The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Robert Blosl]

Brian Thanks for posting the pictures. This will help some of you see the color on these birds. This strain came from Greg Chamness of Illinois. The quesiton I want to ask you readers is do you know anyone who got chicks from Greg this spring.???

I need to try more than just two familys who has this line. We have a start from Flordia of the souther strain of mine. Two males and two females. I hope to get one more male and two pullets this January from Brain in Flordia. My goal is to send some started chicks from Florida to Brian in Kansas who posted these pictures and then this will give him a shot of new blood which he can breed back to the females. If I can get one nice ckl from Fla then mate them to the two or three females in Kansas then take the best male from that hatch and breed that back to the three females again this will bring the cross more to the northern birds. Brian do you see my thinking?

It will take about three years of crossing and breeding back to the family but in three years each strain from Kansas and from Alabama will have a fresh shot of blood which is still pure E W Reese Jr. from Georgia and then we should be off to the races for ten years. We could then in ten or fiveteen years cross another bird a killer back to the strain for fresh blood if we want to.

For you who are not clear about this strain it goes back to 1912.

Mrs Donald Donaldson from Decatur Georgia got 25 chicks from Owen Farms to get started. She breed these bird very well then in 1929 she bought a male from Maurice Wallace of Canada named Moahawk V for $150. that was a lot of money back in those days. She breed these birds with a cross of a killer best of the year ckl from Harold Thompkins of Mass in 1954. She started Mr. Reese out with Reds in the 1960s and she died in 1967 and he and a friend Buddy Day got all her birds. I got into this 22 years ago with three males and three females. One looks like the female in picture number seven a pullet. I got a six year old hen and she was the foundation of my line and by pushing high egg production and fast feathering I got a great strain in about ten years.

Greg Chamness got chicks from me 12 years ago and bought some birds from a man in Kentucky who got out that I sent him chicks to about the same time.

Then I sent two killer ckls to a junior in Texas and after he got tired of winning throphys and went to looking at girls the parents sold the two ckls to Greg.

Greg then crossed them onto the oldest hens he had which where up to eight years old.

He hit the jackpot with some great females he told.

The strain will be 100 years old next year I dont know of any out cross of these birds with some other strain which will blow up in your face if you make such a cross. Crossing R I Reds is the biggest mistake beginners make and in five years they are out of Reds.


If you find a great gene pool from a master breeder of any strain of chickens ride his boat of success and try to learn how to breed this strain. Most beginner will not do this and they allways fail.

Only one out of 500 ever make it as a master breeder and its my hopes that I will get one or two from this web site. I have some great future breeders who I keep up with and if all my efforts work out you will be the future of this hobby.

You got to get you a standard of perfection and read it and study your breed till you are blue in the face. You can not build a house with out a good blue print. You can not keep a line of chickens going unless you under stand what your goal is in your minds eye.

That is why so few people have the colors of chickens you all ask me that you want me to locate for you. Its so hard to do and maybe only 50 to 100 bird are alive that are worthy of the breed or color in the USA.

Well I am so happy the wheat farmers in Kansas have my old reds. They have to breed them up in numbers but one day they can share their birds with you.

I will be there helping them and maybe I will have a few down here in the south to share as well.

Thanks Brian for making my week. Its nice to see birds like I use to have ten years ago.

Thanks also goes to Greg Chamness for keeping my line going in Illinois and for Paul for sharing these eggs with Brian and his wife.

bob

 

[MobyQuail]

 

[thunderwagn]

Brian, your birds look great.

 

[thunderwagn]

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[mississippifarmboy]

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Wow!
Just wow...

 

[NYREDS]

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In the 5th picture you can see it most clearly. Look at the wide, smooth, well rounded feathers on the back of that female in front. That's the feather quality I always reference. It's vitally important that you maintain that & don't breed from females that don't have it. That feather quality is linked to sevceral other important factors & if you breed from females that don't have it you can, no will, unravel years of good breeding.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

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Thank you Bob for all you have shared here.

You have been a HUGE help to those of us trying to learn more.

Thank you.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

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Thank you. That is the kind of information that helps those of us trying to learn. With a picture and your description it makes a lot more sense now, although I've heard it mentioned lots of times before.

What other factors are linked to this type feathering?

 

[Robert Blosl]

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w286/thunderwagn/IMG_20110727_133354.jpg

Hen with good feather quality.

Tim Bolwes male unknow blood lines.

last ckl raised (age five months) brother to male sent to junior then bought by Greg Chamness five years ago.

Wow what a bunch of pictures to study in one week. After seeing the two males and two females from Florida last Saturday sure is getting my blood boiling towards large fowl reds. I am getting emails and personnel messages where can I get some of these Reds. My answer is its going to take time. It’s like starting up a new chain of eating shops like Burger Kings You cannot open up a hundred per year. In getting people into this kind of large fowl will take two to three years.

Next Bill you hit the jackpot on feather quality of the female from Colorado(picture one) she is a hen one of two hatched from a dozen eggs and two ckls last year. I saw their pictures from last year. The hen from Kansas in picture number two is a look alike to the six year old hen I got 22 years ago which was six years old at the time I found her.

If I could send some large fowl boxes to thunder wagon in Colorado and Bryan in Kansas I would like to mate the ckl in picture (number three) to her. He is a typical type male I raised years ago. I also, like the old hen that Bill liked and mated back to the male in number three picture. Then from these mating you could start out with two families.

Feather quality in this strain is feed by one trait. It’s found in the brooder box. You study your baby chicks and look for them to shoot wing feathers and tail feathers out the fastest. If you have eight chicks say in a brooder box two of them may shoot their tail feathers out first maybe in ten days. The other chicks may take fourteen to sixteen days or more. They may turn out to be as good as the faster feathering birds but they will have more of a stringy type of feather and not hold the trait of the fast feathering gene which I got out of the six year old hen. So you breed from the chicks that shoot thier tail feathers out in ten days this is the fast feathering genes or what I call the egg laying gene.

Next I have a picture of a male that Tim Bowles showed about three years ago (third picture) which I hope you will see some look a like in the Hortsman chicks. If you see a male something like this guy keep him in a safe place. This is a killer.

Next (the last picture)I have a picture of a young ckl about five months old that was the brother to the ckls I sent the four H junior in Texas that ended up as a five year old at Greg Chamness home about five years ago and then mated to his old hens. These birds that you both have has his blood and style running through their veins. So if you see a guy that has a frame like this when they are young put him in a save place. I cannot think that somehow Tim Bowles never bought one of my large fowl reds that went to Ohio. There were many I shipped up there in 15 years and you just don’t take a pipe and hit these birds in the head when you are done with them. Someone will end up buying them and they are going to go to someone who has a eye for good birds like Tim.
Well I hope you two can swap birds or eggs and keep the Mohawk line pure.
Thunder wagon did you hatch any chicks out of the two pairs the Mohawks? Or only the Hortsman Mohawk cross is what you got? bob

 

[thunderwagn]

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