Rhode island reds or rare breed of chickens

[joeuk1]

Go to the rice mill buy ram add water mix your chicken feed into the ram . Make sure there is plenty of fresh water for them to drink .

[RedBullHorn]

My RIR farm, 3000 layers... Year 2000... Very profitable back then but very tedious work, required 18 hours attention. Quitted (after 18 months) due to lack of workers (stay in) and diversified into fish farming.

Each RIR needs only 90gm of feed per day. As long as feed requirement is met per day...Ignore them, it's just their nature to want more and more feed. They can eat all day (and night with lights on.)

[farmerjo]

150 new birds,sorting out there pecking order?

[Kularion]

My RIR farm, 3000 layers... Year 2000... Very profitable back then but very tedious work, required 18 hours attention. Quitted (after 18 months) due to lack of workers (stay in) and diversified into fish farming.

Each RIR needs only 90gm of feed per day. As long as feed requirement is met per day...Ignore them, it's just their nature to want more and more feed. They can eat all day (and night with lights on.)

img002.jpgimg004.jpgimg005.jpgimg006.jpgimg007.jpgimg008.jpgimg009.jpg

I think that caged birds need less food than chickens which run around

But I mixed their food with ram and corn (which I bought from mill) and will try to safe money in this way.

Btw I will look to buy 50 more birds (RIR or Leghorns probably) and will see how it works

Not huge money but here in Phayao I don't spend much anyway

[Kularion]

150 new birds,sorting out there pecking order?

Well... as this was two flocks (which I bought) comes together I don't see really huge fights there... of course there are some small things here and there but I don't care... they have to sort it out themselves And I have 3 big guys to help me keep in order really bad girls

I have big space (coop and running space) for them - has been made for 300 birds.

Btw now I'm looking to buy 50 hens more... and maybe 2 more roosters

[Jotham79]

A chicken should have about 130 gram of feed per day. I hear that a chicken eats now. In 2 hours its come backsite out. This means there should eat every 2 hours.

15 kg is not to mutch.

150 chicken give you about 120 egg. 120 * 3 Bath = 360 Bath

15 kg chickenfeed cost ???

To safe on feed means you not get enough egg.

Be carefull. Not let wild bird eat from the chickenfeed

I used 130 gram as a guideline, but feed consumption will vary a little. There will be days when you get 120 eggs, but those will be good days. They will start off laying just a little and then will increase and you might get up to 85% or so on good days for a while. Eventually in 10 months to a year, production will decrease when your hens go through a molt. Of course if you have some males you factor those into the feed and out of the egg production. A big thunder storm, or people setting off fireworks will drop it sometimes. Also, if a hen goes broody you will lose production for a while. If your p0wer is out when you have your lights on, production will dip. I get Batagro layer pellets for 469 baht a kg which makes it 15.63 baht a kg. You can retail eggs for 3 baht, but wholesale will probably be a little less

I mix my own feed and get it down to 12-13 baht a kg and sometimes I supplement with greens PM me your email address and I will send you an excel spreadsheet.

Cheers.

[Kularion]

Running during the day and later time to sleep... btw all of them want to sleep on branches near to the door... non want to sleep at the back of the coop and only bunch of hens with two roosters sleep on the back corner of the coop on the ground next to each other... they don't want to sleep on branches... why ?

[Kularion]

So guys anyone know where I can buy 50 Gai Khai (laying hens) in the Phayao area ?

[RedBullHorn]

You can order them at Saha branch at Hayeak Phor Khun Mengrai, Chiang Rai or the Northern Association of Chicken Eggs farmers in Chiang Sean.

[RedBullHorn]

......advise that you do not wash or clean your eggs with water because freshness level only last 5-7 days, if you need to clear them use dry scrubbing with a scrubbing brush. That way it will last for 2-4 weeks.

[Kularion]

......advise that you do not wash or clean your eggs with water because freshness level only last 5-7 days, if you need to clear them use dry scrubbing with a scrubbing brush. That way it will last for 2-4 weeks.

Damn !!! Thanks for advise !!! As those are not eggs from the caged chickens sometimes I pick up them little dirty so I used sponge with a bit o water. I knew that I shouldn't press to hard but to don't use water at all I had no idea I keep them in the fridge in temp around 10 degree Celsius. Well I learn something new every day. This farm in Chiang Sean delivering only big orders... I talked today with woman who have 3000 chicks (in cages) and order from them for 160 THB/bird. But she wasn't really helpful like she was afraid of competition... Me - freshman with maybe 200 hens against her - old timer with 3000 +... People are sometimes silly

Btw can not find any website about this Saha branch at Hayeak Phor Khun Mengrai, Chiang Rai or this farm in Chiang Sean... do you have any details - phone number or something ?

Thanks a lot

Ps. Eggs are beautiful

[RedBullHorn]

PM sent...

[Kularion]

PM sent...

Thanks a lot RBH

Will check it out

And here is few pict from my current flock... birds are nice and happy but I get only 90+eggs from 150 chicks... something wrong ?

[Allgeier]

You can buy some powder to make the egg red.

This are from duck. But the two egg on ther left side are not feeded with commercial feed. The egg on the right had a part commercial feed inside.

Witch egg is now healthier?

Gratin makes the egg also very red. And this in a nature, healthy way.

[RedBullHorn]

PM sent...

Thanks a lot RBH

Will check it out

And here is few pict from my current flock... birds are nice and happy but I get only 90+eggs from 150 chicks... something wrong ?

They spent their time moving around too much... if caged, it is an egg per hen per day. Let it be, free range chickens are healthier and less stress...

[RedBullHorn]

Very often caged RIR that give SIZE #00(jumbo), #0 and #1 eggs will have two your yolks in an egg... When that happens remember to buy lottery tickets.

[Kularion]

Very often caged RIR that give SIZE #00(jumbo), #0 and #1 eggs will have two your yolks in an egg... When that happens remember to buy lottery tickets.

Seriously ??? Yesterday I had two in one jumbo egg

[Kularion]

Guys I have 7 birds (all of them have very small crown) and I don't know what is going on with them... most of the other hens (from their old flock and from the new one) just seems to don't like them... whenever they spot them near they try to beat crap out of them... and only those 7... rest of the flock is ok... of course there are some small fights from time to time but not serious and if this are getting worst one of the roosters sort it out always.

[Jotham79]

I finally got time to put down a few notes, and I understand everyone has their own way of doing things. I really like your coop. It is practical and doesn’t look expensive. I don’t see a problem with the birds roosting. I will PM answers to your PM questions shortly.

1. It is hard to see in the photos, but I don’t think all of your hens are pure Rhode Island Reds. All of your males are RIR and the hens with the dark tail feathers are too. The hens with the lighter color are most likely sex linked crosses which make op over 90% of the layers in Thailand. The crosses (called warrens) have a RIR male crossed with something like a White Plymouth Rock hen. All of the chicks will be red with a little white (females) or white with a little red and these will all be males. There is nothing wrong with the crosses as they are bred for Thailand and will outlay any pure breed. If you are really serious about making money, you should go with the warrens. Your neighbor with 3,00 hens might pay 160 baht for point of lay (pullets), but smaller numbers are likely to run around 225 baht.
2. I really don’t think you can get 100% production even in cages but keep good records and if you get close I will make a trip to see your set up. As egg production increase so will feed consumption.
3. I recommend 15-17 hours of light. It is said that it is best to turn the lights on early and let them go to roost naturally in the evening. I have done better with 24 hour light, but they will lay and make noise all night.
4. Move your roosters to another pen. You only need them if you want to hatch your own chicks. Other wise, when it gets hot, the eggs will start to incubate and need to be sold very quickly. If you keep them cool they will be ok, but 90% of Thais will leave them out in the heat and they will start to develop anyway. My hatch time drops by a day and a half in the hot season. If you want to hatch your own, I would go with your RIR males and your lighter females as they are different bloodline, will be ¾ RIR crosses, and should be good layers. Also, your hens will consume more feed if they are fooling around with the roosters.
5. It appears that you ae using rice hulls as litter. This is very common, but I really recommend against it. Your birds and develop respiratory problems from the dust. You could be bringing in diseases, and they carry enough nutrients that if they get wet you will have mold which is very bad. There are a number of pluses to rice hulls. I know someone will mention that millions of broilers are raised on rice hulls, but they live in barns with forced ventilation, the chicks are medicated, and only live 8 weeks so don’t have much time. If you can, take a fan and screen the rice hulls and use the fan to blow away dust.
6. You will need to dust for parasites. (DISCLAIMER; I sell DE on TV classifieds) I would dust the roosts, nests and litter with diatomaceous Earth (DE) about every 2-3 months. I would also treat their food about every 90 days to treat for parasites and coccidiosis.
7. I also recommend putting something under your roosts to catch the manure.
8. If you are going to mix your own feed and want port of it to be commercial layer feed, use crumbles (cheaper) and the hens won’t be able to pick out the pellets. I will M my email so I can send you a spreadsheet for making feed. I would use corn sweepings instead of cracked corn in your mix. Your feeders have the bottoms connected by hooks. Put the hooks in the top of the 3 holes and this will give the smallest space for feed to fall and will make it more difficult for the hens to waste the feed. You can build guards to put on them that will reduce waste. Also, raise your feeders so the hens have to stretch just a little and it will be more difficult for them to spill feed. If the front of their necks are chaffing the feeder is too high. Make catch basins to place under your feeders and water bottles. They will need to be around 75 cm square and 10 cm high. Put a few slats across the top and cover with 1 inch wire mesh. Any food or water which fall will be caught and reduce mold in your litter. When you empty the wasted feed you can give to fish.
9. I agree with RBH that it is all about stress. Your hens though will produce fewer eggs and or consume more feed if they are running around much. This is simple physiology, the more they move around, the more feed they burn. If you are truly letting the free range, they will consume enough feed to help you make a little more profit on fewer eggs. Their pasture requirements are quite large and you will need to be able to rotate and water it during the dry season. Your yard didn’t look to have much vegetation so won’t really help your birds assuming that there is sufficient floor space I would keep them inside. Without a lot of pasture and rotation and irrigation your chickens will have the yard reduced to dirt in a short time. Consider some Manilla Tamarind as they are low upkeep, produce a fair amount of fruit and chickens love them. Same goes for papayas. Dump water from your bottles on your trees when you give fresh water to your hens.
10. Inside your coop provide a dust bath of sand, wood ash, and DE.
11. You mentioned that some hens were missing some feathers. There are 2 common causes. The first is a low protein diet so the hens eat feathers . The other is because they are molting. If your lighter hens are molting you have probably bought spent hens. After about 10 to 12 months of laying the hens will go through a molt where they will lose some feathers and their laying will drop way off. In a few weeks they laying will pick back . The production the second year will be less than the first, but the egg size is usually as good or better.
12. Have an area where you put all of the supplemental feed like greens and fruit so it is easier to clean. They will tear the hell out of banana leaves.
13. Consider gutters to catch the rain into water jars as a good source of fresh water with the extra flowing out of the pen.

Well I think that is most of it.

Cheers

[Kularion]

I finally got time to put down a few notes, and I understand everyone has their own way of doing things. I really like your coop. It is practical and doesn’t look expensive. I don’t see a problem with the birds roosting. I will PM answers to your PM questions shortly.

1. It is hard to see in the photos, but I don’t think all of your hens are pure Rhode Island Reds. All of your males are RIR and the hens with the dark tail feathers are too. The hens with the lighter color are most likely sex linked crosses which make op over 90% of the layers in Thailand. The crosses (called warrens) have a RIR male crossed with something like a White Plymouth Rock hen. All of the chicks will be red with a little white (females) or white with a little red and these will all be males. There is nothing wrong with the crosses as they are bred for Thailand and will outlay any pure breed. If you are really serious about making money, you should go with the warrens. Your neighbor with 3,00 hens might pay 160 baht for point of lay (pullets), but smaller numbers are likely to run around 225 baht.
2. I really don’t think you can get 100% production even in cages but keep good records and if you get close I will make a trip to see your set up. As egg production increase so will feed consumption.
3. I recommend 15-17 hours of light. It is said that it is best to turn the lights on early and let them go to roost naturally in the evening. I have done better with 24 hour light, but they will lay and make noise all night.
4. Move your roosters to another pen. You only need them if you want to hatch your own chicks. Other wise, when it gets hot, the eggs will start to incubate and need to be sold very quickly. If you keep them cool they will be ok, but 90% of Thais will leave them out in the heat and they will start to develop anyway. My hatch time drops by a day and a half in the hot season. If you want to hatch your own, I would go with your RIR males and your lighter females as they are different bloodline, will be ¾ RIR crosses, and should be good layers. Also, your hens will consume more feed if they are fooling around with the roosters.
5. It appears that you ae using rice hulls as litter. This is very common, but I really recommend against it. Your birds and develop respiratory problems from the dust. You could be bringing in diseases, and they carry enough nutrients that if they get wet you will have mold which is very bad. There are a number of pluses to rice hulls. I know someone will mention that millions of broilers are raised on rice hulls, but they live in barns with forced ventilation, the chicks are medicated, and only live 8 weeks so don’t have much time. If you can, take a fan and screen the rice hulls and use the fan to blow away dust.
6. You will need to dust for parasites. (DISCLAIMER; I sell DE on TV classifieds) I would dust the roosts, nests and litter with diatomaceous Earth (DE) about every 2-3 months. I would also treat their food about every 90 days to treat for parasites and coccidiosis.
7. I also recommend putting something under your roosts to catch the manure.
8. If you are going to mix your own feed and want port of it to be commercial layer feed, use crumbles (cheaper) and the hens won’t be able to pick out the pellets. I will M my email so I can send you a spreadsheet for making feed. I would use corn sweepings instead of cracked corn in your mix. Your feeders have the bottoms connected by hooks. Put the hooks in the top of the 3 holes and this will give the smallest space for feed to fall and will make it more difficult for the hens to waste the feed. You can build guards to put on them that will reduce waste. Also, raise your feeders so the hens have to stretch just a little and it will be more difficult for them to spill feed. If the front of their necks are chaffing the feeder is too high. Make catch basins to place under your feeders and water bottles. They will need to be around 75 cm square and 10 cm high. Put a few slats across the top and cover with 1 inch wire mesh. Any food or water which fall will be caught and reduce mold in your litter. When you empty the wasted feed you can give to fish.
9. I agree with RBH that it is all about stress. Your hens though will produce fewer eggs and or consume more feed if they are running around much. This is simple physiology, the more they move around, the more feed they burn. If you are truly letting the free range, they will consume enough feed to help you make a little more profit on fewer eggs. Their pasture requirements are quite large and you will need to be able to rotate and water it during the dry season. Your yard didn’t look to have much vegetation so won’t really help your birds assuming that there is sufficient floor space I would keep them inside. Without a lot of pasture and rotation and irrigation your chickens will have the yard reduced to dirt in a short time. Consider some Manilla Tamarind as they are low upkeep, produce a fair amount of fruit and chickens love them. Same goes for papayas. Dump water from your bottles on your trees when you give fresh water to your hens.
10. Inside your coop provide a dust bath of sand, wood ash, and DE.
11. You mentioned that some hens were missing some feathers. There are 2 common causes. The first is a low protein diet so the hens eat feathers . The other is because they are molting. If your lighter hens are molting you have probably bought spent hens. After about 10 to 12 months of laying the hens will go through a molt where they will lose some feathers and their laying will drop way off. In a few weeks they laying will pick back . The production the second year will be less than the first, but the egg size is usually as good or better.
12. Have an area where you put all of the supplemental feed like greens and fruit so it is easier to clean. They will tear the hell out of banana leaves.
13. Consider gutters to catch the rain into water jars as a good source of fresh water with the extra flowing out of the pen.

Well I think that is most of it.

Cheers

Wow man!!! Thanks a lot for all your advices That was great reading and I make already some things as per your advices (feeders little higher than was before). Everybody around says that woman who sells me those 100 Warrens with missing feathers cheat me because she says that they are 1 year old but people says that birds with missing feathers like that are usually much older.

Well... those Warrens from Dok Am Thai I bought are horrible - not only they missing feathers but also they fight a lot, eating eggs if some hen would lay on the ground and picking feathers from other hens... sometimes I really wanna kill them all :/

Yesterday I bought 100 1 year old Warrens from big farm (3000 hens) from cages... they are nice but have very long claws and they have to learn how to walk really and run around. They lay great (1st day 70 hens - I brought 1 day) gaves me 56 eggs. And I bought also beautiful Warren rooster

Btw you are more than welcome to visit me whenever you gonna be around (Y) Don't need to wait for my eggs production results

Cheers

[Kularion]

My coop 6 AM Roosters didn't get along very well but I hope they gonna sort it out soon

[Allgeier]

Well... those Warrens from Dok Am Thai I bought are horrible - not only they missing feathers but also they fight a lot, eating eggs if some hen would lay on the ground and picking feathers from other hens... sometimes I really wanna kill them all :/

This can come also from missing protein. Feather are protein. So the chicken take the missing protein from the the friend's feather.

Dont put to mutch Rice Brain inside. Also fish meal.

[Kularion]

Well... those Warrens from Dok Am Thai I bought are horrible - not only they missing feathers but also they fight a lot, eating eggs if some hen would lay on the ground and picking feathers from other hens... sometimes I really wanna kill them all :/

This can come also from missing protein. Feather are protein. So the chicken take the missing protein from the the friend's feather.

Dont put to mutch Rice Brain inside. Also fish meal.

You mean I should give them feed I have for my fish ? or some kind of meal made out of fish ?

Right now I feed them with mix : 1 scoop chicken meal (high protein - 38%) 1 scoop of soya meal (protein 44%) 2,5 scoops of Rise Ram, 2,5 scoops of corn and around 5% of calcium - 25 kg of food for 250 birds... apart of this they have some treat from me from time to time - some vegetables, grass, nest of termites (if I'm not to lazy to dig it ) etc etc... Those chickens from Dok AM Thai are hiper active. Running all day long, looking which hen they can pick some feather from, looking for fights and if only some hen would make egg on the floor right away there is 10 of those bastards there to eat it... If they don't change this behaviour I will have chicken soop made out of 75 chickens very soon

[Allgeier]

or some kind of meal made out of fish ?

Right now I feed them with mix : 1 scoop chicken meal (high protein - 38%) 1 scoop of soya meal (protein 44%) 2,5 scoops of Rise Ram, 2,5 scoops of corn and around 5% of calcium - 25 kg of food for 250 birds... apart of this they have some treat from me from time to time - some vegetables, grass, nest of termites (if I'm not to lazy to dig it ) etc etc... Those chickens from Dok AM Thai are hiper active. Running all day long, looking which hen they can pick some feather from, looking for fights and if only some hen would make egg on the floor right away there is 10 of those bastards there to eat it... If they don't change this behaviour I will have chicken soop made out of 75 chickens very soon

You mean I should give them feed I have for my fish ? or some kind of meal made out of fish ?

But you feed already chickenmeal. The fishmeal should not be necceserry.

When i read your feed mix i will say it's to mutch on chicken meal. But with 38 % protein i will say there is not so mutch meat inside. To mutch Calzium.

The best way is to put all your mix in a excel and you can see what you are missing or not. I have one, but all the names are in german.

But Jotham 79 wrote a couple of times he have a exel file. Maybe you should ask him. This makes the mixing easier.

This recepie come from Joel Salatin

http://www.polyfacefarms.com/

In case you’re curious, Salatin’s layer ration consists of:

• 49.7% corn
• 30.8% roasted soybeans
• 10.9% oats
• 5.0% feed grade limestone
• 3.0% Fertrell Nutri-Balancer
• 0.5% Thorvin brand kelp meal

oats we not have here. But wheat and ricebrain. The roasted sojabean should be the green bag here. Not the yellow one.

What kind of rice ram? The cheap one or the good one? Good means one kg should cost about 10 Bath/kg.

Must try. But not verget. The chicken like to eat grain, not so mutch the meal or powder. There will waste some feed.

[Kularion]

or some kind of meal made out of fish ?

Right now I feed them with mix : 1 scoop chicken meal (high protein - 38%) 1 scoop of soya meal (protein 44%) 2,5 scoops of Rise Ram, 2,5 scoops of corn and around 5% of calcium - 25 kg of food for 250 birds... apart of this they have some treat from me from time to time - some vegetables, grass, nest of termites (if I'm not to lazy to dig it ) etc etc... Those chickens from Dok AM Thai are hiper active. Running all day long, looking which hen they can pick some feather from, looking for fights and if only some hen would make egg on the floor right away there is 10 of those bastards there to eat it... If they don't change this behaviour I will have chicken soop made out of 75 chickens very soon

You mean I should give them feed I have for my fish ? or some kind of meal made out of fish ?

The roasted sojabean should be the green bag here. Not the yellow one.

What kind of rice ram? The cheap one or the good one? Good means one kg should cost about 10 Bath/kg.

Hi there,

I'm using Soya bean meal (as on picture) with 44% of proteins and now I decided to go for Chicken meal (as on picture) with 38% of proteins.

Rice ram I pay 480 THB/50 kg.

[Allgeier]

Maybe the chicken is a symbol from the company. Because on the bag is nothing writen about chicken meal. But there is writen

ทางเคมี = chemical way

i can not read everythink but this what i understand is "animal feed by a chemical way". Sound strange or maybe normal if buy a commercial feed.

Maybe a another member can this better explean.

Ram:

Its look like this

or

The second picture come from here

http://narapimon.com/product-en/rice-bran/?lang=en

in my eys the best page to explain the ingredians from the rice. And its in englisch too.

This what you call chickenmeal is maybe a feed supplement and can be used for pig too. But i am not sure. Betrago feed should be the Nr 751.

Corn is expensive. You can get wheat ?

[Kularion]

Maybe the chicken is a symbol from the company. Because on the bag is nothing writen about chicken meal. But there is writen

ทางเคมี = chemical way

i can not read everythink but this what i understand is "animal feed by a chemical way". Sound strange or maybe normal if buy a commercial feed.

Maybe a another member can this better explean.

Ram:

Its look like this

or

The second picture come from here

http://narapimon.com/product-en/rice-bran/?lang=en

in my eys the best page to explain the ingredians from the rice. And its in englisch too.

This what you call chickenmeal is maybe a feed supplement and can be used for pig too. But i am not sure. Betrago feed should be the Nr 751.

Corn is expensive. You can get wheat ?

Well... on the other bags from this company are different animals - depends for which this feed is.

Regarding Rice Ram - yes that's exactly how it looks like.

Corn is expensive a bit 580 THB/50 kg but I know that chicks like it

I never asked about wheat yet but now I will do this 100%.

Thanks a lot for all the info

[Kularion]

Maybe the chicken is a symbol from the company. Because on the bag is nothing writen about chicken meal. But there is writen

ทางเคมี = chemical way

i can not read everythink but this what i understand is "animal feed by a chemical way". Sound strange or maybe normal if buy a commercial feed.

Maybe a another member can this better explean.

Ram:

Its look like this

or

The second picture come from here

http://narapimon.com/product-en/rice-bran/?lang=en

in my eys the best page to explain the ingredians from the rice. And its in englisch too.

This what you call chickenmeal is maybe a feed supplement and can be used for pig too. But i am not sure. Betrago feed should be the Nr 751.

Corn is expensive. You can get wheat ?

Well... on the other bags from this company are different animals - depends for which this feed is.

Regarding Rice Ram - yes that's exactly how it looks like.

Corn is expensive a bit 580 THB/50 kg but I know that chicks like it

I never asked about wheat yet but now I will do this 100%.

Thanks a lot for all the info

Ok... I've spoke to my girlfriend and her sister and they said that wheat is very expensive here in Thailand

[Allgeier]

2 weeks a go i bought wheat ( full grain) for 10 Bath or 10,50 Bath the kg. Wheat meal cost 1/2 Bath more per kg.

But if you pay 580 Bath for 50 kg its normal price for me.

I buy a part of my feed in Roi Et in a Pigfarm and when i asked them why there have now wheat there told me the corn is to expensive now.

But when i have a look what is inside the wheat then is better than the corn. In my eyes.

How your gitlfriend an her sister know the wheat is more expensive than the corn?

In my opinion its not easy to get a profit from the layer when there run around. There must stay in a cage. Like on Big Horn's Photo. I

[gk10002000]

ah Rhode Island Reds. I grew up in Rhode Island. Went to the old RI auditorium and saw the old AHL RI Reds play there. I grew up with Brown eggs and I never understood why or how some people had white eggs.