The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[kathyinmo]

RIR winner at the ILL-MO show today with her RIR hen ...... Dianne Weer of Lexington, ILL. She has beautiful RIRs!!!!!

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
Watch the feather qualityon your females. In some of the pictures it appears that the feathers are pretty narrow over the sweep of the back. A good Red should have a wide, well rounded feather in this area. For some reason feather width in this area on the females seem to be linked to other negative traits. I made the mistake of keeping over a couple of females like that one year & ended up culling everthing they produced. Remember, better to hatch 10 good ones than 100 culls.

ETA: I also see some really nice looking males!

 

[fowled-out]

He everyone! I'm trying to get a few heritage rhode island reds,anyone know where I can get some?

 

[speckledhen]

Remember, better to hatch 10 good ones than 100 culls.

Good advice, Bill. Always, quality over quantity, especially if you are trying to preserve a breed, IMO. Hatcheries already have huge numbers of inferior product, but to preserve a breed, I really feel you must keep quality in, even if the numbers are not what you want. That said, you have to hatch quite a few to be able to find a really great one. And at some point, you have to get started and keep something, as long as it is reasonably suitable, then breed up from there. At least, that's my humble opinion. If you don't, you never get started, LOL.

Bill, I didn't even think about the feather shape, so thank you for mentioning that. I don't currently have any of the nice breeder quality RIR hens I used to, but I may get them again in the future. They were so much larger than my hatchery girls, it was amazing to see them side by side. I used to call them my Amazon-hens because of that. They'd sit down and fill up a nest box with their big frames. Even their personalities were different. In spite of their huge size, they were very mild mannered and quiet.

Here are some pictures of my big red girls:

 

[iajewel]

Here are some of my birds that are Jimmy Swanson lines. They are very young, however you can sort of see what they are.



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As you can see there are both single and rose comb in there, however I prefer to consecrate mostly on the rose comb.

 

[josh44]

Quote:
Watch the feather qualityon your females. In some of the pictures it appears that the feathers are pretty narrow over the sweep of the back. A good Red should have a wide, well rounded feather in this area. For some reason feather width in this area on the females seem to be linked to other negative traits. I made the mistake of keeping over a couple of females like that one year & ended up culling everthing they produced. Remember, better to hatch 10 good ones than 100 culls.

ETA: I also see some really nice looking males!

Thanks NYREDS,
I was thinking the same thing, but was not to sure, some of the pullets have narrow feathers.

Now that is all cleared up, I guess some of these girls are off to the culling pen!

Will be posting some more pics soon, I want to get better close up shots, of ea RED.

be on the look out BYC.

 

[josh44]

Here is a pic of one of my Bantam Red Cockerels hatched earlier this year. I did not keep him though,

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
Culling him was a good decision. His comb is very course & his wings are carried too low. Also he's pinched in the rear end resulting in a too narrow tail.

 

[iajewel]

I see birds on here with bright yellow shanks and some with more white shanks, what is correct?

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Correct Leg color is Yellow with a Red horn color to the front of the leg. Roosters should have a line of bright Red pigment down the sides of the Shank and to the tip of the toe.


Chris