The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[pathornton]

Got a couple more pics of the young cockerel today. Letting him out of the run made him want to pose a little better anyway. Ha

 

[One Chick Two]

Hi, I'm new to this thread, and sure hope someone could assist with some advice, or at least point me in a direction to look.
I would love to surprise my husband with some quality eggs or chicks, but haven't any idea where to begin to look.

We are in Northern Calif., and would like to purchase some quality hatching eggs from a breeder who is breeding their stock toward SOP.

My husband bred only heritage RIR in the 70's when he was little. He did a surprisingly decent job with them, and used to place or win 4-H, bird shows and state fair awards for his birds. Ribbons strung on the wall, lol. They had bred over 200 RIR a year. I suspect there are still some of his birds out there, somewhere... lol

For many years afterward we didn't have chickens, and then just a few years ago we purchased some Production Reds (sold to us as RIR). Of course, he was highly disappointed in the quality. Small birds, coloring poor, brittle feathers, egg color all over the place...you name the issue, we've probably seen it all. He says, "These are not the birds I remember!."
One other thing...we have French Black Copper Marans that we are carefully breeding toward SOP and dark eggs, so we have some recent breeding experience under our belts now.

Thought you may like to see these polaroids from 1972 of a few of his birds. (Was there any other type of camera then? lol)
Also, interestingly, he says in the 70's, that real RIR were not as dark as they look now- he believes the color has been bred darker over the years. This hen had light reflected onto her head. This was his favorite hen and she won (I believe it was the state fair) that year.




Here are a few of her chicks.



Note the 70's pottery ashtray used as a food dish. lol I'm sure the fading of the polaroid may make the chicks look odd or off colored then they were in reality.

Thanks so much for any thoughts...

 

[cmom]

Hi, I'm new to this thread, and sure hope someone could assist with some advice, or at least point me in a direction to look.
I would love to surprise my husband with some quality eggs or chicks, but haven't any idea where to begin to look.

We are in Northern Calif., and would like to purchase some quality hatching eggs from a breeder who is breeding their stock toward SOP.

My husband bred only heritage RIR in the 70's when he was little. He did a surprisingly decent job with them, and used to place or win 4-H, bird shows and state fair awards for his birds. Ribbons strung on the wall, lol. They had bred over 200 RIR a year. I suspect there are still some of his birds out there, somewhere... lol

For many years afterward we didn't have chickens, and then just a few years ago we purchased some Production Reds (sold to us as RIR). Of course, he was highly disappointed in the quality. Small birds, coloring poor, brittle feathers, egg color all over the place...you name the issue, we've probably seen it all. He says, "These are not the birds I remember!."
One other thing...we have French Black Copper Marans that we are carefully breeding toward SOP and dark eggs, so we have some recent breeding experience under our belts now.

Thought you may like to see these polaroids from 1972 of a few of his birds. (Was there any other type of camera then? lol)
Also, interestingly, he says in the 70's, that real RIR were not as dark as they look now- he believes the color has been bred darker over the years. This hen had light reflected onto her head. This was his favorite hen and she won (I believe it was the state fair) that year.




Here are a few of her chicks.



Note the 70's pottery ashtray used as a food dish. lol I'm sure the fading of the polaroid may make the chicks look odd or off colored then they were in reality.

Thanks so much for any thoughts...

In the pictures, to me they look more like New Hampshire Reds. There are many old time breeders on this thread that have been breeding for nearly half a century.

 

[cmom]

Quote:

This Red made Reserve American at the Ohio National last weekend. Congrats!!! Good to see a Red do so well.

He is very handsome...

 

[One Chick Two]

In the pictures, to me they look more like New Hampshire Reds. There are many old time breeders on this thread that have been breeding for nearly half a century.

Thank you for replying. Sorry, I realize the photos qualities are very poor, but I know that all of their stock were all only RIR (this was a few of his 4-H judges showing receipts from 1974.) They didn't breed anything else.




It is good to know many breeders on this thread have been breeding them for decades.

Could someone please possibly suggest a few nice breeders? Without reading the over 8000 posts on this thread, I just wouldn't know which breeders have been doing this a long time, unfortunately. I read the Black Copper Marans thread from end to end (all over 900 pages) and that took almost nearly a month (of an hour every day), and 8000 post is just a bit much right now.

 

[One Chick Two]

Double post somehow.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
The only thing I really see with the show tags is that a RIR hen and RIR rooster were entered in the show and one show tag says molting and poor saddle. Just an observation. Your RIR's may have been RIR's but maybe not Heritage. Over the years I have seen many differences in the same breeds entered in the shows. Even each of the judges may see differences in the same bird and judge them different. Good luck with your search.

Read the first post of this thread.

 

[One Chick Two]

The only thing I really see with the show tags is that a RIR hen and RIR rooster were entered in the show and one show tag says molting and poor saddle. Just an observation. Your RIR's may have been RIR's but maybe not Heritage. Over the years I have seen many differences in the same breeds entered in the shows. Even each of the judges may see differences in the same bird and judge them different. Good luck with your search.

Read the first post of this thread.

Thanks so kindly for the suggestion.

We'd been told by an old timer, RIR hybrids such as Production Reds did not show up until around '78, so I'm still thinking if that holds true, likely not a hybrid at this point.
Don't know if this long ago judges would've differentiated, "Heritage" or not.

As for the molting male, wouldn't be a surprise... They used to bring many birds to show, so that male likely slipped in. There's grade schoolers for ya, lol.

 

[cmom]

Quote: There are standard RIR's as well as heritage which are not production reds. I have had both. I still have a few of my standards but now I'm concentrating more on my heritage breeds. My standards are getting pretty old. I will keep them until the end of their days. My pens are set up for my heritages and the rest go into my pens that have the birds I do not breed and my older birds.

Also Rhode Island Reds were admitted to the APA's Standard Of Perfection in 1904. http://rirca.poultrysites.com/

Here are some of my standard RIR's. These pictures are pretty old and the girls are long gone too. My avitar is of one of my heritage girls.

 

[NeilsHamburgs]

Give Dick Horstman a call and place an order for a dozen single comb Rhode Island chicks. You will be pleased with them.