The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Fred's Hens]

@bluebirdnanny The last batch's hatch rate wasn't spectacular, but the chicks that did hatch would stop traffic on I-75. Stunning.

I'll bring you some birds when we meet up later this summer if you find you need them. But, keep going on the hatching. Hope you get some great chicks.

 

[daxigait]

Good morning, is there a list somewhere of where the heritage breeders are located? I work for a trucking company and would love to see if any of our drivers come near any breeders who would sell a few chicks.
Thanks from Missouri

 

[daxigait]

I'm willing to bet you're doing a lot better than I am. My incubator has been performing perfectly, but only 2 chicks out of 30 eggs have hatched. Today is day 22, and I'm not seeing any movement from the last 8 eggs. It's like a freaking Greek tragedy... g

Was hoping to start spring with at least 20 birds, but will have to make it with 13. On the brighter side of things, I've always considered 13 a lucky number...

I am so sorry, I know you have invested a lot of time and resources to get these birds.

I like thirteen too.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

I am so sorry, I know you have invested a lot of time and resources to get these birds.

I like thirteen too.

Thanks, daxi. That's the risk I took when I ordered shipped eggs. I had hoped USPS would treat the last batch a little kinder, but they decided to practice their soccer skills. Eggs were in worse condition than the first batch...

 

[cmom]

Well, at the shows, you enter birds are only the following, K,P, C and H.
K is cockerel, P is pullet, C is cock and H is hen.

In everyday speech, many, many older timers simply say cockbird. It's not really correct either, but most commonly used in speech. The trouble with calling a bird the wrong thing is the AGE of the bird is paramount. Using pullet when referring to a young, under year old female tells us she's under a year old and so forth.

Since i'm just a an old farm boy, I grew up with barrows and gilts, boars and sows, so none of this is new to me. As well as heifer and bullcalf, steer, bull or cow. The horse people all say filly or colt to refer to the young and stalion, gelding or mare to refer to the older horses. Even aspect of animal husbandry and animal fancy has such terms and we just submit to the wisdom of the ages in using the proper terms in context.

Say the marsupial word around any true chicken man and he'll think you're a dufus and a half, that's for sure. You'd never be taken seriously, I know I just pretty much ignore folks who write or call and ask if I have "baby hens" cause they can't have "roos" where they live." I just don't feel any real need to write back and resppond, to be honest. Life's too short and the birds are too valuable. It's the way it is.

If in doubt? Shoot, just say male or female. Works just fine.

Alright, I got a zillion plants to set and ten times that many weeds to hoe, so back to work.

You're in the planting mode and we are in the harvest mode here. No planting in the spring/summer here, it's too hot. We start planting in September/October with greens and things like lettuce, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage anything that can tolerate a frost since we don't get a deep freeze usually. We do have frost covers for more sensitive plants. Working on coops as it's time for the yearly shuffle to make room for the youngsters in the outer coops. My young Leghorn males are just starting to try to crow. They sound so funny.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

I'm in Michigan like Freds Hens... we meet up in the middle sort of at either the Amish Country Feed Store on Kittle road near Mio OR we meet in Gaylord Tractor Supply on old 27 or Family Home something on M-33

 

[cmom]

I'm in Michigan like Freds Hens... we meet up in the middle sort of at either the Amish Country Feed Store on Kittle road near Mio OR we meet in Gaylord Tractor Supply on old 27 or Family Home something on M-33

I am originally from Traverse City but have lived most of my life in Florida.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Good morning, is there a list somewhere of where the heritage breeders are located? I work for a trucking company and would love to see if any of our drivers come near any breeders who would sell a few chicks.
Thanks from Missouri

There are all these various "lists" out there and they have varying degrees of being helpful.

If you speaking of the Reds, the Rhode Island Red Club of America has an official site and it's pretty good as a resource. Secondly, the APA publishes a yearbook and it contains hundreds of top breeders who buy a square or half page ads to support the association.

To get "inside" the world of purebred, standard bred poultry, join the club and join the poultry association that suits you. The ABA is bantam oriented while the APA is both large fowl and bantams.

This is a hobby and people come and go. Keeping any kind of "list" is very hard to do. Bob Blosl, the starter of this thread merely used the word "heritage" to attract attention to the thread. What he really was referring to is standard bred, pure bred poultry. Bob used to take phone calls and accept emails and private messages from people looking for purebred birds and he used his resources to try to help them. Bob was a past officer of both the Rock Fanciers Club and the Reds Club. He knew a lot of people.

So, are you asking about breeders of Reds? There are two "social media" pages dedicated to the breed. One is official "for club members only" and the other is generic, open to just about anyone interested in the breed. Drop me a private message.

 

[cmom]

Quote: I am devastated.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

I am devastated.

Don't be. You did everything you could to provide good eggs. There's not a doubt in my mind that most of the eggs would have hatched if the hadn't been handled so roughly. It was a gamble, and the house won that round. I still have 13 beautiful, healthy chicks... and that's 13 more than I had 2 months ago. I appreciate you making eggs available. Otherwise, I'd still be hunting for birds. Thank you.