Rhode Island Red vs. New Hampshire Red

[staceymw]

I just bought a bunch of New Hampshire Reds and i have been told and read the same, that they have been selectively bred to just be a bigger faster growing version of a RIR. the color is a tad lighter, and they are supposed to be 100% RIR, just bred by breeders in New Hampshire, I guess those boys just got jealous of Road Island. the birds seem to grow faster and i can tell they should be bigger, they keep easy, and are pretty good birds so far no problems. The guy i bought mine from intended to use them as meat birds and was feeding them 22% so i have continued that and think it may work out, we will see.


                                 AL

So what is this bredd. I have 7 of them. They are very aggressive and at 4 months old i see dark combs and wattles on some of them already

 

[new user]

So what is this bredd. I have 7 of them. They are very aggressive and at 4 months old i see dark combs and wattles on some of them already

They don't look like my 13-14 week old New Hampshire Reds lol, so I would say a RIR

 

[staceymw]

They don't look like my 13-14 week old New Hampshire Reds lol, so I would say a RIR

Thank u

 

[ramboas93]

I'd say their production reds as from what i have seen 4h showing wise here in my county. RIR tend to be the darkest almost look black unless sun is shinning on them, then red shines out. NH are more super light red almost to the point when sunshines on them they look more orange in color. than PR tend to be more in the middle coloring wise and when sunshines on them they stay the same color.

Now by the book wise when they were standardize their is a genetic difference between them all, tho its accepted that the PR and NH breeds came from the RIR breed but were selectively bred to the point they became their own thing.(just like dogs their used to be only few breeds but through breeding their are countless breeds now some more related to each other than others just like chickens). Now at the end of the day that really doesnt matter either when showing as they don't blood test the animals and dont track bloodlines as well as they do with dogs so at the end of the day its really whatever you say it is aslong as it looks like it. Ive seen at shows PR that came from PR bloodlines and ive seen PR come from RIR/NH cross breeding( yes by the book isnt a true PR,but at the end of the day if you can fool the judge it is whatever you say it is) they look almost identical. Samething with cattle i have known a few people who have shown angus crosses as fullblood angus and no one knew the difference.

Example here is one of my NH roosters came from "true NH bloodlines" so says the guy i got it from. showing wise he is on the dark side for NH but on the light side if shown as PR. but i have seen roosters around same shading as him allowed to be shown as either or(basically however the judge feels whats considered standard even if they are wrong cus their still human). I myself consider him a NH as from my experience his varying shading is more allowed in NH than PR which they tend like more evenly colored bird.


This girl right here is PR from supposedly PR bloodlines from what the guy who sold it to me said but she is on the light side for a PR, you could probably get away with showing her as a NH if you wanted to but would be on the darkside for a NH.


So i took them and bred them together and this is what i got.

He was shown as PR and did quite well even tho technically he is a cross and not a fullblood PR but they couldnt tell apparently.

really its whatever it looks likes depending on what the judge doing the judging considers standard.

So if your not showing your chickens and you are the only judge than they are whatever you consider them to be rather you judge them based on what they look like or the genetic line they came from.

Otherwise the only way to tell is by breeding them and seeing if they breed true.

 

[wamtazlady]

I have one of each. The New Hampshire is much larger than the RIR. She's about the same size and weight as my Buff Orpington. The NH is also lighter in color. Her neck feathers have an orange tint with some black. She has black tail feathers. Since most of my girls lay brown eggs I'm not sure which lay more. I do know that once a week the NH lays an enormous egg. The NH is rather aggressive toward smaller birds. After being pecked the smaller birds keep their distance from her.

 

[James Beller]

All three of mine sounds like geese.

 

[James Beller]

I'm about to get three NH Red pullets to add to my three coming 3 year old RIR hens. this thread was timely... I was wondering if there is any difference -- maybe a different accent when they cluck?

All of 3 my NHR girls sound geese.

 

[ramboas93]

Ya my NH have deeper louder cluck than my RIR which have higher quite cluck. Also my NH roosters have more of a traditional crow, where some of my RIR roosters just scream and if you didn't know any better you might not think it was a chicken making the noise.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

New Hamsphire's were bred for egg and meat purpose.As someone on here has already said,they have black tail feathers,and black feathers on their neck.That is the ONLY I see alike on either birds.I have raised both,and RIR's are bigger bullies too.This is my rooster I got from a TSC.He is a New Hampshire.This is what you would expect from them.a Hatchery NH is likely to be smaller,as all the birds I got from my hatchery were tiny,and I have been told hatchery birds are small.Also New Hampshire Red is not the correct term,its New Hampshire.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

I have one of each. The New Hampshire is much larger than the RIR. She's about the same size and weight as my Buff Orpington. The NH is also lighter in color. Her neck feathers have an orange tint with some black. She has black tail feathers. Since most of my girls lay brown eggs I'm not sure which lay more. I do know that once a week the NH lays an enormous egg. The NH is rather aggressive toward smaller birds. After being pecked the smaller birds keep their distance from her.

It's not just the bird,I have bantam hens who will do that to hens,and they stay away,it's just the pecking order.