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immyjay54 said:
Okay folks. Question for some of the old timers. lol Many many years ago when I was just a kid, my parents always had RIR's. Not from hatchery but from other local farmers. Dad and mom always let the hens set and raise chicks to replenish the flock because we butchered both hens and roosters. When our chicks were first hatched they looked like little chipmunks (ground squirrels). They had really black stripes back both sides of their backs and on their heads. I haven't seen this for a long long time. Even in hatchery RIR's. In the last 2 years I have probably received over 250 eggs/chicks from other breeders. Never have I received a chick like the ones I mentioned nor have I ever hatched one from others eggs or my own eggs. All of a sudden, this past weekend I hatched chicks from my Don Nelson line (these are dinahmoe and NYREDS females and dinahmoe cock bird. These are all pure Don Nelson lines. I had 3 with the really dark lines described above and 1 with the lines just not as pronounced. The other chicks are all just like what we all see all the time from the RIR's. Could it be that I have a hen that lays the golden egg? Do any of you breeders that breed a lot of these birds ever come across this or do any of you have comments. I think I will band these chicks so I know which ones they are as they grow and see how they turn out. This really has me confused. I couldn't see the striping until they totally fluffed up.

Including pictures taken today. These were hatched Saturday.






The chcks in the top and left in this photo is what most of our RIR chicks look like.
Click to expand...
According to the Byerly and Quinn study 93.6% of striped RIR chicks are female.

Here is the link to Color Markings In Rhode Island Red Chicks As Related to Sex and Adult Color by F.A. Hays

http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/IND43969461/PDF

Penny
 
immyjay54 said:
Okay folks. Question for some of the old timers. lol Many many years ago when I was just a kid, my parents always had RIR's. Not from hatchery but from other local farmers. Dad and mom always let the hens set and raise chicks to replenish the flock because we butchered both hens and roosters. When our chicks were first hatched they looked like little chipmunks (ground squirrels). They had really black stripes back both sides of their backs and on their heads. I haven't seen this for a long long time. Even in hatchery RIR's. In the last 2 years I have probably received over 250 eggs/chicks from other breeders. Never have I received a chick like the ones I mentioned nor have I ever hatched one from others eggs or my own eggs. All of a sudden, this past weekend I hatched chicks from my Don Nelson line (these are dinahmoe and NYREDS females and dinahmoe cock bird. These are all pure Don Nelson lines. I had 3 with the really dark lines described above and 1 with the lines just not as pronounced. The other chicks are all just like what we all see all the time from the RIR's. Could it be that I have a hen that lays the golden egg? Do any of you breeders that breed a lot of these birds ever come across this or do any of you have comments. I think I will band these chicks so I know which ones they are as they grow and see how they turn out. This really has me confused. I couldn't see the striping until they totally fluffed up. Including pictures taken today. These were hatched Saturday. The chcks in the top and left in this photo is what most of our RIR chicks look like.
Click to expand...
I see this a lot in my Columbian Rocks. Since the RIR is a Columbian bird it will interesting to see if these chicks have a lot of extra black in their hackles. I get a lot of chicks with a wide stripe. I will pay attention next hatch and see if their are some with the dual stripe.
 
Last edited:
FOGELLY said:
I see this a lot in my Columbian Rocks. Since the RIR is a Columbian bird it will interesting to see if these chicks have a lot of extra black in their hackles.
I get a lot of chicks with a wide stripe. I will pay attention next hatch and see if their are some with the dual stripe.
Click to expand...
What is so strange about this to me is a friend of mine and I were talking about how the old time RIR's looked like little chipmunks and I hadn't seen them like that for years. I see a little dark on heads now and then but nothing like these are. I went back through my pictures, pictures and more pictures of newly hatched RIR's that I've had over the past 2 years and they are all just the little red fuzz balls. Even pictures posted on BYC forum I don't see the black stripes on the backs. As for the dark spots etc meaning female. The parents of these (the ones from dinahmoe) I hatched from eggs. I hatched out 10 chicks and 7 were female and 3 male and none of them had the dark spots on the heads so I never did go my that. Not saying it doesn't work but I don't look for it. I'll just put little zip ties on these and see what they turn out like. It may be something good or it may be something undesirable. Who knows. I just went to my web site and looked at the Underwood chicks at the same age and they are dark and have dark patches certain places but not the black stripes like these chicks do and 9 out of 12 are female.
Jim
 
immyjay54 said:
Okay folks. Question for some of the old timers. lol Many many years ago when I was just a kid, my parents always had RIR's. Not from hatchery but from other local farmers. Dad and mom always let the hens set and raise chicks to replenish the flock because we butchered both hens and roosters. When our chicks were first hatched they looked like little chipmunks (ground squirrels). They had really black stripes back both sides of their backs and on their heads. I haven't seen this for a long long time. Even in hatchery RIR's. In the last 2 years I have probably received over 250 eggs/chicks from other breeders. Never have I received a chick like the ones I mentioned nor have I ever hatched one from others eggs or my own eggs. All of a sudden, this past weekend I hatched chicks from my Don Nelson line (these are dinahmoe and NYREDS females and dinahmoe cock bird. These are all pure Don Nelson lines. I had 3 with the really dark lines described above and 1 with the lines just not as pronounced. The other chicks are all just like what we all see all the time from the RIR's. Could it be that I have a hen that lays the golden egg? Do any of you breeders that breed a lot of these birds ever come across this or do any of you have comments. I think I will band these chicks so I know which ones they are as they grow and see how they turn out. This really has me confused. I couldn't see the striping until they totally fluffed up.

Including pictures taken today. These were hatched Saturday.






The chcks in the top and left in this photo is what most of our RIR chicks look like.
Click to expand...
I have a line of Reds that have quite a few hatch out with these stripes also.
 
sgribble said:
I have Reece/Mohawks and a Roberts line.The Roberts are the ones that I have noticed the stripes.
Click to expand...
Have you noticed any difference in these as they mature or do you not pay attention to it? Just curious. As far as the black in hens hackles, tails etc.
Jim
 

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