The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[RedNewcomer]

Yup, hatchery grade production red.  Although, I've sure seen worse. 

Thank you for such a quick response

 

[RFR of CA]

Thank you for response. Before I make any final decisions anyone want to give me an opinion on the color and structure of my birds?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Judging from photos is risky business. However, even in this incomplete photo I can see two females with nicer wider rear sections but I can also see two females with pinched tails.

Frankly, the best advice I can give you is this. Join the APA and buy a Standard. Study the first 40 pages like your life depended on it as those 40 pages would answer 99% of the questions posed here and elsewhere online by folks trying to see quality vs faults in birds. Those pages are not breed specific, just common "stuff" all poultry folks should know. It would take 3 years of wading though various and sundry online discussions, much of which would be of little or questionable value, quite honestly, to gain what your own study of those 40 pages would give you.

Join the RIRCA, the Reds club and rub shoulder with fellow Red addicts, breeders, and exhibitors.

Finally, if you can, work with someone somewhat local to you, in a local poultry club who may have 30 years of experience in birds and have this person serve as a kind of mentor to you. This is invaluable.

If none of the above holds any interest to you, then quite honestly? Just enjoy your birds. Feed them, enjoy the eggs and have fun with them, as it really doesn't matter. Breeding, raising and exhibiting fine R I Reds, bred to the standard is a passion and a hobby that not everyone shares. That's ok too.

Personally, I'm far too addicted and I purposely choose to be.

This is what I now have time to do and I'm enjoying it beyond measure.

 

[RedRidge]

They were hatched 7/13 and they are from Luckey Pickens Farm in Arkansas. George Ryan and Roy Autry stock.

One of the problems with hatching that late in the year is that the true Pol is not accurate. If you really want to compare apples to apples (as opposed to apples to oranges), then the comparison needs to be between birds that are hatched about the same time.
For instance, pullets that are just now coming into Pol would be acceptable if they were hatched in July or August. But if I had spring hatched chicks, they should have got Pol long before now. The shorter days of fall will delay Pol and all that entails if they haven't reached Pol before then.
So it's hard to get a real good feel for laying ability on late hatchers because technically you would hope they would reach Pol before the days begin to get shorter.
As far as egg size, again this is line dependent. Unlike my other breed, my RIR do not lay pullet sized eggs at first - ironically they start with full sized large eggs right out if the gate.

 

[immyjay54]

I remember when Jimmy had all these strains and lines and compared the egg laying of them all.

I've only a few of the lines and strains of those lines. The individual birds are still unique, but some general statements can be made. Through your selections, you'll determine the egg laying, quality and quantity, of the birds you will have bred over the next 3 to 4 years. If you select for eggs, then you'll improve the egg laying of your future birds. If you do not, then things will stay roughly the same or even degrade. Breeding is making decisions, choices and making selective (read that as picky, fussy, particular) choices of those that go into the breeding pens.

Hey there Fred,

Just wanted to let you and anyone else know that I contacted Weebly and they found and put back the page Egg Production 2013. Anyone interested can go there and see the egg production with my birds at that time. I haven't kept record since then but I can say that the production is every bit as good from all the lines that I have as any hatchery bird. The only thing that I can say is that they do tend to lay a whole lot less in the winter months unless you have lights on. I do have lights in one pen and not the others and where the light is on, the birds positively do lay a lot better.
Hope this helps with some of the questions that some have had.
Jimmy

 

[riftnreef]

These guys can start laying any day now...ready to fire up the incubator for more than bantam eggs!

 

[JanetMarie]

I read about the pinched tails on here and don't know what they are. Can someone briefly explain? I think I should buy the APA Standard book.

 

[Fred's Hens]

The first 40 pages of the Standard has all these wonderful drawings and descriptions of the anatomy of the birds. These descriptions are not breed specific, as those come later in the book. These first 40 pages are worth the price of buying the Standard of Perfection, online at the American Poultry Association website.

Folks who are serious about poultry? This is a must have item, and some call it the bible of poultry.

These are a few of the drawings from the earliest SOP. These help explain the concept but remember, a tail can be pinched on two axis. Vertically and horizontally.



If you see pinched tails, sharpen your hatchet. Do not breed them. These birds were carefully bred by folks before us to have nice wide bodies, from shoulders through the tail, Note #1 above. So called "heritage" birds do not stay this way by themselves. They were carefully and wisely bred in the past and they must continue to be bred to the Standard or else the faults creep in with amazing speed. Without careful breeding and purposeful breeding, these great birds fall apart and one has only "preserved" birds that can, unfortunately, only be seen as a mess.

Breed carefully. Breed wisely. Preserve these great birds by breeding them to the Standard.

 

[cmom]

I agree with Fred's Hens.
The female in this picture recently won a Champion at a show. I was trying to get a profile but just as I snapped the picture she turned her head towards me.


I think this is another good example. It isn't a very good picture. I wish I had taken a better picture. This was taken quite awhile ago. This female is in one of my breeding pens. This is the pen that all of my birds that have won Champion American at the shows have come from. I look for good width across and down the back with a nice brick shaped body, nice yellow color and horn coloring down the legs and nice dark beaks. I don't think you will find many absolutely perfect birds but some will be very close. Even when I put a great male with great females, that doesn't guarantee that all of the chicks that hatch will be great chicks, but there should be some very nice chicks. Every once in awhile you will get a beautiful bird. One of my mentors was Bob the creator of this thread. When I had a chick or bird I thought was a very nice bird I would ask him for his opinion. It took a lot of years but my birds kept improving. I would show them in the beginning just to see what others saw. I didn't place all that well but took what I learned and put it into practice. It has paid off.

 

[JanetMarie]

Thank you Fred's Hens and cmom.