The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[cmom]

Does any one have any hatching eggs or chicks for sale of heritage rhode island red?

 

[cmom]

I recently shipped some eggs. Despite the box getting damaged the fellow who purchased the eggs, still had a decent hatch. When I dropped the eggs off at the post office, the box was not crumpled like in the picture.

I started this chicken obsession with wanting to raise heritage Rhode Island Reds. As some of you may know, you can't just go down to the local Tractor Supply Company store and get heritage birds, or even get them from a hatchery.

Seeing how this website is partially responsible for my obsession, well mostly responsible. I figured I would seek help from it's members in finding good specimens of this breed. I was pleasantly pleased to find this task easy to do as most members in the Heritage Rhode Island Red forum were more than happy to help. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/407294/the-heritage-rhode-island-red-site

I was able to find a great breeder of these Reds within a few hours driving distance. I purchased 2 breeding pairs. I had also found a breeder willing to ship fertile eggs from her champion stock. Luckily both sources share the same bloodlines so it should not complicate things too much if the lines are bred to one another.

I purchased a dozen eggs from the breeder in Florida, http://www.hilltop-farm.info/store. She shipped extra eggs to help cover any losses. And that was a good thing with how things turned out with the U.S postal service.



I guess the words fragile and this end up translates to smash and store sideways in postal language.

Despite the damage to the box and having it stuffed sideways in the mailbox, none of the eggs were broken thanks to the way they were packed.




After carefully removing the eggs, I candled them to check for loose air sacks . 9 of the 20 eggs had loose air sacs and 7 of those were saddled at my day 7 candling.
With all my time lurking the forums I had found the information I needed to deal with this common situation when dealing with shipped eggs. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101 is a great article in the learning center

I was using a Hova-Bator 1588 with digital readout and 2 other thermometers to track temperature. The Hova-Bator claims to to be calibrated at the factory and does not need adjustment. The 2 other thermometers showed a 2-3 degree difference. Not wanting to cook my eggs I dropped the temp in the Bator 2 degrees and hoped for the best.

Day 19, 2 days early I get my first pip. I read that 1 deg difference can affect hatch times by 24 hours. on day 20 the rest hatch.
After I cleaned out and sterilized the incubator I tested the temperature with the 2 thermometers again, this time it matched the reading on the digital readout of the incubator.

And that's when it hit me, "the turning tray makes the eggs sit 2 inches higher than the screen floor of the incubator" If the incubator was calibrated to provide 99 deg temp at floor level then at 2 inches higher it would put the eggs closer to the heating element making it hotter.

Now I can start my next hatch with the correct temp instead of running high the first 5 days.

Despite all the issues I had with my very first hatch, the damaged shipping box, the overheating, I still ended up hatching 14 of the 20 eggs I received.

I was shocked, from what I read about the reliability of shipped eggs and all the problems that can occur, loose air sacks, scrambled, cracks I was hoping to get at least 5 to hatch.

I wont take the credit for almost 75% hatch rate, the credit goes to the great eggs and packing from the breeder and all the great folks willing to share in their knowledge on how to successfully breed chickens and deal with the complications.

And now for some pictures.....

 

[newbie89]

I recently shipped some eggs. Despite the box getting damaged the fellow who purchased the eggs, still had a decent hatch. When I dropped the eggs off at the post office, the box was not crumpled like in the picture.

those was good looking chicks what line do you have?

 

[cmom]

Reese line.

 

[CuckooOrpington]

Hi

I just picked the Heritage Rhode Island Reds that I will be using for breeding this year.
They all have their faults though, two hens are from F2 and the other two are from F1. The rooster is from F2 so he is related to the hens. I am getting a unrelated rooster after the shows are finished (June) or whenever I can find a quality RIR.
This year I want to breed my Rhode Islands closer to the standard, but I have a couple of questions:
Is there a difference between the Australian Standard and the American Standard in Rhode Islands?
Is black ticking on the hackle acceptable in the breeding pen?
Are the hens I chose too light? (I've seen some splendid rich dark hens on this thread, so I was wondering if mine aren't dark enough on the wing feathers)
Are the primary feathers on the wing meant to be buff or dark red?

This is the breeders I chose for this year:

Hen 1 -




Hen 2 -




Hen 3 -





Hen 4 (Rose comb RIR) -


Thanks for your input everyone

 

[waddles99]

Reese line.

How well do they do at shows vs underwood line birds? Im thinking of replacing my RIR for some better strains and am debating between yours and Underwood's.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
All of my birds I have now came from birds I got from Matt Ulrich (Matt1616 (BYC)). I have had them for a few years now. Matt is now the president of the Rhode Island Red Club of America and has very fine birds. I can't tell you about the Underwood's because I have never had them but Jimmy has had most lines. this is his website for his opinion, http://jimspetsandpoultry.weebly.com/ Matt wins at most shows with his Reese. I have been very happy with my birds and they have placed well at the shows. I'm sure Gary Underwood's birds are just as fine. There may be birds at the shows from his line but I don't know who is showing them.

 

[cmom]

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

It's been awhile since I looked at Jim's site, but if I remember correctly, he liked his birds from Matt better than the Underwood line. I'm uber excited to see how my Reese birds look, but it's going to be a little while before they're mature enough to judge them. They're a little too young to tell much about them...

 

[cmom]

It's been awhile since I looked at Jim's site, but if I remember correctly, he liked his birds from Matt better than the Underwood line. I'm uber excited to see how my Reese birds look, but it's going to be a little while before they're mature enough to judge them. They're a little too young to tell much about them...

I'm so glad the eggs made it in 2 days and none arrived broken. Good luck with your hatch.
Here are some of the chicks that hatched last night. They are RIR, RIW, and some project chicks. I do have them separated so I know who came from whom.