- Thread starter
- #5,791
Robert Blosl
Rest in Peace 1947-2013
When I get request from Folks who want Homstead Reds I send them here.to IDEAL hatchery. These birds a a cross of the two in my view. They can make a profit with eggs as they are good layers. They are of medium color so they got a touch of Standard Breed Blood in them. This is the way go to save time over the Old Mohawks I use to have. My old Reds would lay about 175 eggs with no lights and about 190 with lights if you had a public hook up light plant. If you had no electricity to your hen house then you would have less until the spring time came and you got maximum lights.
Our goal 25 years ago was to improve feather quialtiy as we had poor feather quilality on the female backs as pullets. We did this by pushing the fast feathiering egg gene over a five year prioiod. It worked and to day even with no one pushing this trait the pullets have nice tight webbing over they backs of the pullets. This was a bad trait in the early days of Reds and I know the history of Reds so I had to do something about it.
One way to learn about R I Reds is read the history from 1850 to the 1940 and see what the old timers had to go thorugh. Its not what you read in the hype of the catalogs or what some super expert says on the interenet. I know what these poor breeders went through and we don't want to go back to those days with our present strains of Reds.
None the less for homesteaders they have another mission that's why I don't go to their treads to read and make comments they have a whole different view of poultry that I don't subscribe to. I am trying to preserve rare breeds not make breeds like they did in the early days. Those birds where no match to our birds today that good breeders have improved.
The KEY is a term called DUAL PURPOSE they should lay good eggs , good meat on their bones and look true to breed or score at least 93 points under the old judging system which no one uses but a few nuts like me. But in my eye if they don't score at 93 points they are far from being true to breed. Even our present Javas many have them but they don't look so hot. Delaware's where so poor they had to remake them using barred rocks and new Hampshire's.
The New Hampshire's are making a big come back and looking great and producing good egg numbers and a great fowl for both homesteaders and Preservation .
The key here is what are you goals. You cant have both it worth work. Just like every three months we get people who want broody hens in Reds to make a complete bird. This introduces the Cochin gene and puts every thing in reverse. If you want broody hens get a fluffy slow egg laying female and you got it.
Its so simple. I can not get a high yield of mild from a Jersey cow and high butter fat from a Holstein. I can have 60 Holsteins and 30 jerseys and mix the milk to gather and send down town to the milk plant.
I hope and pray we can get along with this tread and our goal to locate folks with old fashion Rhode Island Reds for next year. We have more folks who own them so maybe we will have more who can share them with beginners. Just remember what you goals are and what others have had to do to reach these goals.
Rhode Island Reds
Rhode Island Reds are an old time, well-known American breed, which was developed in the state of Rhode Island. A distinct characteristic of this breed is their horizontal, oblong body, which is deep, broad and long, sometimes described as "brick shaped". They are an excellent dual-purpose bird that efficiently produces large brown eggs. From the time they are chicks until maturity they may have white on the wing tips, but when they are fully matured they should not have any white feathers.
Standard weights at maturity are males-8 1/2 lbs. and hens-6 1/2 lbs.
Pricing and Ordering
RHODE ISLD RED ST RUNS
$0.00 PULLET RIRP
RHODE ISLD RED PULLETS
$0.00 MALE RIRM
RHODE ISLD RED MALES I do
Our goal 25 years ago was to improve feather quialtiy as we had poor feather quilality on the female backs as pullets. We did this by pushing the fast feathiering egg gene over a five year prioiod. It worked and to day even with no one pushing this trait the pullets have nice tight webbing over they backs of the pullets. This was a bad trait in the early days of Reds and I know the history of Reds so I had to do something about it.
One way to learn about R I Reds is read the history from 1850 to the 1940 and see what the old timers had to go thorugh. Its not what you read in the hype of the catalogs or what some super expert says on the interenet. I know what these poor breeders went through and we don't want to go back to those days with our present strains of Reds.
None the less for homesteaders they have another mission that's why I don't go to their treads to read and make comments they have a whole different view of poultry that I don't subscribe to. I am trying to preserve rare breeds not make breeds like they did in the early days. Those birds where no match to our birds today that good breeders have improved.
The KEY is a term called DUAL PURPOSE they should lay good eggs , good meat on their bones and look true to breed or score at least 93 points under the old judging system which no one uses but a few nuts like me. But in my eye if they don't score at 93 points they are far from being true to breed. Even our present Javas many have them but they don't look so hot. Delaware's where so poor they had to remake them using barred rocks and new Hampshire's.
The New Hampshire's are making a big come back and looking great and producing good egg numbers and a great fowl for both homesteaders and Preservation .
The key here is what are you goals. You cant have both it worth work. Just like every three months we get people who want broody hens in Reds to make a complete bird. This introduces the Cochin gene and puts every thing in reverse. If you want broody hens get a fluffy slow egg laying female and you got it.
Its so simple. I can not get a high yield of mild from a Jersey cow and high butter fat from a Holstein. I can have 60 Holsteins and 30 jerseys and mix the milk to gather and send down town to the milk plant.
I hope and pray we can get along with this tread and our goal to locate folks with old fashion Rhode Island Reds for next year. We have more folks who own them so maybe we will have more who can share them with beginners. Just remember what you goals are and what others have had to do to reach these goals.
Rhode Island Reds
Rhode Island Reds are an old time, well-known American breed, which was developed in the state of Rhode Island. A distinct characteristic of this breed is their horizontal, oblong body, which is deep, broad and long, sometimes described as "brick shaped". They are an excellent dual-purpose bird that efficiently produces large brown eggs. From the time they are chicks until maturity they may have white on the wing tips, but when they are fully matured they should not have any white feathers.
Standard weights at maturity are males-8 1/2 lbs. and hens-6 1/2 lbs.
Pricing and Ordering
Sex
Item # Description 1–24
25–49
50–99
100+
Quantity
Total
ST RUN RIRS RHODE ISLD RED ST RUNS
$2.09
$1.99
$1.91
$1.83
$0.00
RHODE ISLD RED PULLETS
$2.61
$2.51
$2.43
$2.35
$0.00
RHODE ISLD RED MALES I do
$1.39
$1.33
$1.29
$1.25
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