The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Razadia]

After looking at several of the pics on this thread of absolutely beautiful cockerels, I'm wondering what's up with my rose comb Underwood line cockerel's feathering. Tripp is about 7 months old and they only HRIR I have. I couldn't get him to turn to the side. All his attention was on me.

 

[FOGELLY]

After looking at several of the pics on this thread of absolutely beautiful cockerels, I'm wondering what's up with my rose comb Underwood line cockerel's feathering. Tripp is about 7 months old and they only HRIR I have. I couldn't get him to turn to the side. All his attention was on me.

Did you get him directly from Mr Underwood?

 

[Robert Blosl]

Ok let me explain how I would do it if I was getting started. KISS this is important as much as Passion for the breed and setting little goals every year and every three years.

I have a friend who has some of my old white rock large fowl. About 13 years ago a friend of mine sent me a female that was four years old that once won Grand Champion large fowl at a major show in Calif it also put him to master breeder status with this female for White Rocks with the APA.

She was special so I told him when he did not want her anymore to send her to me and I would send him ten chicks from her and my other bird. We pay postage each way and it was a done deal.

From this female she produced the classic rock type I wanted and she lived to be six years of age. She produced a couple of chicks that looked like her and every five years or so one would pop up just like her. A friend of mine has some of my old white rocks that where culls that another friend sold to a friend and I was at his yard this March looking at his birds and getting some eggs from him and her she walked by a hen about two years old that looked just like the old hen I got from my friend.

I would like to get this two year old hen next year and mate her to one of my ckls and a two year old cock bird his uncle. This would give me two family's. A and B. I would then mate the best pullet or two from this hen back to their sire. Then I would hatch twenty chicks or so from this pair and mate again the best pullets back to their sire. I would ten take the best ckl from which other male and mate them back to the hen I found at my friends home. Then again each year till she dies inbreed the best male her son back to the hen. Lets say I can go four year. Then after inbreeding the three family's A B C I would rotate one time to the right a male to the new family. This is what I call Judious Rotational Line Breeding. You could call it inbreeding if you will but you are fixing traits. Only the best is breed to the other birds and the goal is to have one day females ten of them that look like this old hen and her grand mother from over ten years ago.

You don't have to have a army of chickens. You can breed from older birds if they prove to be worthy of breeding from.

Case and Point: Yesterday I got a call from Ken in Tenn who has my white rock strain and he said I got three barred rock hens about three years old. Two are lazy they don't lay well and then there is a female that is vigorous lays well for her age always out looking for bugs. Other words early to rise late to go to the roost. This is the classic female that people say the early bird gets the worm. She is the first female off the roost early in the mourning out looking for something to eat and the last one to go to the roost at night.

Would you not want a strain of birds like her.?

So you figure out some way to line breed her and your goal is someday have all your females with this personality. If she lays a lot of eggs she should have go


od feather quality and she should have good type her sons should have good tails ect.

Hope this helps you.

For beginners just have one or two good males, two to three good females and hatch some more next year. Don't worry about color just vigor and type. All this stuff will come to you in about three to four years. Its like learning to ride a bike. Once you get it you will have this skill all your life. Remember each year you are always learning, trying to improve and do things differently. Never think you have learned it all. Next thing a pit pull will find his way into your yard from know where and wipe you out. Have your bird separated so if you do have a accident you will not loose all your family's.

I will post my line breeding inbreeding chart if I can find it. Maybe this will explain my madness.

 

[immyjay54]

Did you get him directly from Mr Underwood?

Oh my, my thoughts exactly. Where did you get your bird from. I have both RC and SC Underwood's and they are gorgeous. My oldest ones were just 6 months on the 10th of this month and they don't look like that. If that is a true full Underwood line boy it is confusing to me. Either he is in to small of quarters or not fed right is all I could say comparing him to mine. I don't mean any of this in a smart way but if you go to my site, you will see mine from hatch up to last week and I don't think that the feather quality or color was like him. Mine came from two sources, Jim Heinz (eggs) and chicks directly from Gary. I am positive also that the ones from Jim were kept pure because I know where he got his from.
Jim

 

[Razadia]

Quote: No, mrheinz77 sent the eggs to me. He ended up being my only survivor.

 

[Razadia]

Quote: No harm done. I'm starting to think the same thing myself on terms of diet. We're in the process of changing what we feed them (switching from scratch and sweet feed to flock raiser). I did get the eggs from Jim.

 

[melroseladi]

No harm done. I'm starting to think the same thing myself on terms of diet. We're in the process of changing what we feed them (switching from scratch and sweet feed to flock raiser). I did get the eggs from Jim.

This is Tanker, my RC hatched from eggs from Mr Heinz. He is just hitting 6 months. He was raised on Game Bird Starter then Game Bird Grower, which he is still on. He also gets 3-way scratch in the evening and he also free-ranges now as well.



Penny

 

[immyjay54]

I'm sure not trying to be smart but just for comparison I just went out and took a few shots of my RC Underwood's. They are 6 months, 6 days old today. I took side, top etc so you can see why I'm so confused with the age of your bird IF he is pure Underwood. I don't feel that I do anything special with my birds.
The last pic is a pullet, same age. These birds are all from eggs hatched from Jim. 11/10/12
Jim

 

[immyjay54]

This is Tanker, my RC hatched from eggs from Mr Heinz. He is just hitting 6 months. He was raised on Game Bird Starter then Game Bird Grower, which he is still on. He also gets 3-way scratch in the evening and he also free-ranges now as well.



Penny

Hey Penny, was this picture before or after he scared your daughter so bad. ha,ha,ha;; Sorry folks, private joke between Penny and I. via emails. lol He is really nice.

 

[melroseladi]

LOL, before. Good thing Tanker can run fast or he would have been in the crock pot, lol. Not really!

Still no eggs! You ever get tired of your RC's or they want to move to the warm south, send them my way.

Penny