The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Chris09]

Quote:
The thing you have to remember is your bird lacks the Red that a Rhode Island Red should have in a good leg. When you add the Red color to the front of the leg your yellow will darken.

The hen in the picture you posted looks really lacks in type and should be more a even color...

As NYREDS said leg color is a minor defect.

Chris

 

[iajewel]

I agree that the 5 birds I have from Jimmy's lines are going to take some work to bring back. A bit of a story on these birds Im showing photos of. I hate RIRs. absolutely hate them. Or did.
I was at a friends house and saw this rooster that was stunning. I fell in love on the spot. Now keep in mind red is my least favorite color in livestock. I don't own red horses, I don't own red cattle and I don't own red chickens. This rose comb RED rooster however was stunning. Red or not, he was worth something. I ask my friend what he was. When she said a RIR I about fell over. This is when I found out there is production reds and GOOD reds. She sent me home with 40 eggs I gladly paid for and she had just hatched a bator full of chicks I gladly put in my truck. Thanks to Mr Fox, I lost all but 8 before I bought a dog who now lives with the chickens. I was so in love with this rooster I saw I got the name of the person she bought this rooster and hens from and did some research. Come to find out some guy named Jimmy Swanson in FL owned the birds she had but he isn't around to contact.. or so I have found as I don't have a contact for him and I have tried. Anyway.. I have 5 rose comb and 3 Single comb left and gave my neighbor a hen and roo that are single comb for doing chores for me one summer while I was showing and gone for 5 months. In short what you see isn't the best.. and I know that. What I have to show is what I have left. In these birds I see what I want to change and what I want to keep. Right now I need to build numbers before I can even think about culling. Would I cull the birds I have if I had the numbers to do so, probably, yes, all but 2. I don't have that option right now. What I do have is a forum where I can learn what the old traits are and hang on to those while trying to update to better standards.

If you thought in anyway that I think my birds are perfect, I don't. What I do see is what I want to keep, and I know what I have to cull. I just can't do that yet. I have been breeding livestock long enough to know one thing. Its honesty about your stock that counts. Look at the worst traits you have and be honest about those, before being proud of the good ones. Good traits can blind you into not getting rid of bad animals. Im honest about the bad, however right now, TODAY, I have 5 birds so Im hanging on to what is good until I can be honest about what is bad.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Here is a picture of I think of Jimmy Swansons Rose Comb Rhode Island Red large fowl from Fla. This is the picture I saw on the This is a good looking female for a rose comb and great color. The picture is of poor quality. bob

https://www.backyardchickens.com/wiki/index.php?title=Rhode_Island_Red

wiki/index

wiki/index.php?title=Rhode_Island_Red

 

[OSUman]

Lots of good looking reds at the ON show heres a picture of a few of them.

 

[Robert Blosl]

I got a series of pictures in a message from a new breeder of Rhode Island Red Standard fowl last night. I wanted to show you the color and shape of these birds. This line goes back to 1912 or the old Mrs. Donald Donaldson line. This line is the second oldest line I can locate in large fowl other than the Barred Rocks that Frank Reese has that goes back to 1905.

It will be interesting to see what the pictures will look like of a strain in Florida that came from the same origin years ago as these birds. It would be also interesting to see the a cross from these birds and the Flordia Reds in a year or two. There would be a space of about 14 years since the blood lines crossed yet are still Mrs. Dondaldsons old line.

Do you think they have correct color? bob

 

[Robert Blosl]

Got a personel message today about leg color and the red line going down the leg. I want it said the beginner. I never paid any credit to this. My friend tonight was talking about our Red Bantams and a judge said I need to work on getting better leg color in my red bantams. I think he was talking about the red line thing. I cant do it. My Red Bantams are shrunk down large fowl and have horn colored leg color with black spurs on the males like my old large fowl use to have. If I go after the red line on my bantams I will loose my surface color and I dont think I want to join that club and may even loose my flat top lines which I have on my females. In three shows in the last thirty days my females have one best of breed over my males all seperate. One in South Carolina, one in Arkansas by my partners and my show in Pescacola Fla I attend. So the female type and the horn color in the legs will have to stay for the time being.

Great pictures of leg color on this thread. Go Horn color and forget the red line like the standard wants you to go for. bob

 

[iajewel]

Bob, I have allot of respect for you and your work with RIRs. However this post sounds like because you can't get the good leg color everyone should forgo it. If its in the standard, its in there for a reason. I personally believe that little things mean allot because one thing is connected to something else equally important. Jauson

 

[Robert Blosl]

I can not do it because I shrunk down large fowl to bantams. I have bantam blood in my bantams two times and these are miniture large fowl with strong large fowl triats. If the judges want to cut my bantams for not having red in the legs so be it. There are other areas more importantant like top line and extended keel color andhead points . So far my males have been nocked for not having level wing carrage. Yet most bantam reds have wings that slant down. That was the reason I wanted to strart a new strain of Red Bantams 22 years ago was the goofey wing angle on the current red bantams. Why the old English blood that made the bantam breedsinthe 1930s.

One question is is this red in the legs in both the APA and the ABA stanard or just the bantam standard.?

I got more important things to worry about this line of red in my leg color. What is the cut for lack of Red in the legs. Walt????


I am happy with the way they look. I have my females now beating my males three years ago they where culls.


Look at the red female that was res SCCL at the Ohio National. I dont see any red going down her legs just good old fashion horn color.


http://bnrpoultry.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=66317888
Here is a good web site of Old Fashion Rhode Island Reds in bantam and large fowl. Look at the legs of these birds and see if you see red streaks going down thier legs.?

I honestly think if you breed for dark surface color and black tails with good black wing color like Bill Fox shows in this site. There is a picture of a male I sent Bill last year and he is the son of the male below my name. Look at his type and surface color. Then look at his leg color black horn color and he will have a spur that will be black horn. This is from the large fowl traits I captured to the Bantams. Bill is a great promoter of the true Rhode Island Reds. You will not see any light colored production reds on his farm. bob

bob

 

[Robert Blosl]

http://www.chapelfarms.net/9394.html

Just found a lost strain of Rhode Island Reds. A nice family in the Birmingham Alabama area has a flock of Jimmy Swansons Single Comb Rhode Island Red large fowl. Juding from the picture of her birds they look very good. We found a month or so ago a strain in Nebraska. I dont know if she has Rose Combs but sure does have nice Single Comb Standard breed Reds.

Also, I saw some very nice Delawares for you Delaware folks. Also, nice Orpingtons. Great looking silkie bantams which are a heritage breed by the way.

I would like to have some of her white silkie bantams for my call duck project.

So God only knows what will pop up. Found some Black Austrolopes and white cornish large fowl out in my back yard of Washington State. These birds come from good blood lines of the old days. bob

 

[punky rooster]

hey Bob you shrunk your RIR into bantams right? Is it possible to make bantams into LF?