The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[NYREDS]

Quote:
It woulds appear that size & type are ok. I do see 2 problems: first is leg colour & that may just your camera or my monitoe but he legs look white. The bigger problem is one of feather quality. The females feathers over their back & saddle appear narrow & stringy. This is a big problem in Reds. These feathers should be wide, well rounded & overlapping. The condition of stringy feathers in this area seems to be linked to a variety of other problems & it;s very difficult to breed out.

 

[NancyP]

Thanks for taking the time to critique my birds. The leg color is yellow it just doesn't show well in the picture. Here is another picture to hopefully show the feathers better. I had never heard of stringy before. This is very interesting.

 

[6chicks&aduck]

Did the rose comb variety show up naturally in this breed ??? I have some BLRW'S that turned out single comb

 

[Chris09]

6chicks&aduck :

Did the rose comb variety show up naturally in this breed ??? I have some BLRW'S that turned out single comb

Did the rose comb variety show up naturally in this breed

No, it was bred into them.

Chris​

 

[Robert Blosl]

You are bidding on 40 Rhode Island Red hatching eggs.

Antibiotic Free!

Free Hatching Service!

Our Rhode Island Reds are the true dark, mahogany color. The males have beautiful greenish black tail feathers. When hatched, the baby chicks are a rusty red color. Rhode Island Reds are the most popular “Dual Purpose” breed, well known as the best non hybrid brown egg layer. The hen’s production is rated at @ 250 eggs per year by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. They are a heavy breed. At maturity, the hens will weigh approximately 6.5 pounds and the roosters will weigh between 8 and 9 pounds. The roosters are raised on our farm for their fine meat qualities. They are calm, yet strong foragers and are easily managed. They make great pets and enjoy human contact. If you are looking for chickens that will provide you with lots of brown eggs and good eating too, you cannot go wrong with our Rhode Island Reds.

Antibiotic Free!

Antibiotic Free Chicks and Hatching Eggs! Start your flock with a strong, natural immune system! Our breeding stock has never been exposed to antibiotics of any kind. You can purchase our chicks and hatching eggs with confidence that your baby chicks will have the best start in life and will be able to defend themselves naturally against diseases throughout their entire lives. Other Ebay egg Sellers may claim that they do not use antibiotics; we have built our entire business on this principle. Our breeding stock has been antibiotic free for five generations!

We are a small hatchery that can accommodate many of your requests. The eggs we ship you are the same eggs that we use in our large incubators. The eggs are very fertile! Your eggs will be shipped the same day they are laid (VERY FRESH). We ship our eggs on Monday/Tuesday to insure you receive them no later than Friday. Please pay for your eggs as soon as possible or your shipment might be delayed.

We hatch thousands of the Rhode Island Reds each year; unfortunately we cannot guarantee your hatch rate. Too many variables that we cannot control. We will prepare your eggs carefully for shipment but we cannot guarantee the condition of your eggs after they leave our farm. If you need advice, we will be happy to answer your questions after you receive the eggs.

This is another good example of the difference of the so called heritage rhode island red movement going on the internet right now. I line breed my dark rhode island reds to lay and mature early and I could not get more than 200 eggs per year which no one most likely will ever do in the next 50 years. I hope you do well with the Ramey eggs. I would like to see pictures of them this fall so we can compair shape and color. I think with some work on color this will be a great strain with good feather quality.

To get feather quality you got to improve your egg production and rate of feathering in the brooder box. Just go to the feed store and buy you five production red pullets. Put them in the same box with your dark true to breed Rhode Island Red chicks. Look and watch the feathers coming out of thier tails and thier wings. You will see the production reds will shoot their tail feathers out in about 7 days. The dark reds will take 15 to 20 days or more. The longer they take to shoot out their tail feathers and wing feather growth the slower they will mature and start to lay. The ones that feather faster will start laying sooner. Then you select the chicks the next year out of these chicks males as well as pullets and then you keep doing this for say four years. By then the stringy feathers the narrow feathers will start to go away you will see more vigor chicks will hatch out of their egg faster and you will see the fluff on the bottom of the females start to go away and you will see higher fertility.
I did this with my white Plymouth rocks and got the nice fluffy white feathers to get more tight and improved my poor fertility problems I started with. By using this method I went from 20 % hatch to 75% hatches in just four years. My birds had better type and improved the fronts or the keel area on my males which most large fowl white rocks have problems with.

Most large fowl breeders who are breeding for looks are not using this method I have explained. They are looking for a nice pretty chicken to win with at shows. If you want to help keep some of these rare breeds you are going to have to learn to breed more than just what the standard states but push the laying needs for your strain. Breeding for shape, vigor, fast hatching in the hatcher is paramount in a five year plan. If you are not untested in doing this you be better off just getting eggs shipped from Ideal Hatchery every year or two and go that route. Many who try this will fail in just three years. It is to much work and they want fast results or will go into another area as a hobby or cant afford to keep chickens anymore. I have had two people write me this year telling me they are selling their heritage breeds and they are only three years into this hobby and where good at what they where doing. Many need to switch to bantams as they are so much less expensive to raise and if you get two eggs they are about equal to one large fowl egg. They take less space and can give you the same joy as large fowl. BOB

 

[X2Farm]

Quote:
Bob, THANK YOU for this tidbit. It couldn't have come at a better time, as I've been having some serious thoughts on feather quality in my birds, not just the few in the Prod Red/RIR project I'm working on, but all the breeds I have. Some have decent feathers, others have brittle fine feathering. This helps a TON and I can't wait to put this into practice with my flocks.

 

[Chetw]

Hi, Like to have the Mohawk Rhode Island Red Bantam Chickens, any for sale? would like a trio or eggs so I can get started.
Looking for them in central FL. Chet.

 

[Robert Blosl]

send me a personel message I have eggs latter in the month or so. bob

 

[Buckeyes-R-Us]

Quote:
Another GREAT thread, Bob.....Makes me want to get back into breeding Heritage RIR's!!!

 

[D&S Farms]

heres my roo