dark rhode island reds

[westernnychickens]

I saw on the Welp hatchery website they had regular rhode island reds, and then under rare breeds they had listed dark rhode island reds. was wondering if anybody knew if they had gotten some heritage reds, or if these are just a darker version of there production reds. thank you

 

[Illia]

Quite likely just a darker version. Often hatcheries even have "production reds" apart from Rhode Island Reds, and likely the so named Production Reds are just simply the same as their so-called Rhode Island Reds, or they're just Sex-Links.

Big hatcheries are very, very unlikely to have heritage stock. They lay too few of eggs for the hatcheries to care, and customers don't really care for dual purpose birds. They just want egg laying hens.