The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[peachdawg78]

Here are a few quick snap shots of my Ramey Reds, the 2 oullets jsut started laying they aare about 6 months old.

 

[FOGELLY]

Billy here is a picture of the Ramey pullet she is 34 weeks old and weighed 4lb4oz today.



Bates pullet around 40weeks old. Weighed 6lbs 2oz today.


Bates also around 40 weeks weighed 6lbs 5oz. White specks are from a bird that roosted above her last night. Her tail looks a little high in this picture because she is on alert and trying to avoid me while I try to get her still for pic.

 

[collaire]

The weights of the Ramey birds got my interest, so I went and weighed some of two year old hens from him. One weighed 6pounds 8 ounces, and one weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces. I have a geriatric old hen he gave me, which I think won best large fowl in show a couple of times. She weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces.

 

[Robert Blosl]

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I don’t know if these pictures will come out but Peach dog has a picture of a pullet and then the pullet from Arkansas from Fogelly I was looking at. Do you see the round extended keel on these females. Look how profound they stick out this is what gives you the brick shape. One thing also you got to look for when these bird grow up to say ten months of age is their tails. Do the main tail feathers all of them stick out and make a Tee Pee look from the rear and the side. If you want fully furnished tails in your mails the females must have this kind of tail in order for the males to have a platform for the Sickcle and lesser Sickle feathers to lay on.
Nice pictures of these birds and again it gives the lurkers who don’t post on this thread what a real Rhode Island Red from the Old Days looks like. They have no idea how hard it is to keep and maintain a flock of Heritage Rhode Island Reds. It is so easy to go to the post office or the feed store each year and get new stock. The only good thing about them doing this is if they can learn how to raise these birds up to outstanding condition I mean show condition then they have the skills to raise chickens. You can get fancy Heritage Chickens like I talk about but if you cannot provide them good conditions, water and feed and they don’t look like the birds that has just been photographed then you don’t have anything worth working and breeding from. The females at ten months of age should weight 5 1/2 pounds and the hens 6 ½ pounds. Add one pound for good measure was always the idea of Harold Tompkins to get a 200 egg pullet each year. I did the same with my Mohawk line. Don’t get them to big where the males have to be in a double coop when they go to a show. He should be about 2 feet long and 2 feet high to be in this ball park weight.
One thing I would love for you to do when your birds have full saddle and back feathers in or the females are almost laying and the roosters crowing is take four feathers from the saddle area put them together on a 3x5 index card and mount them to look at the color of your birds. I would like you to take one of the feathers and hold it up to eye level and look at the color of the quill. Is it black or bing cherry in color or is it rustic in color.?? This gives you a idea if you are in the zone for good even color.
I will cut a card and show you what I mean and then take some of my bantam red feathers and place into the card latter today to show you. Then you can ship each other feather samples to see how your color looks like the old timers use to do in the 1950s. They would not buy any birds from a breeder unless they saw feather samples of the birds. Any more pictures of Ramey or other strains out there join the fun of education. That is what this thread was from the beginning when I started it. IT HAS PAID OFF and its getting better. bob

 

[lucky123]

Is there a heritage line of rir out there that has rich yellow legs? I know the Ramey line along with some of the others have the deep red colored streak on the front of their legs, but yellow? not so much.. Has breeding for color and type over the years the reason for the lack of yellow legs? I mean, if its a choice, I know type and color is more important,but what caused the lose?

 

[henpeckedmuch]

I'm sure glad this thread found some new life in it. It seems to me that the thread started out with gusto, but then trailed off. But, now the last 5-7 pages have a great deal of information and pictures that are really helpful. I can't wait to learn how to post pictures so I can share and get input on my own chickens.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Dont get hung up on yellow legs on Heritage Rhode Island Reds. If you have very dark red color and quill color like Matts males they will be loaded with dark horn color legs maybe some yellow but I never worried about that stuff. You also will see dark horn color in the beaks of the birds. The longer the streak of horn the better. Most good birds are 3/4 long in beak in horn color.

I know others want a nice red streak going down the leg ect. Again more important things to worry about as total extended keels, brick shape, legs dead center plum in the middle tails that are not
wisk broom tails, or tails that are pinched lacking fully furnishings.

If you want yellow in the legs cross some production reds onto your birds then you will lots of nice yellow.

Hope this helps. bob

 

[eggdd]

isn't yellow legs in the standard? i guess i could just look this up instead of asking, but for conversation (and for the archive!).....

 

[nivtup]

Shanks and toes - rich yellow tinged with reddish horn. A line of red pigment down the sides of the shanks, extending to the tips of the toes, is desirable.

 

[FOGELLY]

It always amazes when we talk about Heritige RIR that leg color always gets the most responses from people who are not regular posters to this thread. Not body type, feather color or quality, but leg color.
I have found that leg color is effected by numerous factors that are not genitic.
Food, how long they have been in lay, age, weather, ect.
This is true for all my breeds no matter what color their legs are.
I have a 10 month old cockerel that until he was around 7 months old had really yellow legs with dark red lines. His legs now are light yellow but the lacing is still present. He also has almost black spurs growing in.
Legs color has been hotly debated on this thread before.
Bob and other master breeders will agree that it is just a piece of the puzzle and over all type is what you should shoot for.
Billy it would be nice to have a bird that had deep yellow legs and had everything else that is true to type. However I believe that two RIR judged side by side would have to be equally superior in all aspects before leg color (deep verses lighter) came into play.