The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

Here is my RIR Rooster. I just love him and think he is beautiful so I thought I would share.




I like his type overall. He certainly is "brick shaped" & he has a good top-line. He seems a bit leggy & he has too much comb.
 
I agree with New York Reds. If he could be mated to a good female with a normal comb she should help on the comb department.

Combs can be fixed in three years. As a pet and not to show he is a nice bird. Sometimes excess heat as they are growing up will make thier combs big like that and its not a nomal fault. He has to many points. You want seven to five. Where did he come from?
 
Does any one have any pictures of R I Reds they want to post?

Read any good articles or books?

Is it important to own a standard or is it really nessesary?

Are you going to show and of your Reds at a show soon?
 
Bob, I am going to show a RC RIW cockerel, RC RIW pullet, and 2 of my Heritage RIR pullets (descendants of the Reese line) at a show in Inverness, Florida on November 10th.
 
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That is great love to see pictures of them when they are in their prime.

How did you get the Reese Reds or rather from home Mr. Reese?

I got them originally from a fellow that told me they were descendants of the Reese line at a Florida Sunshine Classic show in Lake City, Florida. I have no reason to doubt him because at the time I didn't know the Reese line but after the show I researched it. I am hoping to acquire 3 or 4 more birds from the same line at the show.

I just got my first egg from my 3rd generation. They are around 32 weeks old. Each time I put the birds in a breeding pen I put in the best I have. I have more that are about a month younger from the same parent stock. I am anxious to show them just to know what the judges think are the areas I need to improve on. I have been mostly concentrating on the body shape and the Standard of Perfection, but I am noticing the coloring is looking pretty good. Hopefully they won't be disqualified for anything.
 
I agree with New York Reds. If he could be mated to a good female with a normal comb she should help on the comb department.

Combs can be fixed in three years. As a pet and not to show he is a nice bird. Sometimes excess heat as they are growing up will make thier combs big like that and its not a nomal fault. He has to many points. You want seven to five. Where did he come from?
He is just a pet, not a show bird but good to hear he looks good except for the little quirks. I got him from a local hatchery named Sumner Byrd Farm in Holly Springs NC.
 
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Rotational Line Breeding

I wrote a article for the APA year book about twenty years ago on this subject. I had this chart produced by my wife and we lost it. We found it about six months ago on a old computer I fired up and got it in here. I have not been able to get this chart in the place of the words I used. But some folks have asked me to at least show the chart. For you who do not know about line breeding lets go to Elberta Alabama for a trip to Matt's place with our pickup trucks and two boxes. Let's say we have Ron From Arkansas and Steve from Georgia. Both are going to get birds from Matt to start a long time breeding program of the old E W Reese Mrs. Donald Donaldson line of Reds which are 100 years old this year. Ron is going to have pen one and pen two. Steve is going to have pen three and pen four.

To help illustrate how this is going to work, I have ordered leg bands and wing bands in the colors for each breeding pen for each breeder and from this day on they will mark all their chicks with the colors as they correspond to each breeding pen. I set down four nice wooden boxes I made for each breeder. On the boxes I have a nuber representing the breeding pen painted Red, White , Blue and Green. On each box I have the leg bands and the wing bands of each color and as we pick the birds we wing band them and put the colored numbered leg bands on their legs and wing area. We go out and pick a male and female from birds that Matt has breed this year. Some are pure Illinois Greg Chamness birds and some are Half Chamness and Half Brian Simmons a line that I sold a fellow in Florida 17 years ago they are still pure Mohawks but needed some fresh blood. We have the birds all in their boxes and all are banded with the colors of Red for pen one, White for pen two, Blue for Pen three and Green for pen Four.

The two fellows head home with their two pairs and at their homes they have built a pen six by six feet with a six foot run and on the door of each pen where they put their breeders they take the colored number off the shipping boxes and place on the door. Each fellow has put their leg bands and wing bands in their incubator room and also have a toe punch to punch the chicks toes as they hatch the following spring. Now its breeding season and the lights have been turned on in each house with the aid of a timer that comes on at five P.M. and goes off at nine P.M. so the birds are stimulated with a total of fifteen hours of light. The eggs are coming very well and around December they start putting the eggs in the incubator ever three days and when the eggs are hatched in a special compartment made in the bottom of their wooden incubator they toe punch the chick to the pen number that was written on the egg. At about a week of age the chick is wing banded with the correct colored band and then recorded on a three by five inch index card for permanent records. As the chicks grow up they are banded at the correct age with the adult numbered bands and observation is then made who is the best type and colored Reds for the season. From a lot of say Thirty chicks from these two pairs four males and eight females are kept for breeders for next year. They are conditioned nicely as the females are in a pen eight by eight four per pen and the males are in a four by four foot conditioning pen and trained to pose and are so gentle the judge will be amazed how docile they act in the show coop. In October there is a show in Clanton Alabama and its half way between each breeder and they enter four males and eight females in the show to look at and see who will win the best or reserve large Fowl Red in the show. Also, I the writer of this article will be coming to the show with my camera to handle each bird and photograph them and help the two fellows pick the correct birds for next year's breeding season.

Picking the breeders: After the judging has been done that mourning we set up some show coops outside the building and have eight cages off the ground on saw horses so we can see and handle the birds that we wish to keep. In the first set of cages We put the top two females from each breeding pen in the cages and mark the cages of the two females Pen one, Pen Two, Pen Three , and pen four. Once the females have been selected we have to go and find the male to breed to them for the next year. Now we have put together another set of show coops eight holes for the males across from the females. We go and pick the best two males from each breeding pen and place them in the cages. As we look at the males we see the colored leg bands of the four colors and now we have to pick the best male to mate to the best two females for this coming year. After we pick the top male we take the second best male and place him back into his show coop in the show room and write down in a log book who he is and that he is a alternate male incase by accident we lose the top male during the breeding season. Now we write down the females in the log book who will be in each breeding pen and place the females back into the show room coops. We also, place the top males four all four breeding pens back into their show coops. The breeders are picked for the 2013 breeding season but the next thing we must do is rotate the males to make this Rotational Breeding program work. First at the end of the show all the females go back in the same show coops that the owners brought from their homes to the show's The females will always go back into the pens in which their eggs came from and this will go on forever in this system. However, we must rotate the males to the right each year to make this plan work so here we go we take male number one and he will go to pen number two, male number two who came from Arkansas will go to Steve in Georgia and go into his pen number three, male number three will go into Steve's breeding pen number four. Now we will take male from Georgia number four and he will go to Arkansas to be put in pen number one. So to make this systems simple always put the females back into the pen that they came out of. The males always rotate one time to the right and if you had four breeding pens then you just rotate each male down to the right each year. If you are a two breeding pen breeder which I recommend then the second and fourth male has to be transferred each year to the other partners home at a show or you ship him the male bird overnight express at the post office. With a system like this you and your partner should be able to go about 20 years without any need to outcross from this 100 year old line. You can also go back to the original breeder such as Matt or Greg or Brian for new stock say in fifteen years and get a new male to introduce into your family of Reds.

Conclusion: Here is a simple method that I took from Turkey Farmers in Wisconsin who had 15 breeding pens and used it to breed large fowl Rhode Island Reds. It is such a simple system for beginner with out to much confusion and math needed to confuse you such as other line breeding methods. Many of those look good on paper but over the last 25 years I have not heard of one Poultry Fancier using these systems. The secret in breeding any Large Fowl is not to have to raise to many adult birds and a two breeding system to keep the cost down and so you can focus your metal energy onto the birds you have. You want to have your birds look like cloans or as Mrs. Donaldson use to say. They look like peas in a pod. You want them uniform in type and color. When you do this you will have a Strain of Rhode Island Reds that will be the envy of the world. You will have plenty of eggs, meat to eat during the year and most of all a off springs from their parents that is true to breed of the American Standard of Perfection and will win big in the show room. This method can be used on other breeds of Standard Breed Fowl. As I have been doing this on my large fowl White Plymouth Rocks for over 25 years with only one introduction of new blood from the original breeder I got my start from. The number one goal you have is in the incubator as the chicks come out. You must discipline yourself to make the correct toe punch right away as you touch the chick. Next you want a fast feathering early developed chick that has high constructional vigor. You want them to lay and crow or mature faster than the other chicks. If you raise these young birds up to where they are the very best conditioned birds you can produce you will also get on champion row with your adult birds. This is just a introduction to breeding and getting started. There are some other items that I will write about with birds that may be superior and how to take them out of the breeding cycle and still use them to produce wonderful birds. I hope with this old chart and my 2012 revised article this will help some of you who wish to be the ones to carry on our tradition of breeding Large Fowl Rhode Island Reds.

Robert Blosl Rough Draft hot off the press. May 26, 2012


Someone asked me about two months ago for my old article and chart I wrote 20 years ago on line breeding. I just found the lost article that I made in May so I will post it for who ever wanted it. You do not have to line breed your birds as a beginner. But, sooner or latter you are going to have a plan if you contiunue for the five year mark. You dont want to inbreed to much and then loose your egg laying ability and hatchability. This happen one time with the old George Underwood line and when Gary took over his dads birds he crossed production reds into his dads line to freshen things up. If this ever happens to any of you do not do this. Get a good dark Red bird from one of the the lines still left then do it. You dont need to spend ten years getting the color back to the middle of the road. Excellent pictures and that hatchery bird you posted is a good example of a cross of production and Heritage. There was a hatchery in N C that had some pretty good birds not production like but more old fashion. Good pictures keep them coming. bob
 
I was one who inquired awhile back about line breeding. I have read all of your posts as well as your website.
 

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