The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[RedRidge]

Quote:
Yes, mine are RC from Gary. They were hatched on May 5th, so they are a late hatch and are going to mature later than everyone else's on here I suspect.
However, I might get lucky and be able to push next year's hatching back so that I have some early bloomers next year - that's the plan anyway.
What that means is that I'll have to pick my breeders a little earlier than I would like.

All of my Reds are from Gary... 20 birds, all Rose Comb (well... technically as they are growing out they aren't all...) Two of the biggest cockerels are SC, so I've already put them in my cull pen. I have 7 pullets and 13 cockerels. Of the 7 pullets one has a SC and one may not have any comb at all.
So my numbers are whittling down pretty quickly as they mature.

I have toyed with entering the big show in Knoxville in Dec since I live right here (and since I've seen the reds that are winning here locally at fairs and they aren't near as nice as what I have - bias sorry). I went to see the HRIR that won LF last weekend and was unimpressed.
Since the show is in Dec I will have more months of maturity than I would have for all these fall shows since mine were hatched late.
I really am not into showing, but when you realized you have nice birds it seems a shame not to.
I believe I will take my cues from Steve. I'm competitive by nature, but more importantly I'm wanting the feedback so I can learn.

I haven't takem pics in a while... that would be a good thing for me to do today since it's a downtime day for me after the last few weeks we've had around here.
I need to spend some time with the 4 week old lgd's I am raising for folks, and I'm waiting for a heifer to calf... may as well take my camera to the barn.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Got two phone calls last night from beginners in Reds. One needs Rose Comb male to cross onto his rose comb females. He does not want to show just wants his birds for personnel use. He could get one male from you and cross onto his Hortsman females and this would be a good method for him to get fresh blood to help his hatch rate. I know I say don't cross strains but he is not going to share his birds with anyone or new beginners so it will work for him and he still will have nice looking Reds to look at for his personnel use.

Also, friend is getting some Rose Comb chicks late in the future and will pick from say the batch two pair to use next late spring to start his program.

Now for lesson Two:

We have the lights on for about 15 or 17 hours total stimulation to their eyes. It can be early in the am or late in the pm to have the timer come on but you just add these hours to the 12 hours of day light to give them this total stimulation of light. This gives the breeding pens the stimulation to produce the maximum eggs per day during the breeding season which can be three to four month's.

Next you collect the eggs every day from each pen and write with a number two pencil the date, and breeding pen number on the eggs. You can put the eggs in the incubator say on Saturday so they will hatch on Saturday in 21 days or the day of your choice. I put my eggs in the incubator every four days but I have three hatchers. The reason is the older eggs may not hatch as well or the older eggs the chicks may have a harder time to get out of the shell by delaying the set date. I just like to put them in early as I have time to place them in the different small hatcher incubators. I also on the tenth day candle the eggs and remove the clear eggs and then on the 18th day the eggs go into the hatcher. I have little plastic baskets where I put eggs in them and cover the tops of them with panty hose stockings to keep them from getting out. I toe punch these eggs pen two and the eggs that are in the trays in a basket are not toe punched at all. This way I know which chick came from pen one and pen two on my two pair mattings as we are doing in this lesson.

The chicks go into my home made brooder box at 95 degrees and then lower the temps five degrees per week till feathered then they go into a small pen of say ten chicks per pen. I raise these chicks up till they are about four months old and then separate the males from the females to avoid fighting and the males bulling the females. You can do it sooner if you wish but this works for me. I start culling at three months for any defects such as combs leg balance not plum or any defects from hatching or lack of vigor. Other than that no culling for color as they have chick feathers on their bodies and for beginners I don't recommend getting hung up on color just breed type.

As they get older they go out on free range and watch them for over all type, feather development and keep a eye on the ones that jump out to you for vigor, shape and over all good R I Red style. If I see a bird that turns me off I cull them and put them in another pen. I try to get some adult leg bands. White with black numbers is my favorite so I can see the numbers so I can write down in a journal my notes as they grow up. I may put a red spiral leg band on say pen two chicks so I can see from a distance there from that pen. I then in my minds eye think into the future who I may keep for breeding. From a two pair mating that we are talking about we may hatch 15 to 20 chicks per pair. Then we will keep say four good males and five good females per pair to select for the next years mating. With the surplus birds we can help other new beginners with two pair mattings of our spare birds and then pick our super stars to mate to their parents for the second year of line breeding.
Tomorrow we will discuss how we may mate the sons to the mothers or aunts and the nieces to the sires or uncles.

 

[RedRidge]

So you are the one he is going to visit. Do you have Gary Underwood Rose Combs? If so any pictures of them we could look at. Are they from this year chicks or have you had them a year or two?

Here is one of the 4 month old RC pullets.
These are terrible quality pics... I should have waited and taken them outside... oh well... at least you get the idea.
This girl is #3 and although the first pic is at a terrible angle she has a nice brick shape and good leg color
She was not happy about me interrupting her breakfast, so again... apologize for the funny angles.

 

[RedRidge]

So you are the one he is going to visit. Do you have Gary Underwood Rose Combs? If so any pictures of them we could look at. Are they from this year chicks or have you had them a year or two?

Here are some pics I snapped of the young cockerels (4 months old) before they went out for the day...
I have 13 of them so am going to band them today and begin eliminating... I plan to get down to 2.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Here are some pics I snapped of the young cockerels (4 months old) before they went out for the day...
I have 13 of them so am going to band them today and begin eliminating... I plan to get down to 2.






3 is much better than 2, it gives you more options as well since you are choosing a touch early. It also gives you a back up in case a predator kills one and gets the other sick. Around here unwanted stuff comes in pairs but threes are lucky like the number 7.

 

[cmom]

Here are some pics I snapped of the young cockerels (4 months old) before they went out for the day...
I have 13 of them so am going to band them today and begin eliminating... I plan to get down to 2.






I wish I lived closer to you. I would like to buy a couple of your RC boys.

 

[cmom]

Here are some of my RC RIW's. They just started laying. Now I would like some RC RIR's.




This boy got Best of Breed and Reserve Breed at the last show I took him to. He was later attacked by an owl that damaged his comb. The owl killed all of my RC RIW's except these three. The youngster above are this springs chicks from these birds.

 

[cmom]

Here is a cockerel I hatched from some birds I got from Matt last winter. There are so many handsome birds on this thread. I'm sure he doesn't stack up compared to them but just would like some input on what other think. He didn't want to pose.

 

[windyflat]

Here's some pix's that some of you will enjoy..
When Arthur Schilling finished judging a class of nearly 500 Reds at the 1929 Toronto Royal, His talk was all about Reds and their champion Mohawk 5. Schilling and George Robertson roomed together and, discussing the class, Robertson told him that the Red would not be Grand Champion. "Why?" Schilling demanded. "Because you are not going to recommend him," George said, "Because you are going to recommend that Light Brahma cockerel!" Schilling seemed temporarily dazed as he stood while he made a mental review of the classes. "Sure enough!" he said, "I am going to recommend the Brahma."
He did, and the Brahma went on to win Grand Championship of the Royal Winter Fair

 

[har]

Great pictures and story thanks for sharing!!!