Thanks for the comments.
Last Monday, I went to a local village market expecting to find the "chicken lady" who sells all kinds of fowl, and as it is still winter here, I guess she decided to stay home that day. I had found a local farmer via a French site kinda like Craig's list who was selling some 5 month old RIR's. So when the chicken lady wasn't there, I called him and he only lived a half mile from the market. Sometimes here, you can drive ten miles into the mountains on one lane roads to get to a farm, (like mine), that has a mailing address only listing the town, so I was happy to hear he was close.
Anyway, he had nice chickens, some big Buff Orpingtons, and a couple other breeds, but mostly RIR's and he had two big beautiful RIR roosters. I still want to get a couple Sussex, and one or two more just to color things up.
I was in the fly fishing business all my life and the RIR produced feathers much prized for that dark mahogany color, and I was curious whether these "farm birds" fit the mold for the breed.
Thanks,
Pete