The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

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I have production RIR's that are giving me 4-5 eggs a day with 7 hens. I want to get some Heritage birds, but I do not want to show,is the egg production better in heritage or production. i have been reading here not to cross the two,so will the heritage keep up in egg production. or is it more about protecting the heritage birds from disappearing. I love my RIR's and will be glad to do that, i want to know how the egg production is so I know how many to get. The pictures are my girls and my rooster when he was 5-6 and their







chicks. I know they are not heritage so thank you for looking,I will have heritage bird pictures this year.
 
I have rose comb RIR'S in the incubator, 29 eggs looking viable. Hatch day is Saturday, wish us luck! This is our first year trying to hatch, only got 2 chicks from our first hatch, so hoping for better results this time!
 

Mohawk V 1927

Buying Mohawk eggs off eBay can be a risking venture. Barnum use to say a Sucker is Born Every Day. He was the famous Circus owner and master many years ago. I am the originator of the name Mohawk Rhode Island Reds. I pulled this lost gene out of Mrs. Donald Donaldson's strain of Rhode Island Reds that she started in 1912. This is a name from a famous male she bought in 1929 named Mohawk V from Maurice Wallace from Canada. I got my start of Rhode Island Reds from one of her students E W Reese Jr. twenty years ago. So this is the history so far. I sold and started Greg Chamness of Knoxville Illinois ten chicks and then he later bought ten adult birds I sold a fellow in Kentucky about a year later. This was about 15 years ago. I then sold a junior named Brian Simmons of Callahan Florida some started chicks about 18 years ago and these are the only breeders who have my old line for over ten years.
There are a few who have my line who got them from Greg that I know of. Paul in Colorado is the longest one and he has had his for about five years or so. There are a few others who have my strain and have done well with them maybe about five or so people that I have had contact with. They still have them pure and are learning how to raise and breed them. Some have crossed my line with other lines and these are not pure Mohawks and personally I am not a fan of crossing any strain of Rhode Island Red onto another. Why you destroy the gene pool of the breeders hard work to get his line to that level. It takes years of culling and line breeding to do this. For a back yard chicken collector which there are hundreds of you on this site that is not a big deal. But you are not preservationist of rare Standard Breed Fowl. You are more interested in high egg production. If that is your goal lots of eggs about 275 per pullet year don't waste your time on Mohawks. Get you some of Mr. Foxs Ideal Hatchery chicks from him or when they come to the feed stores this spring.
So what are you going to do? Get eggs shipped to you and pay the postage and hatch about 20% of the chicks? Or would it be more affordable to invest into say ten chicks that are about two weeks old for say $8. plus shipping and a box?

I sell my Mohawk Rhode Island Bantams like this. Matt 1616 who has my line old Large Fowl Line 20 miles from my house does the same. I personally see his birds every two to three weeks and watch over to make sure we maintain this 100 year old line and try to maintain its quality's of shape or type and color.

There are about five other good strains out there and depending where you live are great strains of Rhode Island Reds. Be careful when you select your purchase. Do your home work. How long have these so called super duper breeders who are selling on EBay been around. Does BOB know there birds.? I know about every Tom Dick and Harry Large Fowl Breeder in the USA. If they have a good history behind them I can tell you to go forward and purchase the eggs or chicks. Send me a personnel message and ask me. It will be a yes or no answer.

The most important thing this year is many are going to get Rhode Island Red Standard Breed Chickens and give up their production chickens. Next year there will be double or triple the sources to get your start from. They are a great Dual Purpose all around Large Fowl. The bantams like the Mohawk line take up less space than a large fowl less feed about 1/5th and two eggs equal a large fowl egg. You will love their beauty, they have good meat properties for your family to eat and they are very pretty to look at on the ground when rooming around your yard. If you like to show them good strains will win at the shows. For Juniors there is nothing better for a child to have a Rhode Island Red Bantam for Showmanship contests and the large fowl will win them trophies at the Junior Shows.
I hope this update will help the beginner of Standard Rhode Island Reds for the year2013. This is the year we are promoting the Rhode Island Reds. Get you some if you can and then we can educate you in the next few months on what to keep and what to get rid off for the future years. Most important issue is shape and or type. Don't get hung up on color of legs, eyes, wings tails ect. You can breed these Reds for about three years before you screw up the color and by then you will have a very good idea on what the color should be. Go to my web site and read the articles on breeding Rhode Island Reds for color and this will help you on this issue.
There are very few good breeders of Rhode Island Reds left in this country today. There are THOUSANDS of production reds all over the country. We need just a handful of Preservationist today.
Would you like to be one of the CHOSEN FEW???
 
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Personally speaking don't use ebay for true Rhode Island Red eggs, most use the name calling them Mohawk or Heritage and have the darker color but they really aren't anything but production as i have learned. That is why i'm watching this site till i see some listed here, just missed them last year but watching more closely maybe this will be the year, if not ill wait no more ebay for me.
 
In regards to the ebay person they may have the real McCoys got them from say Paul or Gregg and I dont know about it. There are very few people who has his birds that I have seen showing in the Poultry Press. Many are just fooling around and may not even have them anymore. Remember, most of these beginners cross their birds onto another strain a end up with a genetic nightmare and get out of them. Very few stick with the breed because they disobey the laws of breeding color or type or crossing them onto other strains. Many have poor skills in poultry husbandry and go down the tube because of this. I would rater have a person who has raised feed store chicks for five years become a beginner in Rhode Island Reds than a person who just moved from a apartment to their new home in the country and never raised a chick in their life. You need to practice with regular chickens first to get good at the art of Poultry Husbandry or you may be come one of the famous HERE TODAY GONE TOMORROW CLUB. This was a term Lee Roy Jones came up with about 20 years ago. He is right. He sold hundred of Rhode Island Red bantams to people maybe a hundred people in 30 years and only two have his line today. I have it kind of in my bantams but I crossed his bantams onto my Mohawk large fowl and shrunk them down to bantams.

If you will be patient and ask some of the folks who write on this thread would you share some of your eggs with me this spring I am positive some one will come forward to help you. Also, think who lives with in say 300 miles of my house and the family can make a weekend trip to their farm and pick up say ten started chicks a month or two old and bring them home to raise or five dozen eggs like I did when I got started 23 years ago. I drove to Gary Under woods home and stayed with him overnight and came home with these then hatched 23 of the chicks my first time in 20 years.

Still the best way to share your Reds with a friend is get you some Single Nest shipping boxes from Horizon or a poultry supply house and when your extra chicks are about two weeks old take them to the post office about 4 pm and ship them to the buyer overnight express. They will get there the next day or about 30 hours. The buyers puts them in the brooder box with feed and water and they are on their way to becoming a Preservationist of Rhode Island Reds.

These are ideas I share when I get personnel messages which I get one or two daily on this site. Get some you will love them they are the greatest dual purpose breed every invented.
 
Bob,
Can a two week old chick handle a two day trip Express Mail to West Coast?

Never sent any that far. Post office told me 2 days from my location. Would be mid March when it warms up.

Ron
 

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