Pros and Cons of RIR's

[thechickenchick]

I brought 1 little RIR chick home about a week and a half ago! Poor thing was the only one left, I couldnt leave her all lonely! So I added her to my other babies. She is such a pretty chick. I love her colors and markings. Now that I have seen your pictures of your adult birds I am very anxious for her to grow up. They are so beautiful! Now I am super glad I got her. They sound like a wonderful bird.

 

[Evets]

RIRs are pretty birds, and are really good as heritage-type layers, but one of my male RIRs has gotten rather aggressive (and he's only about two months old). He was always the one to run up to me when I was doing something in the brooder, even at about one or two weeks old, so perhaps he's just an aggressive bird by nature.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[ginbart]

Could someone post a RIR hen and roo next to each other so I could tell the difference? Please and thanks. I will subscribe to this topic so I can see them. I have RIR's that were born on Easter and I still can't tell the diff. Thanks a lot.

I thought it was the think hanging down, what do you call that? Some of them have it but some don't so I thought the ones with it were tho roos and the ones without were the pullets

I am so confused.

 

[ruth]

Here ya go - took this today. One of my young RIR roos and his girls. They are about two months old. He had his comb from very early on.

 

[ams3651]

When I picked mine out I picked 2 that seemed to have larger combs, at a few days old, and they are now 3 weeks. Those 2 I feel are definately roosters, their combs continue to grow faster and the others have tail feathers but they dont really. But I also have one Im not sure about that looked like the ones I picked as pullets. I got more than I really wanted just in case I got an extra roo.

 

[mipsy6]

Those of you with RIR experience, could you tell me if it's normal for pulletts to grow at different rates, even if they hatched at the same time?

I got two RIR chicks back in February, and I am fairly sure they are both female, since at 3 months old they both have fairly small cones and I don't see any bumps on their legs where a spur might grow. But, one of them is bigger than the other, has thicker legs, and is growing feathers more quickly than the other. The larger one is also more energetic than the other--running around the yard when they free range when her sister is calmly nestled under a bush.

Is this variation in breed fairly typical, or could one of my girls be a boy?

 

[ginbart]

Do only roo's have spur's?

 

[goldnchocolate]

Quote:
I don't know about RIR's (mine are only 2 wks old) but I have buff orpington's and one of them is huge...her name is Big Fat Blondie... and the other BO's are smaller. I had the same size difference when I had the 4 BO cockerals---one of them was so huge I thought he might be able to do major damage to some of my smaller hens so he had to go to freezer camp.