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Rhode Island Red

Rhode Island Reds are one of the most popular and oldest known breeds of chicken and was developed mainly in Rhode Island and Massachusetts in the mid 1840's.
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General Information

Breed Purpose
Dual Purpose
Comb
Single
Broodiness
Seldom
Climate Tolerance
Cold
Egg Productivity
High
Egg Size
Large
Egg Color
Brown
Breed Temperament
Friendly, Easily handled, Calm,
Breed Colors/Varieties
The Rhode Island Red is only recognised in Red.
Breed Size
Large Fowl
APA/ABA Class
American
Color
Red or white
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Most often when one thinks of Rhode Island Red they are thinking of the Large Fowl Rhode Island Red, as it is one of the oldest known breeds of chicken and was developed mainly in Rhode Island and Massachusetts in the mid 1840's. The first birds were bred in Little Compton, RI with the use of a Black Breasted Red Malay cock who was imported from England. This Rooster can actually still be seen on display in the Smithsonian Institution as the father of the breed.

The breed was accepted into the American Poultry Association in 1904.

The breed was developed to withstand the harsh New England winters and be a very hardy bird who produced hens with excellent large egg yields and who also would dress out well and look nice on the table, a true dual purpose bird. While the names and places of origin are the same, the Rhode Island White is actually a distinct breed separate from the Rhode Island Red per the American Poultry Association and will be featured in another Breed Focus thread.

The Rhode Island Red breed comes in both large fowl and bantam size and and single as well as rose comb varieties can be found readily.

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Rhode Island Red eggs

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Rhode Island Red chicks

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Rhode Island Red rooster

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Rhode Island Red juvenile

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Rhode Island Red hen

For more info on Rhode Island Reds and their owners' and breeders' experiences with them, see our breed discussion here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-breed-focus-rhode-island-red.1021447/
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Latest reviews

Fluffy_Moth_With_Silkies
Pros: Great for eggs and meat
Stereotypical roos
Very pretty
Not very broody
Cons: Males are kind of aggressive
Great birds! The roos are very pretty and the hens are very sweet.
These are the birds you think of when you think of a rooster.
Great review, love it, good job!
Addicted To Chickens
Pros: Friendly
Easy to hold
Good laying production
Cons: Scaredy
RIRs are a very good laying breed and I would highly recommend them for eggs. They can also be mean to the other chickens.
Mary Poopins Love
Pros: Good layers

Friendly ( most times )
Cons: Can be VERY agressive

Broody often
I have four RIR hens. they are good layers most times, however they go broody often in my flock. Three of my four hens are friendly and social, but nugget, the mean one acted very agressivly to me and is a bully to Mary Poopins and fuzzy.
Purchase Price
Free ( from neighbors )
Purchase Date
2022
Read more…

Comments

hellbender
Assuming you have children? Over-handling can drive just about any animal NUTS !!

We raise Florida White rabbits and when he was just a very young fella, my son really loved the babies and adults. He would sneak in to the rabbit house and pet them without mercy. They soon learned to despise him and wanted no one to touch then and I recognized the problem.

The same can happen with chickens...I'm certain.
 
Bweis13
Mine definitely weren't over handled by children. They just came into a flock where they were the biggest ones and started picking on the little ones and my one-legged chicken. They would have pecked them to death if I hadn't re-homed them. They all grew up together and were fine with one another, but they were just nasty to my less aggressive ones. I think if they had been introduced into the flock as younger chickens it would have been ok.
 
kglazier
I have 2 RIRs. They are my best layers and most trusting/tame. I was eating a sandwich in the yard last weekend and they conspired to steal it. one walked up to me. while I was petting her the other one grabbed the sandwich from my other hand. They ran off together with it and ate it. PBJ ....who knew they like that. at least it was whole grain bread.
 
ScottyChic
We have 2 Pure Rhode Island Red Hens and they are lovely to look at, reasonably friendly but for some reason they are quite scared of our other hens. I don't quite understand it because they are a fair bit bigger than the others.
We had a wonderful cockerel who died recently. Mr Brown was his name. He was a handsome boy and extremely good natured overall. Although on 2 occasions he crept up behind my husband, then jumped up and tried to spear him on the legs.
He never tried this trick on me although there were a few occasions where he certainly was 'sussing' me out.
Don't even think about it - was my reply to him, he backed off.
I had to laugh in the mornings when I let them all out, he would come out the henhouse at a 100 miles per hour and one would nearly get knocked over in the rush.
I do miss him but we are purchasing some new hens and a cockerel on Saturday - so look forward to this very much. These ones will not be Rhode Islands though - they will be Barnevelder. A breed that I know zero about. Husbands choice as I have my own Pekin Bantams which I treasure.
 
hellbender
Honestly, If my cock birds weren't 'cocky' or even aggressive, I'd have little use for them. That aggression is a sign of virility ...high testosterone levels. Most people don't need cocks and would be better served to eliminate them quickly...either eat, sell, kill or give away.

I caponize most of my cockerels at 4 or 5 weeks and still fine plenty of good brood cocks because I breed for them.

Expecting a 'sissy' cock bird to be a good brood bird (if you need one) is like expecting a steer to be a herd sire in a cattle operation.
 
Dawna
I purchased 5 pullets this spring. I have one and she seemed to be the best layer of any I have. I like their large eggs. I try to handle them every day so they aren't so wild. All my chickens free range, but come back into a safe coop at night. Of the 5 new ones, 3 look to be dark brownish red with a light color on end of feathers on their wings. One is solid dark brownish red. Then one is lighter brownish red with some black striping on wing feathers. It will be interesting to see how they all turn out.
 
hellbender
It can be very difficult if not impossible to introduce even two gentle breeds or individual birds after they have gotten to a certain age...I've done it but it's not fun and unless it's something you absolutely must do, best not to even attempt it. As a breeder, I've had to make some things 'work' but for the average backyard flock owner, it's just not worth the time and effort.
 
Bweis13
@hellbender Do you have any ideas how/when to introduce chicks to a flock of three full grown Japanese Bantams? Also, when would you introduce chicks to each other? I've got three Welsummers on order for mid April, but I have to order more from another breeder in order to get the amount I want , and I'm not sure when the hatch is yet. Thanks in advance for any advice you have!
 
Susanv47
My new lil reds are the friendliest of the four varieties so far.Can't tell which are hens and which are cockerals yet though. Thank you for the info. What are the bands for?
 
Sylvester017
From hit and miss flock mixing I wish I had heeded advice not to mix bantams with LF. Well, after re-homing some aggressive LF we were down to 2 Silkies, 1 Buff Leghorn (calmer than White or Brown Legs) and 1 Blue Wheaten Ameraucana. I don't keep any LF over 5-lb around the bantams and choose gentler calmer temperaments.

What I and my egg-seller friend came to realize after 3 years is that dual-purpose should not be mixed with egg-laying breeds. Dual purpose are larger birds and tempted to bully gentler and smaller egg layers. Egg layers don't need stress so don't mix them with dual purpose like RIRs, BRs, Buff Orps, 'Lorps, NHRs, etc. etc. Our experience is that dual purpose pullets don't get really aggressive until they are 1.5-2 years old so they may be sweet as pullets and then get really aggressive toward smaller or gentle flockmates later.

Dual purpose birds eat a lot in spite of foraging and some can be lazy foragers so aren't any help on the feed bill. Most dual purpose birds don't give back as much eggs as egg layer breeds so we've chosen to go with egg layers for lighter feed bill costs and more eggs. And who says you can't use an egg layer breed for meat? My egg seller friend processes the extra EE cockerels and they're as big as her Cornish X project birds.
 
patmick
We had one pretty but mean rooster (named Mabel because they assured us she was a girl-NOT) We had to get rid of it. He pecked the hens and was aggressive when he mated. He drew blood and snatched them bald headed. My female is a good layer. She is very grabby for food and if another hen beats her to a treat she will go after them and peck them. She is a good chicken but I probably would not choose RIR again.
 
hellbender
patmick, if this weren't so ludicrous, it would be funny~ lolol We're talking about poultry. Cocks that are aggressive are generally the more potent and if you don't have several hens for him, it is very poor husbandry to keep a cock with two or three hens full time. Certainly, if he's a normal cock bird, he's going to run a couple or three hens ragged.

People need to start some place and that's a given but NO one should get cocks in their first batch of birds. They can only wind up abused or killed...hopefully dressed out and eaten.

A couple good rule for folks new to chickens....start very small with ONE breed that you really like. Don't try to buy 10 different breeds in order to have a colorful flock. That is the recipe for disaster. The cocks will do what cocks do, naturally and the weaker breeds will get their butts kicked and and the dominant breed suffers and is blamed when in fact, the buyer hasn't done their homework!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
patmick
Comments noted. We specifically asked for all females. We now have one rooster to 6 hens and they are doing well. The rooster is a Barred Rock. You are right I was a novice and my flock has had to pay for my education. Glad you love your chickens they are well cared for by someone who is passionate for them.
 
hellbender
Well, thank you patmick, for taking the wind out of my sails. lol I love chickens, period. As often as novices make mistakes, there's someone there, ready to take advantage of them instead of helping and putting them on the right track.

There's no doubt in my mind that you will be an excellent chicken person and will try to help others from making the same mistakes you did.

Best of wishes to you and your flock!!!

RON
 
winteree
thanks for the heads up i was going to put both my bantams and my reds in the same coop to save on building costs but not if they are going to get attacked and possably killed
 

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Category
Chicken Breeds
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Rating
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