The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[RoseMarie1]

Yes. When it recently dawned on me that ten of the eleven shipped chicks were male and seven of the eleven eggs I hatched were too.....It kind of made me sick to my stomach when I figured in what it was going to cost me to feed all those boys over the course of a year.

Those five maybe six pullets are highly prized as gold to me right now. I look at all those cockerels as a gold mine of choice too. My husband is looking at a lot of fried chicken. I've got to cut those boys down to a dozen pretty quick. Waiting waiting waiting...

yeah I know what you mean and mine is ONLY 4 months old now.

Mine look like grown chickens though and I guess it's because I ferment their food. Anyway I had 22 black Aussies and out of 22 I got 9 pullets and the rest are cockerels. lol Then I had 15 RIR's and I have 9 pullets out of those and the others are cockerels so I didn't do too bad on those. I sure do like my RIR's. Hubby wants me to get rid of them and keep the Aussies but I like the RIR's best so far. Just got started in chickens this spring so this is a new one for me.

 

[RoseMarie1]

I had one like that I did the same to this year. But I have one, the older rooster that is awesome. I will never part with him. I can put him in with 3 day olds' and he won't touch them. Very calm and very nice to all the other hens. Actually yesterday I put a temp nesting box in the coop because I think the LB's are ready to start laying any day now. Knowing I think these hens never layed before, he went in the coop and got in the nesting box and was doing low clucking and growling noises to get the hens up there. He was actually teaching them were to lay there eggs. I even took a vid of him doing it. Quit interesting. I've seen him do this to new hens before.

Oh I sure HOPE mine is like that on being so tame and not hurting etc.

 

[Robert Blosl]

The female above is the color and shape you are looking in Standard Breed Reds for this picture is very old about 20 years ago I think.

You have a good looking male bird coming along and I am sure your females will deveolpe into some great layers.

However, are you comparing your production Reds to the old fashion Rhode Island Reds like this male below there is a difference in shape and color this is the ideal male we try to breed for..

Notice the color on this male and yours for production stock.. For their breed and their purpose you can get none better.

So that is my comparison and how they are coming along. Where did you get them from? I live down the road from you in Mobile
You have done a great job razing them and they look very healthy. bob

 

[RoseMarie1]

I have mostly SC descendants from the Reese line. I got some birds a couple of years ago from the show at Lake City Florida and last January I got some SC birds from Matt1616. I can wait until fall. I also have RCRIW. They have been placing well at the shows. BB and BV. The judges told me the legs needed to be a bit more yellow so I have been breeding my best yellow legs and the youngsters are looking very good. My breeds of choice are first RCHRIR and RCRIW, then SCHRIR and SCRIW. Most of my birds I have hatched out myself. My original birds came from breeders not hatchery. My original RCRIW's came from Jacksonville FL.

These are my RCRIW's they were hatched Feb 26th and March 5th. The legs are quite yellow even though it doesn't show as well in the pic.

Sorry but something caught my eye in your pix. I'm needing something to cover my chickens trough to keep water from getting in it. I don't have a roof over the run area where the feeder needs to go and I just noticed that tin cover you have on the 1st pic and I thought, THAT'S IT I could do that and have a cover over their feeder! SO excited I saw this before I went and cut a 55 gallon barrel in half to cover it with. LOVE your RIR's to!

 

[RoseMarie1]

A few pics I took this mornin. 4 months old.

Topgunn mine and yours are about the same age! Mine was hatched out Apr. 27th.

 

[RoseMarie1]

The female above is the color and shape you are looking in Standard Breed Reds for this picture is very old about 20 years ago I think.

You have a good looking male bird coming along and I am sure your females will deveolpe into some great layers.

However, are you comparing your production Reds to the old fashion Rhode Island Reds like this male below there is a difference in shape and color this is the ideal male we try to breed for..

Notice the color on this male and yours for production stock.. For their breed and their purpose you can get none better.

So that is my comparison and how they are coming along. Where did you get them from? I live down the road from you in Mobile
You have done a great job razing them and they look very healthy. bob

Bob I got them from my nephew that lives close to me. I and TopGunn on here live fairly close. Thank you for comparing for me. So you're not far from me either. I'm actually in Purvis but not many people know where Purvis is. I have heard some RIR cockerels are aggressive and from what I am reading on here it's not the heritage ones that are like that. I have been working with mine because someone that has been having birds for a long time told me how to work with them to where they wouldn't be aggressive towards me later. So I've been working with them and hoping it works. IF these are the kind that would be aggressive since I have no clue and can't remember half of what I read.

THANK YOU!

 

[RoseMarie1]

The pleasure was all mine Bob.

OH WOW we have a few MS. folks on here! Mize is pretty close to me.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

WOW, I'm all bug eyed. I've been searching to see if I could find that original picture. I quit, lol I'm not 100% sure but I do remember seeing that shot before and I'm almost certain that it is a Nelson cock bird. If I run across it I'll let you know who posted it originally. I know I have it somewhere.
As for my birds, I've almost come to the conclusion that I'm not sending any more eggs out. It is just to big of a hassle with them getting to the buyer in good shape. As long as my PO allows me, I will try to help out with chicks because it seems it is easier to get them to the buyer in better shape. I know it is more costly but just like a friend of mine and I were discussing, if a person is really wanting to get into these birds, the cost is well worth it. It isn't that the seller will be making any money off them but the shipping cost will be more for the buyer. Myself, I would rather pay for a box of chicks or a few juveniles the pay cost of a box of eggs and only get one or two maybe three eggs hatch out of the bunch. Look what it cost for the electric to run the incubators and the time involved in incubating and end up with nothing. That is just throwing our money and eggs away. Just my thoughts.
I just took a few shots of my birds from Matt and a couple of the RC boys that are the parent stock of any/all my RC Underwood's. Oh my Bob, I'm sure not patting myself on the back but these two boys are some of the nicest looking RC Reds that I've seen in a long time. I'm going to post these two boys shots on here but the others will be on my site tomorrow. I will work on the site after I come home from church this evening.
The first picture is one of the boys, picture 2 & 3 are of the other boy. Not much difference. The first boy is just a hair shorter in height and he carries his tail just a tad higher. The second and third picture, this boy is a shade taller and most of the time carries his tail just a tad lower. They truly are almost identical. These boys will be 10 months old on the 10 of September. The stance of the bird sure does make a difference in what the bird really looks like. lol

I agree. I would much rather pay for chicks than eggs!

 

[Robert Blosl]

Rose Marie did not know you had these boys. I know them well. I see their parents every two or three months and these are my old line from the past.

Like this guy legs dead center flat back take good care of them. You have a contrast of two worlds to study. I enjoyed raising my commercial females 24 years ago to compare them to my old dark birds. I took their fast feathering traits and how they grew their feathers and tried to apply it to the old Reese line. Look forward to your pictures of all your birds and try to attend the show in Jackson this fall. I plan to be there and there should be some nice Rhode Island Reds to look at then we can have a clinic on what you want to look for in your young birds and who should be breeders for next year. Look forward to meeting all of you there. bob

 

[Matt1616]

Matt, which box do you use?
I have been using a Horizion Single Nest Box, and shipping 10 maximum, fearing they would be overcrowd and get to hot.
Aside from the cost for the buyer shipping two week old chicks is far easier than shipping eggs.
However shipping day olds is not good for me. It is challenging to get 25 chicks to hatch within a few hours of each other,then getting them to the post office and shipped in the window of time necessary.

Ron

Ron, I use the Horizon Single Nest as well. I have shipped many batches of 20 chicks that were 2 weeks old in these boxes but when it gets warmer...May-June I quit shipping because you can lose some to heat.