The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[202roosterlane]

I agree to extent. Regardless rudeness should never be tolerated or expected. I think we both have said our peace. Let's agree to disagree and move on to what the thread was intended. That is my intentions.

 

[stephanie1992]

Rate of spur development varies from strain to strain but the length of your cock's spurs suggest he's probably at least 4. Harder to guess on a female but her legs look pretty smooth so I'd assume she's younger.
If you're referring to the crooked middle toe on the female that's not a result of having been "treated bad". She hatched that way. Crooked toes can be genetic but are usually the result of temperature fluctuations during incubation.
If you don't mind I'll use the picture of your cock bird to illustrate another point. For various purposes people will sometime cross single combed & rose combed birds within a breed. Your cock bird's comb is the result of such a cross as evinced by the raised central ridge. Most often such a cross is used to improve type in the rose combed line. It generally helps with this but leaves rose combs that take a few generations to correct.

thank u. Finally someone replyed lol. The hen is missing her back toe on the tagged foot and her crooked toe wasnt always crookend. my friensd owned her and showed with me. she use to show this bird(never placed 1st but got 2nd) and put it in a pen with a black aastrolorp and he attacked her and broke the middle toe and she lost her other one. the cage was gross and small. and all she fed was scratch, so i asked her if i could take the bird. the rooster is my ex show bird. he placed first at shows when he was young. my old ag adviser breeds them. he has no single comb birds. all rose. but where ever he got his breeding flock from could have single comb blood in them. His comb didnt always look like that but got weirder looking with age. Thank u for ur input. How old so these chickens usually live for?? And i dnt think the roos mating the hen at all. never see them mate and eggs are never fertile. Im going to buy a new, better quality roo and most likely hen. ill keep these two as pets.

 

[NYREDS]

They're beautiful

Interesting thread, and no;.... rudeness is uncalled for.

I am still seeking opinions, so judge away.... Show or Soup ?


I Appreciate all input.

 

[Robert Blosl]

This is the post that was directed at Bob. And no. No where on here does it say you HAVE to PM someone if you want to ask just one person a question on this thread. And if you felt the need to jump in there with your expert opinion great. But leave it just that. You should not make it personal. When you added the comment " CERTAINLY NOTHING I WOULD HAVE ANY USE FOR. All I am saying is NYred, you come very rude in a lot of your posts. No one asked if you would have use for it.
Again another rude post: Nothing in either post suggested the question was for Bob only.
I do sometimes forget where I am and assume people who ask for a critique actually want an honest one. Since this is BYC where every bird is beautiful & "SQ" [although that often appears to stand for soup quality] I suppose I should have said he was the best Red I ever saw.

You are a Judge right? Surely you do not tell people this bird is a piece of crap, soup quality during Judging? I would expect that a Judge would give a professional opinion without personal rude comments. And for everyone jumping on the band wagon, "HE'S a JUDGE of 50 years".....great but wouldn't you expect more professionalism from a Judge of 50 years.

I totally get this is a Heritage thread but I thought the point was to share knowledge and encourage new people to raise heritage birds. If very time you raise a chicken long enough it's ready to be looked at for an opinion, and then someone slams you and makes you wonder why you even tried. There is a difference between giving a friendly expert opinion that will help guide someone, encourage them to continue with their birds and just being offensive and a chicken snob.
the


My reply to your request:

He is walking away but he he is a keeper. Try to get a picture of him side ways maybe one head on to show the width of his body, I even had one guy get over a bird and take a picture from above to show the width of back and to see if it is even or tapered around the oil gland area. I am getting emails and messages of so many reds I cant keep track of them all. I got a phone call from a fellow in Georgia last night and after he described to me like I was a blind man what his color was he has a dream bird. Just dont. know who's strain the bird came from. He told me his beak is about 90% horn color, his spurs on this three year old male is black or horn, his tail feathers where 100% beetle green on the outside and then when he took a saddle feather and held it up to his light bulb in his chicken house to see the color of the quill it was black. These are all indicators that he does have pure Rhode Island Reds no production blood could be in this line as this washes out the above indicators of good color. He is sending me pictures of this bird but my home computer is at the shop and I cant get my email right now.

He bought these from a Friend who got them at a show so he does not even know who the origin of these birds are. He has been raising chickens for five years and this is his first crack at having Standard Breed birds. He is very excited and he has a new standard to read and look at. So here we go again another convert to helping keep a old line of chickens going. He has nice chicks so far. The next thing is shape they should be long and brick shape like a brick. No short bodies as when these birds molt when 18 months old they will be boxy looking, they should be moderately broad. We weighed some of Matt's large fowl last night when I came over to his house to give his son a trio of my Mohawk RED BANTAMS yes there is such a chicken. His birds where standard weight or a pound over which is ideal. Some of said you can tell the feather quality when you hold them I felt this last night on these birds, it feels like you are running your hand over a silk cloth. The webbing of the females where solid and tight no stringy feathers over the back area. Now as I described the above items for color and type these are things a judge looks for when trying to place Reds. Sometimes I would like to tell people their chicken pictures look like junk or they are scrubs but unless they are pure commerical I try to give them a good idea what they have and what they need to improve on.

Here is a case and point. Matt called me up at the Lake City Florida show and told me there is a guy selling large fowl reds out of the back of his pickup. He described them to me and then sent me a picture, I called him back on the cell phone and told him they look pure to me. When he got them home they looked like they were raised on cheap feed and where in poor condition but the color was all there. I saw them last night and the females are small but standard weight but brick shaped like no buddy's business. I would like to have two females and then cross them onto a Mohawk cockerel next year they are that good. So if they get you excited and they have good brick shape you got some good stuff. You got to remember again there are not many alive in the USA today. There are only maybe five to ten strains worth having. New York Reds has a great line which was the old Don Nelson line. I wonder if the fellow who called me up from Georgia has this line. Time will tell. In a nut shell it is hard to make a judgment from a picture on this board. A u tube video like the ones that I posted from Germany is even better. Feather samples from the oil gland and saddle area helps tell on color. But the standard states a even shade of color so it can be lighter but even in color darker is better like the bird in my avatar so when they are old birds they are even.

Nu ff said, there is a famous person from California who said CANT WE JUST GET ALONG...

Rodney King:

We will survive and get along and learn as we find more people to help with Rhode Island Reds.bob

 

[Young Heritage]

My wife purchased some Heritage RIR chicks for me and she can't remember the strain/line she was told they came from. Can someone provide a few of the names of lines so I can ask her if any of them ring a bell? She got them at the Newnan Poultry show last weekend.

 

[collaire]

I think I saw those chicks in Newnan. I tried to find out the strain, but never did figure just where they might have originated. From the adults I saw I thought they were down from Jimmy Swansons birds .

 

[Fuller72]

I like the straight forward comment of NYREDS, It may have come over a little harsh, but it was straight to the point. I'm just getting back into breeding RIR's and would love to have his experience in breeding or judging. We tend to want to sugar coat everything in today's world. If I think I'm breeding great birds in my mind and ask for a opinion. Who better to judge my birds then an actual poultry judge with 50 yrs. of experience. If I'm going to die with some bad disease in two week, I don't want someone telling me I've got two months to live, give it to me straight. It might hurt a little up front but it lets you get prepared for whats coming. Just make your opinion from true feelings, not some type of jealousy.

Interesting that the person I was responding to doesn't seem to have much of a problem with what I said & yet you do.
You say rude, I say direct. After 3,500 posts I think everyone knows that my posts won't leave anyone wondering what I think.
As to how I comment on birds in a show it depend to some extent on the nature of the show. In 4-H or youth shows, which I judge several of, I always first stress the positives. Apparently I do this well as I've more than once had fairs reschedule their poultry shows for a day I could come rather than contacting another judge.
In open shows, dealing with adults, I tend to be pretty direct. I have in fact more than once suggested that soup would be the best use for a bird someone has asked me about. If the bird has no quality that would make it useful for show or as a breeder how would I be doing anyone a service by encouraging them to keep working with the bird?
You certainly are entitled to your opinion about how I respond to questions, although I didn't ask you. Fortunately I don't feel any need for your approval to shore up my self-worth.

 

[Robert Blosl]

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924003213679;page=root;view=image;size=100;seq=1;num=1

Found a old book I never read be for it is now digital.

In regards to Reds in the South I will tell you some names. Bill Bennett Georgia, Barry Roberts in Florida, Paul Hardy Georgia and Brian Simmons in Florida who have been breeding for a while. There are some folks who just got chicks or eggs in the past year or so. Don't know all their names. Maybe someone else can add some names for you. There was a fellow Jimmy Swanson who had some good large fowl in Florida and was zoned out of his chickens some of his birds maybe around. We have the old E W Reese line coming along in lower Alabama. Matt has some and I handled them yesterday. They look like my old line from 15 years ago.

 

[Young Heritage]

In regards to Reds in the South I will tell you some names. Bill Bennett Georgia, Barry Roberts in Florida, Paul Hardy Georgia and Brian Simmons in Florida who have been breeding for a while. There are some folks who just got chicks or eggs in the past year or so. Don't know all their names. Maybe someone else can add some names for you. There was a fellow Jimmy Swanson who had some good large fowl in Florida and was zoned out of his chickens some of his birds maybe around. We have the old E W Reese line coming along in lower Alabama. Matt has some and I handled them yesterday. They look like my old line from 15 years ago.

She thinks Paul Hardy is what she was told. She also said she would not buy me chickens anymore as a surprise gift, lol. I talked to Matt about some of his RIRs. I think I am on his list. I hope I am on the list.

 

[D&S Farms]

got my new rir's