The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[ronniewayne]

here are some of my reds that are about 10 weeks

 

[Angie16hearts]

About how old does a RIR Roo start to grow his comb And wattle ? Does the domonit pullet grow a slightly bigger comb and a slightly redder face? I asked cause I have 3 girls about. 9 weeks and one is has just a slightly redder face and comb. She also yeasts our older Roo and hens.

 

[Fred's Hens]

About how old does a RIR Roo start to grow his comb And wattle ? Does the domonit pullet grow a slightly bigger comb and a slightly redder face? I asked cause I have 3 girls about. 9 weeks and one is has just a slightly redder face and comb. She also yeasts our older Roo and hens.

Hi Angle16hearts.

In this section of the forum, we encourage the use of proper poultry terms. These are terms I teach 5th and 6th graders and high school students in FFA and 4H. A young female is a pullet, and a young male is a cockerel.

Yes, often times a lead female will grow a more dominant comb, in my experience. A young Red cockerel will often sprout his comb and wattles at 8 weeks, while the pullets do not. The pullets don't often show much comb and little by way of wattles until 17 weeks, depending on the strain. Where did you get your Reds? Did you get them from a breeder or from a feed store or hatchery?

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Well, on the test of the repaired incubator, lock-down has begun on the Nelson eggs and a couple EE. : Praying and hoping it worked. Tried candling last night and some look different than others but I can't see well. So hoping next to report =

 

[Angie16hearts]

here are a few pictures.

I am sure you can pick red out of the 3. Any thoughts on reds coloring?

Hi Angle16hearts.

In this section of the forum, we encourage the use of proper poultry terms.  These are terms I teach 5th and 6th graders and high school students in FFA and 4H.  A young female is a pullet, and a young male is a cockerel.    

Yes, often times a lead female will grow a more dominant comb, in my experience.  A young Red cockerel will often sprout his comb and wattles at 8 weeks, while the pullets do not.  The pullets don't often show much comb and little by way of wattles until 17 weeks, depending on the strain.  Where did you get your Reds?   Did you get them from a breeder or from a feed store or hatchery?

Fred's Hen's.
I apologize for not using the correct terminology. I am new to raising chicks and am still learning. I actually am very intrigued with reading everyone's opinions and learning about our new flock. My Grandpa owned a chicken farm 3,000 plus at a time. I wish I could talk to him and gather his knowledge of chickens. He passed many years ago.

Anyways, I have a Rooster (Sassy) and a Hen (Pepper) they are EE and a Old English, Wellsumer mutts. I really am not sure? My husband got them from a man who won't return my calls. I have posted on other threads but not much luck. After they got a bit bigger and I became obsessed with figuring out what breeds they may be?.. I decided to get some more and was told RIR are one of the best egg producers . I am aware mine are production RIR. I didn't know intel I started reading more...
I did get them from a feed store. I wish I would have learned more first. They are of course beautiful to me but nothing like some of the pictures on this thread. I have 1 pullet that's is slightly darker red. It happens to be the same one with a slightly redder face and comb. At first I thought I may have a cockerel on my hands. Especially since Red is clearly the top of the pecking order among the 3 RIR and how she loves to push Sassy and Peppers buttons!! I found this thread and noticed most cockerels would have started forming a wattle about now. Which made me think that her coloring and personality may be just her dominance in the pecking order. All three are from the pullet bin. I understand there is about a 5% chance of getting a cockerel.
Next year I definitely plan to buy some girls from a good source! If I can learn enough I would love to try to hatch my own. Or only buy from the best! I have kids and want them to experience and learn as much as possible. We also have one EE and one Barred Rock pullet.
Sorry, overload on information! If you have any advice or thoughts. Please feel free to share your knowledge with me! This has been so much fun for the kids and me. We all have a love for animals.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Those feed store "reds" are mass produced by a hatchery and sold to folks under the name Rhode Island Reds, but this thread? It's not about those kind of birds. Those birds are great to learn on. They'll lay you lots of eggs. But they are not the birds we talk about on this thread.
This is my young cockerel.



Look how rich and dark his feathering is. See how flat his back is and how oblong shape his body is? Those are features of a true bred Red. Notice the deep, rich green tail.

Here are some chicks about the same age as your birds. Side by side, you would see that your birds are much lighter in color and the feathering is very different. Your birds are a rusty red, while a true Rhode Island Red has mahogony color and an oblong, brick shaped body.

Your birds are what we call production reds.







Can you see that they are truly different birds entirely?

I hope one day you can get some real Rhode Island Reds. They are not sold at feeds stores and you can't order them from a hatchery either. The only way to get them is to get them from someone who has kept these old lines of birds and bred them to the Standard set for them by the American Poultry Association. It is exactly these old heritage lines that this thread is about.

Take good care of your birds and they'll provide you with lots of eggs.

 

[Angie16hearts]

Those feed store "reds" are mass produced by a hatchery and sold to folks under the name Rhode Island Reds, but this thread? It's not about those kind of birds. Those birds are great to learn on. They'll lay you lots of eggs. But they are not the birds we talk about on this thread. This is my young cockerel. Look how rich and dark his feathering is. See how flat his back is and how oblong shape his body is? Those are features of a true bred Red. Notice the deep, rich green tail. Here are some chicks about the same age as your birds. Side by side, you would see that your birds are much lighter in color and the feathering is very different. Your birds are a rusty red, while a true Rhode Island Red has mahogony color and an oblong, brick shaped body. Your birds are what we call production reds. Can you see that they are truly different birds entirely?
I hope one day you can get some real Rhode Island Reds. They are not sold at feeds stores and you can't order them from a hatchery either. The only way to get them is to get them from someone who has kept these old lines of birds and bred them to the Standard set for them by the American Poultry Association. It is exactly these old heritage lines that this thread is about.

Take good care of your birds and they'll provide you with lots of eggs.

As I started to read this thread I definitely realized exactly what you mentioned. They are beautiful birds! Yes much darker ! We all learn as we go good starters for us. As the years go on and we learn more about genetics and breeding we would love to have true breeds. Not the mass production. Good learning experience. Yes, we will enjoy our birds and the eggs. Thank you for your information! Hope you don't mind if I read along and enjoy the pictures...

 

[bluebirdnanny]

A Rooster brother to Freds.

And here you can see the blocky body in chicks hatched a couple days before Easter! And of course all three in the foreground I suspect to be cockerels blocking the view of the probable pullet behind them.

Chicks are not the best specimens but not too shabby. My first breeding of the Kittle based line.

 

[immyjay54]

About how old does a RIR Roo start to grow his comb And wattle ? Does the domonit pullet grow a slightly bigger comb and a slightly redder face? I asked cause I have 3 girls about. 9 weeks and one is has just a slightly redder face and comb. She also yeasts our older Roo and hens.

Not necessarily a dominance thing on the pullet Angie. It is just a maturing thing. As you go along with these birds, you will find that each clutch of young that you raise, you will find different things with them. This is what makes raising them so much fun. There is loads of info and pic's on my page that you can see a lot of different stages that they go through. A lot of the questions that you will run into can be answered on there. Don't worry over what you have, very few of us started out with the better birds. One reason being that up until the last few years there weren't as many around as there are now and folks didn't seem real free about shipping eggs/chicks as they are now. Enjoy what you have, the hens will be super layers. One thing, IF you happen to have a male in there which it looks like they are all pullets but just in case, be careful with the cockerels as they mature because most of the production red males DO get very aggressive with humans. Have fun with the hobby and your children should enjoy them also.
Jim

 

[Celizwalsh]

This is a very interesting thread! I never really realized that there was such a difference within the Rhode Island Red breed. Im glad I found this ... I purchased 2 chicks this year that are entirely different but are both supposed to be RIRs. I thought the hatchery mixed up my order at first but after reading this I guess they are both RIRs.

This first RIR chick came from a hatchery. She is a lighter red with some black ticking in her wing feathers.



And the RIR chick pictured below came from a breeder. S/He has a darker red feather color and no black.