The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[SallyinIndiana]

Does this look like a rhode island red chick? It is 3 weeks old, but i dont see any red feathers coming in..

it looks a lot like some of my half RIR half production red star chicks. Some of them turned out without white feathers but not a one of them even came close to having a brick shape. I only hatched out about a dozen and none of them will be here by winter. My freezer likes chicken.

 

[Matt1616]

They don't look too bad, though, do they Matt? Not as bad as pure hatchery birds. I had birds from them when I first started out but got rid of them all since they weren't the quality I wanted. The birds in the photo look better than what I ended up with from them, that was 3 years ago.

I guess not..

Matt

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Just beginning to show feathers...

Anyone care to critic them or guess the gender?

 

[Irishhenman]

Just beginning to show feathers...

Anyone care to critic them or guess the gender?

Looking good so far, way too early for gender guesses

 

[michaelf]

This is a project roo that we used HRIR to help get that body type in this bird. And it worked. He has their flat back and brick shape. Has there temperament and walks and acts just like them.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I mixed a barred rock with a cream legbar just for kicks. I now have a couple of skinny barred rocks with cream replacing their white and a couple of blue feather tips.
I also mixed a RIR with the BR for a few eggs to get black stars. So far I think I'll cut down on the mixing for next breeding season but I do love having fun with the extra roos and the laying flock.

 

[Rancher3535]

I mixed a barred rock with a cream legbar just for kicks. I now have a couple of skinny barred rocks with cream replacing their white and a couple of blue feather tips.
I also mixed a RIR with the BR for a few eggs to get black stars. So far I think I'll cut down on the mixing for next breeding season but I do love having fun with the extra roos and the laying flock.

I have always been a purist for the most part and not a real fan of crossing any breed. Now that I am retired and have a little extra play time, I have found it to be fun if you are interested in the genetic side of things. I have tried several sex-link kind of crosses just for the fun of it. If you are a breeder that does not care and only after females, it makes it pretty easy cull out males and keep just the females.

First one was a Barnevelder male on my Columbian Wyandotte females. Males came out black and white female were kind of a dark buff.

Second was a Welsummer male on some of the Columbian Wyandotte females. Males again came out kind of a black and white females a dark buff.

Third is my line of Auto-sexed Welbars that I am trying to build. Welsummer male on Barred Rock females are the F1 birds. Males come out barred and females come out black and some have some gold lace on the neck. As chicks the females are black and the males are black with a white spot on top of their heads. F2 Barred males on Welsummer females and the they are all supposed to come out brown or brown barred according to the books.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Wasn't trying to cross them for hatching. Had gotten eggs mixed up... only wanted to hatch the Nelson pullet eggs but guess I was too tired and put others in the heritage holding container. Hence hatched instead of eating those other eggs. Still learning to tell the eggs apart. Next year will use breeding pen for the Laying Nelsons.

 

[immyjay54]

I mixed a barred rock with a cream legbar just for kicks. I now have a couple of skinny barred rocks with cream replacing their white and a couple of blue feather tips.
I also mixed a RIR with the BR for a few eggs to get black stars. So far I think I'll cut down on the mixing for next breeding season but I do love having fun with the extra roos and the laying flock.

I've never crossed any of my own to make them but approx 5 years ago maybe a little longer I had 25 of the black stars from Murray McMurray and I will tell you that I've never had a hen lay like them and their eggs were monsters. All were bigger then a jumbo egg from the store. Sometimes I could not close the lid of a jumbo egg carton with them in it.
I think that is the name of the game though Sally Have fun.

 

[desertmarcy]

I've never crossed any of my own to make them but approx 5 years ago maybe a little longer I had 25 of the black stars from Murray McMurray and I will tell you that I've never had a hen lay like them and their eggs were monsters. All were bigger then a jumbo egg from the store. Sometimes I could not close the lid of a jumbo egg carton with them in it.
I think that is the name of the game though Sally Have fun.

That is so true, and the Red Stars lay really well, too. They both seem to burn out pretty fast, though, after 2 years egg production drops drastically. I've hatched my own sexlinks, black and red, but they didn't have the selective breeding MM puts into their "star" hybrids, I don't think they laid like them.