We first got a rhode island rooster a few years ago from a friend who had a bunch of rhode islands and couldn't keep a rooster in the city. It was a young rooster and we had 12 pullets in an open pasture so decided to take him. Although he was friendly enough with his flock, although sometimes a bit rough, he was extremely aggressive with us three days after we got him. The first few days we were able to pet him and feed him from our hands, and then on the third day he pecked and bit my finger when I tried, and after that, wouldn't let anyone enter the pasture and would attack our hands when trying to get eggs. We culled him afterwards, and learned after that many people found RIR roosters to be extremely aggressive. He was quite a beautiful bird though.
This year we got 10 rhode island red pullets and mixed them into our flock of ~35 other chickens of a huge variety of breeds, sizes, and colours. We have 3 roosters, one of them a bantam. They get along really well with the other birds and do not fight, and generally aren't picked on. They don't mess with the bantam rooster either or go after the ducks. Our main concerns were that they would be aggressive with the other birds because of other reviews we've seen but so far they've been wonderful.
The moment they started laying we noticed an immediate rise in egg production to almost 8 extra eggs per day than we had before - they are egg laying machines! The eggs are good size and have a fairly thick shell compared to the hybrid sex-ilnks.
They have been hardy this winter so far with only the girls with the largest of combs getting a tiny bit of frostbite, but no more so than any other breed we have except buckeyes who are 100% hardy it seems.
The biggest problem we have with them is that they're flighty - from the moment we got them to now they will not be touched (we go them when they were around 4 weeks old). They flip out when they see you and run away and hide, and some of them peck at your boots or try to attack you angrily when you shoo them away. Of course, we had a couple easter eggers who didn't like to be shooed away and attacked our boots so it's not really a big deal.
There are 2 or 3 girls who will go out of their way to be aggressive towards people. The rest are just insanely skittish and flighty. Handling them as chicks was extremely hard because they would immediately screech and scratch or peck.
As long as they lay good eggs and don't try to fight the other hens I'm happy with them though!
This year we got 10 rhode island red pullets and mixed them into our flock of ~35 other chickens of a huge variety of breeds, sizes, and colours. We have 3 roosters, one of them a bantam. They get along really well with the other birds and do not fight, and generally aren't picked on. They don't mess with the bantam rooster either or go after the ducks. Our main concerns were that they would be aggressive with the other birds because of other reviews we've seen but so far they've been wonderful.
The moment they started laying we noticed an immediate rise in egg production to almost 8 extra eggs per day than we had before - they are egg laying machines! The eggs are good size and have a fairly thick shell compared to the hybrid sex-ilnks.
They have been hardy this winter so far with only the girls with the largest of combs getting a tiny bit of frostbite, but no more so than any other breed we have except buckeyes who are 100% hardy it seems.
The biggest problem we have with them is that they're flighty - from the moment we got them to now they will not be touched (we go them when they were around 4 weeks old). They flip out when they see you and run away and hide, and some of them peck at your boots or try to attack you angrily when you shoo them away. Of course, we had a couple easter eggers who didn't like to be shooed away and attacked our boots so it's not really a big deal.
There are 2 or 3 girls who will go out of their way to be aggressive towards people. The rest are just insanely skittish and flighty. Handling them as chicks was extremely hard because they would immediately screech and scratch or peck.
As long as they lay good eggs and don't try to fight the other hens I'm happy with them though!