The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Robert Blosl]

After two days of thinking of how I would start a new thread I came up with this title the Official Heritage Rhode Island Red Site.

This site is going to be different than any thread ever put on this web site under the name of Rhode Island Reds. This site will start off with a picture of a simbel that many of you have never seen. It is in a small city in Rhode Island and it is a simbel of our beloved Heritage Rhode Island Reds from the mid 1920s called the RHode Island Red Monument. The Rhode Island Red that was farmed and started in Rhode Island and is the State bird of Rhode Island. At one time when this monument was first built and placed on this site there were 5000 Rhode Island Red Club members and over 45,000 subscribers to the Rhode Island Red Journal which was the newsletter of the Rhode Island Red and the Rhode Island Red Club of America. Now how many Rhode Island Reds where alive in this time period maybe a half a million.

Today the Rhode Island Red large fowl with the single comb is a very rare breed of poultry. Maybe during the months of January and February you might be able to count 200 adult birds and during the summer months maybe there will be a thousand in the USA. That is very rare.

The Rose Comb Rhode Island Red which is the same bird for type and color as the Singe Comb may have only about 50 during the winter months. They are not all gone but so scarce.

These Rhode Island Reds which I am talking about are not the kind you buy in a feed store or order from most common Hatchery Catalogs. These are called Production Reds. They are not breed to the Standard of Perfection and if they were entered in a poultry show a judge would have to disqualify most of the birds entered. Many call them Rhode Island Reds but they are far from the breed that was invented in the 1850s and that where once the number one popular breed in the country if not the world.

So with that said, I will try to steer this thread on the old fashion dark dark feathered Rhode Island Red that has a brick shape which is unique to the breed. If you come on here and post a picture of your production reds that is ok, but those who will learn what they really look like will refresh their minds in what I am trying to demonstrate and teach to you. I am not going to try to convert you from production reds to the Heritage Rhode Island Reds. However, there is about 1% out there who want the real true to breed Standard Rhode Island Reds.

In this thread we will try to help you get started with them if you really want to breed them and then try to teach you how to breed these rare birds for color and breed type. It’s not that hard to do. There is just laws in breeding you have to follow and if you do what has been passed down by our old timers the masters you in time will reach success.

I will now post a few pictures of some of my favorite pictures I have been sent this year and then as this thread develops I will get you in touch with the few master breeders to try to help you locate them and get started this fall. If you have the old fashion dark brick shaped Rhode Island Reds please post your pictures for us or tell us stories of someone you may have know who once had this old time breed. We had such success with the Heritage Large Fowl Site I thought I would try to introduce you to the Real Rhode Island Reds that a few of us have breed over the last twenty years. Bob

 

[immyjay54]

Hey there everyone,
I have been working on this for a few days and I think I have it done well enough to let you all see what I've come up with. Any/all of you that have enjoyed Bob's site can go here and enjoy it ( IF ) his site is taken down. It isn't exactly as his but I did my best to try and help us all out if we need it. Please don't think that I am trying to fill his shoes, I could never do that but he and I had become pretty close through emails/PM's and he was always commenting to me how much he liked the way I have so much information on my site and the he felt that there was a lot of information on there that would help the new folks getting into the reds. With all this said, I thought that the least I could do was to set something up with the information that he thought was information to help folks.
Please, let me know what you all think.
Jim

http://tributetobobblosl.weebly.com/

 

[stevin]

i truely love my Heritage RIR's....
i have a young flock that are just turning 6 months old & molting.
here are a couple of pics from about a 2-3 weeks ago
i can't wait for them to completely feather out, i believe my rooster will eventually turn into a really handsome guy.
i really hope i made the right decision picking him out of the bunch.

 

[FOGELLY]

Sometimes when people are passionate about something it does well to have enough discernment to know when to hold ones thoughts to themselves.

Ron

 

[immyjay54]

"Thanks for the memories Bob."

One month ago today we lost our dear friend and mentor to many. I don't think there has been a day go by this past month that I haven't thought of him. Just ;yesterday I was out looking at the big red boy that he remarked about calling him High Stepper. Don't mean to bring up any sorrowful feelings but just wanted you all to know how much he is surely missed at my home. My my my how quickly things can change.
Sorry if I made any of you feel bad with this post. It is just that I've never had anything hit me like this has. I think it was just the terrible shock. I don't think I will ever forget that phone call from sgribble.
Jim
It's a beautiful day in Pa. today. Sun shining, hens singing and roo's crowing. Had a good breakfast, looking forward to a good lunch. What more could a fella want. lol

 

[immyjay54]

As I was trudging through the snow and cold wind this morning to take care of the chickens, I heard a strange faint noise coming from the building where my Resse birds are that I got from Matt1616. The closer I got the more noise I heard. I sit down my bucket of hot water and opened the door and oh my goodness, what a site for sore eyes. The birds were all up on the perch except one of the boys I guess he was the leader. They were singing Sweet Home Alabama. ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha. I guess they are really getting sick of this weather and wishing they were back where they came from. Oh my goodness, please forgive me Lord for this little lie but I thought that may lift some spirits. LOL
Jimmy

 

[Fred's Hens]

Good Friday afternoon to everyone.

Thought I'd share a bit about the concept of perhaps taking far less than perfect birds and "breeding them up" to be of the quality one sees in the various top lines often discussed here on this thread over the past 4 or 5 years.

Whenever someone says that is what they intend to do, or discuss such a possibility of starting with so so bird or even outright inferior birds and "breeding them up", a lot of the old timers would shake their heads and say, "Don't bother" or "Don't do it". "Better to start with the very highest quality birds you can from square one."

Why? I can tell you my experience. Almost 7 years ago, I picked up some birds supposedly gotten from Mr. Kittle in western Pennsylvania. Mr Kittle has worked with Reds since coming home from WW II and has always run an ad in the APA YearBook using his slogan "Bred to Standard, Bred to Lay". I can assure you the emphasis was upon the latter. Laying. Great egg laying, in fact.

Having striven to "breed them up" to a more competitive group of birds for show or even to better reflect the Standard as it is understood today has proven the old timers view of "breeding up" to be very realistic. Generation after generation and the progress made has been incremental and sloooooow. I still like the line for it's egg laying, but trying to tease out the genes necessary for size, station, long bodies, low and protruding keels, good heads/combs, wide tails and properly marked black, proper tail feathers and overall richness to the color? Painful is a word I'd choose. Taxing would another good word.

So, next time someone says that they'd like to get started with far less than stellar Reds and breed them up so they'd be respectable against the better lines commonly referred to here as Nelson, Flannagan, Rademacher, Reese, Bates, Myers, etc?? Ask them this question. How long do you wish to spend doing this? 5 years? 7 years? And what if after having spent 7 years trying the results are far less than satisfactory?

So for all those just starting out with true bred Rhode Island Reds I'd just repeat the time worn refrain. Do yourself a huge favor and start with a dozen really great birds from a consistent, established breeder of really good birds. Even with a really great start, the challenges involved will be plenty enough. So, do what you wish with the above information. It's just my perspective anyhow.

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

[FOGELLY]

Hey Ron,
Don't you just love it when you can do something for someone that makes them so happy. Sort of made me get happy feet also. ha,ha,ha. That's how I was when I got my first ones BUT, I'm still that way when I get chicks in or hatch my own. lol You're a good guy for helping this person out. Keep up the good work.
Jim

Are you Serious? I do it for the money!

Just kidding.
Yes Jim it does feel good. I have not forgot how hard it was to find a good line to get started with.
To make people's day is worth it.

Thanks
Ron

 

[fowlman01]

Maybe there should be an advanced breeding theory thread for each breed. It's like when I got my first car, a VW bug. Loved that thing. Didn't have a clue how to work on it, just washed and waxed it incessantly. Didn't stop me from going to car shows and bugging racers with nitro tanks, or whatever. Subscribed to VW magazine, too. Like I was gonna be able to trick out my car like that. But it helped me take good care of my car, to the best of my ability. Talking theory is GOOD! Constant disclaimer of "ok, ok, I won't actually TRY that until I know what I'm doing" I think I am good at attaching! But, if there's a fear of contaminating newbie thought, a separate advanced thread would be fabulous. I'd listen, and pester, and try to sort it all out. That's how I show MY *Passion*!

The car people i hang out with would send you home crying if you asked the kind of questions of them that you ask here, the V dub folks must be much more laid back than other car folks.
No serious breeder wants to hear about someone crapping up their breed on purpose, plenty of people do that by accident. It would be more appropriate for you to ask about crossing birds in one of the the many X breed threads here on byc.

Protecting a breed is not just a RIR breeders trait, it is what real breeders do.

Walt

 

[sgribble]

This would be a good time for the saying "That's why God gave you two ears and one mouth,because you should listen twice as much
as you should talk".