Rhodonite is one of the most egg-laying crosses of poultry. Hens rush even in the most adverse climatic conditions. This is the most popular cross among poultry farmers. Red-brown layers managed to win the heart of the most picky farmer, they, like no other, are suitable for the climate of Russia, because Russian breeders worked on it.
A little about the origin of cross
Two highly productive breeds were taken as a basis - Loman Brown and Rhode Island. This explains the fact that newcomers to poultry farming often confuse “parents” with this cross-breed hybrid bred by crossing a rooster of one breed (in this case, the American Rhode Island breed) with chickens of another highly productive breed (German breed Loman Brown).
Comparison of parent breeds and hybrid in the table below:
Rhodonites | Loman Brown | Rhode Island | |
Directivity | egg | egg | meat and egg |
The mass of the male, kg | 3,5 | 3 | 4 |
The mass of the female, kg | 2,5 | 2,2 | 3,5 |
Egg mass, g | 60 | 64 | 58 |
Egg production, pcs / kg | 350 | 320 | 200 |
First egg | at 4 months | in 5.5 months | at 6 months |
Cell content | not | Yes | not |
Spread
Red chickens adapted well to Russian climatic conditions. The last line of Rodonit-3 was bred by breeders in Yekaterinburg, who sought to create a well-bearing rock at low (minus) ambient temperatures.
At first, the cross was designed for industrial cultivation, but soon it was appreciated by private farmers and poultry farmers. Therefore, this cross can be found in many farms in various regions of Russia, especially with cold and long winters.
Rhodonite Standard
These are hens with light brown or fawn plumage and cream splashes. Feathers fit snugly to the body. Blotches are located at the ends of the feathers of the wings and tail. The body of the rhodonites is small, the chest is noticeably convex. On a small head there are medium earrings and a leaf-shaped flat scallop of bright red color, which should not fall over to one side. The beak is yellow in color with a characteristic brown stripe in the middle. Legs are light yellow, without plumage.
A plus is that the female and male can already be distinguished after hatching in a day. It is easy to recognize a newborn cock by the light yellow color of the fluff and noticeable dark spots on the head. Their eyes are surrounded by a yellow rim. The hens have a darker color, and on the back you can see a light strip. The eyes are surrounded by a dark brown rim.
If we talk about more adult individuals, then the cock weighs more than a laying hen - 3.5 and 2.5 kg, respectively.
Character
Birds have a balanced, calm, unobtrusive disposition. They prefer an active lifestyle, very mobile. “Movement is life” is their motto. They must constantly move, so they make them more spacious walking to give them this opportunity.
With other birds and with their relatives they behave in a friendly manner, they are alien to aggressive behavior. They quickly get used to new conditions, do not experience anxiety and stress when moving, so they immediately begin to rush as soon as they settle in a permanent place. They quickly get used to the mistress, are not afraid of her and do not scatter when she appears.
Rhodonite productivity
This is a cross that is characterized by high egg production. Layers can bring up to 350 eggs / year, on average, from 280 to 350 pieces. They begin to rush early, the first eggs can already be collected from four-month-old young hens.
Egg shells are painted brown, in light or dark colors. Some poultry farmers describe the color of the shell as brown with a burgundy hue. They are small in size, weighs one egg on average 60 g.
The highest productivity is observed in the first year and a half. In two-year-old laying hens, egg production begins to fall rapidly, therefore, on poultry farms the population is usually changed after 1.5-2 years, on frequent farms and the farm they are kept for up to 3-4 years. However, the so-called “rejuvenation” vaccine is made to the laying hens, and their productivity is restored for another 80 weeks.
Growing cockerels for meat is impractical, since the taste is poor. The maximum weight of males reaches only 3.5 kg. The meat is tough and is suitable only for cooking broths or soups, for industrial processing.
Pros and Cons of Rhodonite
Rhodonites can distinguish a number of advantages:
- Early and high egg production.
- Frost resistance - laying layers withstand frosts down to -20 ° C and continue to rush at sub-zero temperatures. To maintain good productivity in the winter, you should maintain a temperature in the chicken coop above -2 ° C. When the temperature rises above +28 ° C, egg production also decreases.
- High viability. The hatchability of chickens is 87%, the safety of young animals up to 17 weeks is 99%, the safety rate of 17-80-week-old females is 97%.
- Quick adaptation to new conditions.
- Unpretentiousness of birds in leaving.
The main disadvantages of rhodonites are the lack of “instinct of incubation”, which entails the loss of eggs. Chickens can be carried anywhere, if they are free-range. When breeding, they use the incubation method, but the chickens will not be able to pass on the characteristics of this cross, in addition, they will be weak, small and carry little. Also, experts note of the minuses - a low meat yield.
Maintenance and care
Unpretentious rhodonites need only one thing, this is the absence of drafts in the room where they are kept. However, if you want to get more eggs, favorable conditions are created for them to satisfy their few needs.
Chicken coop or barn
A shed or a chicken coop is suitable for the cultivation and maintenance of rhodonites, but in any case there must be a courtyard for walks, the cell content for this active bird is unacceptable.
These birds just need room, so when buying a livestock of birds, they calculate the size of the room as follows: each 20 heads must be given an area of 10 square meters. m, the height of the walls varies from 170 cm to 190 cm.
The floor in the chicken coop is sprinkled with sand, wood shavings, sawdust or peat.
The room should not stagnate, therefore, provide ventilation in it. To do this, it is enough to equip the shed with a window leaf or a hole that is closed with a dense mesh so that rodents do not penetrate inside (it is better if the window is located from the south), but there should not be a draft in the room. It is necessary for chickens to provide free access to the street.
In the barn, perch rods are installed, which are 1 meter from the floor and opposite the exit. There are no perches near the windows, as hens can catch a cold. Feeders (they should be separate for dry and wet food) and drinkers are well fixed to the walls so that birds can not turn them over. Drinking bowls are placed at a small height from the floor to prevent debris from entering them.
Equip the nests - in size they must match the size of the hen, for 2-3 females one nesting place is enough. They are filled 1/3 with hay and placed 80 cm from the floor.
To hens get rid of parasites, bathing bathtubs are installed on the floor, where ash or sand is poured.
Although chickens can withstand winter frosts down to -20 ° C, this does not mean that the shed should not be heated. In winter, the indoor temperature must not drop below 0 ° C. In summer, do not allow the temperature to rise above +28 ° C. To cool the air, some houses use wet sheets that are hung on the walls of the chicken coop. Rhodonites do not tolerate heat and cold, they quickly lose weight and stop rushing.
Caring for them is easy and does not require any special skills. To reduce the risk of developing the disease, the room is well ventilated and “cleaned” 3 times a year, which includes the treatment of the barn. Once a year, the walls of the room are bleached with lime, this will help to avoid the appearance of parasites. In the summer, while the hens are walking, they process the empty house with special checkers with antiseptic properties.
How to make a chicken coop with your own hands is described in this article.
Yard for walking
The yard for walking is surrounded by a high fence - a net, since chickens can easily take a height of one and a half meters and fly over. For normal life, they need to communicate not only with their relatives and birds of other breeds, as well as daily walks in the fresh air.
When properly maintained, chickens regularly carry and feel satisfactory. If their productivity decreases or they begin to hurt, then care and maintenance rules should be reviewed.
What to feed?
Since rhodonite is an egg cross, balanced feeding is necessary for laying hens. Only when they receive proper nutrition will they rush well and bring eggs rich in nutrients.
Be sure to introduce foods rich in calcium so that the shell is strong - this is chalk, ground shells and shells, limestone. Daily supply chickens with fresh herbs and grass, in winter - dried nettles, vegetables. The basis of the diet is cereals - wheat, oats, corn. In the mixers add broth on fish or meat to replenish the proteins in the body of rhodonites.
And they also get ready-made compound feeds, they already have a balanced composition by minerals and nutrients.
Feed the bird 2 times a day. Serving size should be such that the chickens ate everything in half an hour. If after this time the food remains in the feeders, then it is worth reducing the amount of servings, since overeating has a bad effect on the health and egg production of the hens. If the birds had time to eat everything faster than they ran out for 30 minutes, then there is not enough food for everyone, it is necessary to add it.
Necessarily the presence of clean drinking water, it should always be in drinking bowls. Change it every day, if the heat is established, then do it more often.
Experienced poultry farmers recommend once a week to drink rhodonite with a decoction of medicinal plants - pharmacy chamomile, calendula, or a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate.
For normal operation of the stomach and intestines, small stones or gravel are poured onto the birds. More information on the proper feeding of laying hens can be found here.
Breeding
As mentioned above, the laying instinct is completely absent in layers. They are bred by the incubation method or lay eggs under other hens.
Fertilization of eggs is 97%, so it’s a sin to complain about males. To get high-quality eggs for incubation, 4 chickens must have 1 rooster. If there are not enough roosters, then in order to increase the fertilization of the eggs, a separate “family” is laid - 1 rooster and 4 females, and eggs are collected from them for a week, which are then used for breeding.
But when breeding, remember that this is a cross, which means that you cannot get high-quality young animals from its eggs with the same characteristics as their parents had. When hatching, the chickens will be weaker and significantly worse in egg production.
Read more about incubating chicken eggs at home here.
Diseases and preventive measures
Rhodonites are hardy chickens that have good immunity to various diseases. If the maintenance and care of the bird is correct, then they are extremely ill.
To prevent infection with parasites - ticks and other insects, weekly inspect all livestock for their presence. If parasites are found, the infected parts of the body are treated with special insecticides. For prevention, do not forget to put containers with ash.
Timely processing of the walls and wooden components in the room by whitewashing and weekly cleaning will also help to avoid the development of infections.
Young growth is at greater risk, although in adults, the immune system may fail. Sick poultry should be immediately isolated and the cause of ill health clarified.
The most common diseases of this cross include:
- Gastroenteritis is an intestinal upset with its accompanying symptoms. A factor in its development is the use of poor-quality or stale food by birds.
- If the bird is sluggish, walks with wings down, eyes closed, refuses food and often breathes, then perhaps it is sick with pullorosis, which often ends in death. Chickens younger than 2 weeks old are more likely to be affected.
- Swelling under the eyes and strange sounds and screams emitted by a bird can signal the development of mycoplasmosis. Disease negatively affects laying eggs of laying hens.
- Watery stools, vomiting, exhaustion, fatigue can be symptoms of infection with parasites, both internal - helminths, and external - ticks, bugs and fleas.
- Yellow feces and mucus discharge from the nose with mucus indicate pasteurellosis. More often young animals are sick no older than 3 months. For treatment, antibiotics are used, which are prescribed by the veterinarian.
- Salmonellosis is manifested by nasal discharge, muscle weakness and drowsiness. The bird is hard to breathe. This is one of the most common diseases transmitted from a bird to a person through eggs and meat.
- Sharp weight loss, pallor of the crest, shriveled earrings speaks of tuberculosis. When the diagnosis is established, the bird is slaughtered and disposed of.
- A bird with frequent diarrhea, in which there is mucus with an admixture of blood, may be sick with coccidiosis. In the absence of proper treatment, a young bird dies on 3-5 days of illness.
- Chickens can also get bronchitis. They stop rushing, coughing, wheezing, panting, which is why they constantly open their beak. They show apathy, look drowsy. Often, against the background of bronchitis, rhinitis and conjunctivitis develop.
Growing chickens
In terms of raising chickens, everything is simple, you only need to adhere to the basic rules:
- The viability of the newly hatched chickens is high, therefore, almost always the entire brood survives until adulthood. From the incubator that has just been born, the chicken is immediately transplanted into a heated box or brooder. For heating it is better to use an infrared lamp, but if the brood is small, then use blue.
- The bottom of the brooder is covered with sawdust, and the bottom of the box is covered with white cotton cloth.
- To the dried up “newborn” chickens they are first given a finely chopped hard-boiled egg. As soon as all the chicks have eaten, the remnants of the egg are immediately cleaned to prevent food damage.
Next, wheat grits are introduced. The container with it can be left in a room with chickens and pour as needed. A day later, a variety is added to the menu - cottage cheese mixed with fresh nettle (finely chopped) or garden herbs, for example, green onions. Ten-day-old young animals are fed with protein-rich food - fish and meat.
- In the first days of life, chickens are watered with a very weak solution of potassium permanganate, which is changed several times a day.
- They begin to take out for walking from two weeks of age, if the street is warm and dry. At first, the walk should not take more than 2 hours. For the whole day they can be left from 1 month in good weather.
Where to buy and what prices?
Some private traders sell rhodonites from the photo. It is better to refuse such a purchase, since this bird is similar in appearance to many crosses of the egg direction, but in terms of egg production the latter are much inferior to them. Usually for this bird they give out red hens of other breeds or one-year-old Loman Brown. Therefore, experts recommend acquiring livestock in large farms that specialize in this cross-country. Preference should be given to young growth.
The price for one individual varies from 350-450 rubles, chickens that cost only 24 hours are cheaper - 30 rubles per head.
Reviews
Among farmers, only positive reviews can be heard about rhodonite cross, but there are also dissatisfied farmers. Here are a few reviews:
Semen Evstratyev, 53 years old, Nizhny Novgorod region. “I bought Rodonitov from a large manufacturer with a guarantee, since all industrial cross-countries are on one person. I don’t want to spend money on any breed. I have been having these chickens for the third year now, rushing well and, most interestingly, even in winter. True, they already managed to upset me that soon the number of eggs would decrease several times, since laying layers for this became old. Well, without hesitation, I will go again for the same hens. "
Tatyana Porozhnyakova, 45 years old, Saratov region. “I bought rhodonites for eggs. This cross acquaintance praised me. Indeed, there are no complaints about laying eggs. But with reproduction, it’s just trouble. The hens themselves do not sit on the eggs, I lay their eggs under other hens. Chickens are obtained with different colors, although I read that the males are light and the hens are dark, but I also have those that do not fit into any category. I don’t know, maybe she herself overlooked the other males or the parental qualities did not pass by inheritance. ”
Ivan Egorov, 67 years old, Moscow region. “The laying hens are well done, rushing to themselves and nothing to them at all. In the winter they rushed when others swam. Of course, they feed more than my outbred feeds, but here there are no complaints about them, both they worked and ate. But the cockerels let us down. Their meat is tough, so they are not suitable for frying only in the soup or in the broth, there is nothing at all to eat. ”
Hide
Add your review
Cross rhodonite is unpretentious chickens that are characterized by high egg production and resistance to climatic conditions. But the quality of meat in this cross does not cause rave reviews, but it also refers to the "egg". Rhodonites are perfect for those who are directly involved in the industrial production of eggs, but they have proven themselves well in private conditions.