The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Chris Herzog]

I haven't posted any pics in a while so today I took a couple of my 2013 Cockerels while they were out this afternoon.





Not the best pics but I took them with my phone! I can't wait to see what they look like in a few more months, and all these birds are right at 4.5 to 5 months old. If the Reds grow into their legs I'll be happy, lol!!!!

Chris

 

[Alaskan]

Chris,

those are great birds! they do look very "teenager" though. I see what you mean about the giant feet.

What are the orange roosters?

 

[Chris Herzog]

Chris,

those are great birds! they do look very "teenager" though. I see what you mean about the giant feet.

What are the orange roosters?

New Hampshires. They are a couple weeks older then the Reds.

Chris

 

[Pancholoco]

WOW, excellent thread.

 

[RedBugPoultry]

How well do RC RIR lay? Are they as prolific as the SC RIR?

From what I understand, the Heritage SC RIR don't lay quite as well as the production reds, but the SC RIR have a longer laying life.

Did I get that right?

I would also love comments on their personalities and the roosters aggressiveness.

Thanks!

Our 4 year old plays with our rooster--or plays in the middle of them and they just get out of her way. Never seen any type of aggression from them except with each other (roosters) and boy do they put the guineas in line. Great personality birds but not great layers. Right now they are not laying at all where my Dominiques have not stopped since they started laying--except a few to brood.

 

[RedRidge]

I haven't had HRIR that long, but have had production reds for a very long time.
My production red roosters were as many have said here... mean!
I just can't stand roosters I have to keep an eye on and can't trust.
My last one, Rodney, was beautiful (although a terrible Heritage bird specimen, he was just striking).
But I knew better than to turn my back on him.
That said... of all my production egg layers the production reds are my favorite... they have no health issues and lay for 5-6 years.
I culled twelve 6 yr olds last year who had slowed down dramatically in their laying.
They do well out on forage, lay year round here, and simply are "easy" - no problems...
Of course at 6 yrs old they taste terrible (tough and stringy)... but make excellent bone broth.

I've looked for years for my Heritage birds... I'm hoping they will live up to what I've been looking for all these years.
They are young still... and I do have 1 cockerel who is pushy, but not mean. He's simply very good at landing in the feed bowl I'm carrying - no matter where he is or how high off the ground I'm carrying it.

 

[JNB]

I am so excited I found this thread!!! I have been thinking about going to HRIR. I currently have some hatchery RIR they are wonderful layers and a couple of them are the most inquisitive chickens I have ever had. What I am disappointed in is temperament. They are feather pickers and can be downright mean to others. They are also my only hens that "bite" or peck at me when I am in the coop collecting eggs or doing other work with them. They try to bully the other chickens but since they are the smaller ones in the group they have resorted to picking on each other. After pulling my hair out as to what was going on I learned a little about the difference between Hatchery and Heritage RIR. It seems to of explained a lot.

So now I plan to read this thread through a few times and then go from there.

 

[melroseladi]

My last batch of hatchery type Reds all ended up culled by 10-12 weeks. These were a 3rd generation hatch and were the meanest things I had ever seen, each generation became meaner and meaner. While my HRIR will peck at each other to establish pecking order there is no comparison to what those hatchery type birds were doing to each other. We processed them all and even though we didn't get much meat from them (we chose to skin them instead of pluck) it was well worth keeping them from ever breeding those mean genes into future generations, which is why I opted to process them and not sell them.

Penny

 

[NestingHillsSC]

I found that most hatchery birds, all breeds, can be very picky. Never mean to me, but very aggressive to other birds. That's why my PRIR are in an area by themselves. Also finding my hatchery LB's are quite aggressive with the others too.

 

[Robert Blosl]

My last batch of hatchery type Reds all ended up culled by 10-12 weeks. These were a 3rd generation hatch and were the meanest things I had ever seen, each generation became meaner and meaner. While my HRIR will peck at each other to establish pecking order there is no comparison to what those hatchery type birds were doing to each other. We processed them all and even though we didn't get much meat from them (we chose to skin them instead of pluck) it was well worth keeping them from ever breeding those mean genes into future generations, which is why I opted to process them and not sell them.

Penny

Your tread brought back memoires of a article I read about twenty years ago in a old Rhode Island Red Journal about 1935. Harold Tompkins who lived in Concord Mass had one of the top Strains of Rhode Island Reds in the world and sent about five hundred chicks to Germany and Holland after WW two. He said you can have some of these new Production Res and yes you will get more eggs per year from your pullets then your Standard breed birds but when you count the losses of dead females from dying each year you will see in the long run the leger board will show more profit with the Standard Breed Rhode Island Reds than the new commercial production reds.

That was way back then and a good egg laying strain which the owner pushes for egg production will have a better over all flock to own and deal with. A chicken that lays brown eggs does not have the insides to produce large number of eggs per year and in most cases by the time they are two years old they are shot. Some of my old Mohawk females as well as my old white rock females would live to lay and produce great chicks at eight years of age if they got a chance to live that long.

Great post.