay but turned out to be cockerels . This happened to be from a local market but , in fairness , I gather that this breed is very difficult to sex when young .
Lovely birds tho' ( with gravy , too ) .

Camile

That's unlucky ..

I bought 3 x RIR Point Of Lay, back in the end of september .. and they are all laying like mad !

In fact, Sunday was the first day I collected 6 eggs out of 6 hens .. so it's not a bad winter.

As for your cockerels, that's Sunday roast sorted .. .

how will you dispatch them ?

Camile

eggcellence · Chickens for Christnas

Today we collected our cockerels from the abbatoir? not sure of the spelling. Very Happy

Thought you might like to see them all ready for collection, we do this three or four times a year, but dont kill them ourselves, too much hard work, but the abbatoir only charges 1.5 € to kill and dress, all done to order so there are none left, average weight is 2.9 KL
Cheers Sheila (France)

Camile

Hi Sheila,

What breed were they ? because 2,9 Kg is a good size indeed.

Camile

eggcellence

wayoutwest

ours are between 8 and 10 lb, usually, although two came in at 6lb this year becasue we did them a bit early. We buy a cross between Light Sussex and Ross Cobb. The local chicken lady sells them (called broilers) in the market at 1 day, 2 weeks or 5 weeks old, price dependant on age.

we can raise a 9 lb chicken for about E6.50, but we do the killing, plucking and gutting ourselves.

eggcellence · meat birds

8 to 10 lbs is a very good weight, we find if they go much over 3kl they go off their legs, we grow them organically and free range, if we keep them in they get bigger, but lose the use of their legs, which we don't like, I have rhumatoid arthritis which prevents me plucking them, but we have costed them out and if we sell eight birds, we get four free for ourselves, which is ok by me. Wink

wayoutwest

that's good going!

Ours aren't completely organic as I can't find organic food here, but they are (very) free range. We did once have one go off its legs, at around 5 lb, weirdly. not nice for it, but still fine to eat as we got it straight away. I foundd onee batch more sluggish than the others, but the last lot were very active. Wonderful meat, isn't it?

eggcellence · meat birds

You are right there, the meat is wonderful, much better than shop bought, we have managed to go 4yrs and not had to buy a shop bird, I joint half my birds, as they are too big for the two of us, then I make stock with the carcases and freeze it for soup.Mmmmm lovely, thats it, got to go make soup now... Laughing

Sheila

wayland

I have got to source some decent stock soon. We are going to have egg layers and meat producers so am looking at the different breeds available. The best egg layers that I have had were Ross hybrids. I am taking advice on the meat breeds. < Looking above >. There is a bloke who sells fowl at the local mart. I asked him what breed the cock was and he said "White" Confused

There seems to be alot of mongrels around.

wayoutwest

I would go with RIRs for eggs every time, but they will need replacing or adding to in a few years. having said that, they will lay an egg a day for the first year at least.

I can give you the number of the woman who sells broilers to me, fantastic meat birds but you might have to travel a bit to get them. not sure how far she travels accross the country. Maybe you could drop off some RIRs to tringle on the way over... Laughing

tringle

wayoutwest

ah - the sensible approach.

we tend to be 'jump in and find out as we go' types!! Mind you, we read about it all a lot before just jumping in madly to whatever pool we fancy at the time, so at least we have some idea of what we don't know. Confused

wayland

I love this Ireland Laughing

tringle

wayland

Sorry for my English accent, but I use "This" as a turm of indearment as apposed to just Ireland or England etc. Wink

Calli

I usually have warren x light sussex for sale. These are pretty white speckled birds that lay like a warren! Lovely eggs and daily all through the winter too.
Lots of purebreeds available and hatching eggs. Variety of rarebreeds too.

phil

Where abouts are you based and what other breeds of birds do you keep?
I have some young birds from a man in Edenderry, Co. Offaly..
Hope yours aren't closely related...!

Camile

don't get Callie started on what breed she keeps ! she has like a living encyclopedia of poultry !

Rhode Island Reds ( hens )

Chickens for Christnas

meat birds

meat birds