Saturday 2 May 2009

Rhode Island Red Chooks

Today was the day that we finally got chooks at Maculata Grove. I would have liked to have had them sooner, however I still had not built any housing for them. Truth be told, I still haven't. However we were able to acquire a "portable" chook tractor from a neighbour of ours which we are using to house the birds.

We decided to get one cockerel (now named Rusty) and four pullets (to be named). The breed we decided upon was Rhode Island Red. I will explain more about the reason for choosing this breed in another post. We were very lucky to find that we have a breeder of RIRs just down the road in Yugar.

Two of the hens come from one line and the other two pullets come from another line. As well, Rusty comes form a different line from all of the pullets, so we will be able to breed them. The plan is to use the offspring cockerels for meat and the hens for more eggs or sale to people who want a Rhode Island Red chook.

Thus far our experience has been really good. The chooks were very clam about being transported and even though a couple of them got free, they were very easy to catch and put into their pen. Rusty has already been claiming domain over the girls and one of them laid us our first egg. Not a bad start. :)

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