The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[cmom]

Quote: This is Wallace.

This is Maurice.

This is Junior and Newton Jr. and Sonny. They never want to pose.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

This is Wallace.

This is Maurice.

This is Junior and Newton Jr. and Sonny. They never want to pose.

They are beautiful! I hope I get a few good looking boys from this hatch. By the way... are you ready to be a grandma? Let me introduce you to one of Sonny's babies...





It's the first one out, and another from Sonny and two of Champ's babies are zipping right now...

 

[cmom]

Quote:

They are beautiful! I hope I get a few good looking boys from this hatch. By the way... are you ready to be a grandma? Let me introduce you to one of Sonny's babies...

It's the first one out, and another from Sonny and two of Champ's babies are zipping right now...

 

[BlackwoodHollow]

Referring to them as "my own line" is relatively unimportant to me. My oft repeated refrain here is pretty simple. If you makeup the breeder pens and make the breeding decisions, the offspring are yours, good, bad or indifferent. Having one's name on a line is a very rare thing and represents the poultry communities affirmation of what you've done. Ya can't really claim that for yourself.

Anyhow, the main reason I've kept that genetic going was simply the utility of the birds. Their heritable egg laying strength. That "seems" to go from the mother to her sons and thus, the son is important to push it into the next gen's daughters.

What I know about the codes and science involved with genetics wouldn't fill a thimble. But I do observe, take and keep solid notes and pay a lot of attention to details. I found that these things, developed primarily as a farmer, have stood me in pretty good stead upon getting into standard bred poultry some years back.

Good luck with your project birds and do understand the current rules of getting any breed accepted into the APA or ABA. The bar gets raised a bit higher all the time, something I personally support, for what it's worth.

I thought that's what you'd say.

Thanks. I also support high standards. I expect them from myself, and others. Nothing wrong with raising the bar(as long as it's fair and unbiased).

 

[cmom]

Quote:

They are beautiful! I hope I get a few good looking boys from this hatch. By the way... are you ready to be a grandma? Let me introduce you to one of Sonny's babies...

It's the first one out, and another from Sonny and two of Champ's babies are zipping right now...

You have been too quiet. How is the hatch going???

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

Sorry... it's been a rather hectic day. I've never been so busy working on chicks as I have with this batch. Had several malpositions that normally wouldn't need assistance, but I intervened after 24 hours of pipping and no zipping. One of the eggs from #1 was badly saddled, so I incubated it in an upright position. It pipped and zipped, but when it pushed out of the shell last night, it's yolk wasn't fully drawn in. I put it in the hospital incubator until the blood vessels dried and snipped it off this morning. It's abdomen was closed, so there was no bleeding. It's weak, but still alive. My wife and I are doing our best to save it. The last egg to zip (also from #1) ended up being shrink wrapped, even though I always misted the bator and made sure the RH got back up quickly after removing or replacing other eggs. I could see it breathing, so I waited for several hours after it had zipped to assist. After I got the membrane peeled off enough for it to come out, I thought we were in the clear. Turns out it had part of the yolk hanging out. Not quite as bad as the other, but bad enough. I've got it sitting in a tea cup in the bator now to see if it can/will draw it in. I have 6 eggs that haven't pipped. I'll give them another day or two, since today is day 21, but I'm not holding my breath on those. As it stands, I have 6 healthy chicks from #5, and 5 healthy chicks from #1. Time will tell if the other 2 from #1 make it.

 

[cmom]

Thanks for the update. I have some about to hatch. No pips yet. Will candle tomorrow.

 

[waddles99]

Just got off the phone with the woman selling the Candea chickens. She keeps the birds she got from Toni in a separate breeding pen, so the birds don't breed outside of their line. Obviously she knows the importance of not disrupting generations of selective breeding. The rooster and hens she got from Toni as adults, and were shown previously. Apparently very successfully too. She said Toni wins tons of awards at shows. My thinking is, if these birds are pure Toni's line, and she has good stock, than i can't go wrong with getting some. What are your thoughts guys?

Edit: I say Toni's line just meaning her stock of RIR that she has been breeding. It is really the Reese and Lloyd Flanagan lines.

 

[cmom]

Hopefully Matt, Fred, Jimmy and others will post their opinions. I'm curious too.

 

[Fred's Hens]

If this woman is selling "Candea" birds I fear this is just another example of folks marketing their birds by using a previous breeder's name. How much does this woman actually know about breeding? She may know a lot or may be a virtual novice. OK, she got some birds from the Candeas, but now what? They're her birds now.

If the pattern holds, the risk is they'll be all screwed up in three years and the person will be out of them. ADHD kind of thing. I hope not. I hope she goes to town and becomes very successful, but history shows us that 95% of such folks won't be.

I keep repeating this same stuff over and over and realize folks get weary of me saying it. What she got from Toni or more likely the girls, were birds they were done with. Birds that were no longer meeting the expectation of the upward march of higher and higher quality. The "ideal" is perfection, thus the name of the Standards book. We never achieve it, but we strive to constantly improve. If it were easily obtainable we'd not work so hard on our birds.

You cannot buy good birds, you must breed your own and live and die with your own eye, skill set and husbandry. Today's whole culture is based too much on buying whatever you want for instant gratification. It doesn't work that way in this hobby.

What you get from a breeder 99.9% of the time are culls or birds they're through with and they're moving on. You get a start, an opportunity, a few birds to see what you can do with them. That's what you get.

I'm sure the birds spoken of here would give just about anyone a very good start. But that's all they'd be, a good start.

BTW, I consider Toni a good friend and I admire the heck out how hard those girls work and how responsible they are. Full disclosure.