The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Fred's Hens]

Now, at point of lay, I've handled all of this year's pullets a couple of times. I've chosen my best two pullets of 2015. They are far from perfect. They need better tails, especially need to eliminate the red in those tail feathers. It's an uphill climb and very rarely do you see a female without at least some misplaced red in the tail.

On the males, the issue that remains a struggle is eliminating the misplaced black in the hackles. Have sorted through the K's now that they have finished putting in the adult feathers. Found two males with almost no misplaced black in the hackles.

Interesting to me is the fact that in both cases, the birds, male and female, chosen for having the most improvement in terms of not having misplaced color were also the birds with the best overall type as well.

So that's it. These 2 pullets and the two cockerels. The rest are fine birds, but I just wish to work with very small numbers of candidates and push hard on some these common faults. Not going to breed any female with excessive red in the tail and am keeping no males with excessive black in the hackles.

 

[karenj32]

Well, took me a week post culling the cockerals last Wednesday to get the pictures sorted and posted on here. I had 15 of one line and 12 of the other line to choose from. Only really found 2 that stood out as outstanding. (compared to the others) I'm keeping 4 though, including one sorry specimen who is on the bottom of the cockerel pecking order. His extreme pitifulness was not as obvious when there were 27 males running in the yard. Now that there is only 4 it is obvious. Still I wanted 2 from each group and he had good Hogan (Pelvic) measurements, and nicely shaped pelvic bones. The weights posted on the pictures are first thing in the morning so no feed that day. I find weighing at night vs morning tends to average about 4 oz different at this age. Not sure how many pictures it will let me post
.








#62 was the first one I took pictures of, so didn't have my technique down yet.

 

[karenj32]

Found out how many it let me post - Here are the other 2 cockerels

 

[cmom]

Now, at point of lay, I've handled all of this year's pullets a couple of times. I've chosen my best two pullets of 2015. They are far from perfect. They need better tails, especially need to eliminate the red in those tail feathers. It's an uphill climb and very rarely do you see a female without at least some misplaced red in the tail.

On the males, the issue that remains a struggle is eliminating the misplaced black in the hackles. Have sorted through the K's now that they have finished putting in the adult feathers. Found two males with almost no misplaced black in the hackles.

Interesting to me is the fact that in both cases, the birds, male and female, chosen for having the most improvement in terms of not having misplaced color were also the birds with the best overall type as well.

So that's it. These 2 pullets and the two cockerels. The rest are fine birds, but I just wish to work with very small numbers of candidates and push hard on some these common faults. Not going to breed any female with excessive red in the tail and am keeping no males with excessive black in the hackles.

They are very handsome. I hope mine will look as fine. I have at least another couple of months before my girls look similar to yours. None of my males have started crowing yet but expect they will start pretty soon. I will keep 4 of my best young males, 2 cockerels from both of my roosters. I want to keep the line separate. I currently have 5 coops and pens for the RIR's. I'm not young and I sometimes think about long range plans for the birds. I hope I can pass on some of these fine birds to others to keep them going (Reese/Mohawk) long after I'm gone.

 

[BlackwoodHollow]

Now, at point of lay, I've handled all of this year's pullets a couple of times. I've chosen my best two pullets of 2015. They are far from perfect. They need better tails, especially need to eliminate the red in those tail feathers. It's an uphill climb and very rarely do you see a female without at least some misplaced red in the tail.

On the males, the issue that remains a struggle is eliminating the misplaced black in the hackles. Have sorted through the K's now that they have finished putting in the adult feathers. Found two males with almost no misplaced black in the hackles.

Interesting to me is the fact that in both cases, the birds, male and female, chosen for having the most improvement in terms of not having misplaced color were also the birds with the best overall type as well.

So that's it. These 2 pullets and the two cockerels. The rest are fine birds, but I just wish to work with very small numbers of candidates and push hard on some these common faults. Not going to breed any female with excessive red in the tail and am keeping no males with excessive black in the hackles.

They're beautiful, Fred! Are these birds any relation to Ken's? We are thinking about getting a few dozen instead of only one to make sure we have a big enough selection to choose the best birds from.

I'm so excited about everything and so is our daughter. She's joining 4h this year and is thrilled about having some 'real' Reds to show.

You're very kind, did you know that? I just can't thank you enough. Anyways, it really means a lot to us for someone to come through for our daughter.

I'm also learning about that world you spoke of earlier; did a lot of reading over the past two days, plan to do a lot more, and we can't wait for the show in February, cmom. I wish I had more time to read right now but the chooks and family life have been keeping us so busy lately. We're currently re-routing our free range area(a little over an acre), going over plans for breeding pens, starting the winter chook garden(inspiration courtesy of Mr. scflock), finishing the new coop and shed, moving the brooders as well as building extras, choosing and sourcing materials as cheaply as possible, looking for a dependable used garden tractor, etc., etc. . . you guys know how it goes. Couple that with four kids plus work and it can get a bit time consuming.

We're just doing what we can a little every day, but we're getting there.

And always gotta make time for those babies.

 

[cmom]

I do free range my birds but I like to be outside where I can keep an eye on them. Last week a Red Tailed hawk discovered the birds. I chased it off but it came back a couple of days later and then some crows chased it off. I do put out any cracked eggs I may get for the crows and they do a pretty good job of chasing the hawks off. Before I covered the pens, if any of the birds happened to lay an egg on the ground the croes would go in and get them. I have Large pens for my birds so if there are days I can't let them out they can be out in their pens. The pens are covered and I have electric wire around them also to discourage diggers.
This is an older picture and all of the trees I planted in the pens are much larger now.

 

[BlackwoodHollow]

Nice! Those pens are huge! Our breeding pens aren't going to be that big, we are either going with 5'x25' or 10'x25' per pen. Something similar to this:




Photos are from http://chickinnkeeper.com

We aren't going to have electrical, but bury the fencing a foot or so to discourage diggers. I kind of think electrical would be the most effective, or a combo, but this is the plan for now. I really don't have much experience and hope this will be sufficient.

The free rangers will be general population egg layers/dual purpose flock. We also have a Shepherd/Ridgeback mix that is a pretty good guard dog.

 

[cmom]

Nice! Those pens are huge! Our breeding pens aren't going to be that big, we are either going with 5'x25' or 10'x25' per pen. Something similar to this:




Photos are from http://chickinnkeeper.com

We aren't going to have electrical, but bury the fencing a foot or so to discourage diggers. I kind of think electrical would be the most effective, or a combo, but this is the plan for now. I really don't have much experience and hope this will be sufficient.

The free rangers will be general population egg layers/dual purpose flock. We also have a Shepherd/Ridgeback mix that is a pretty good guard dog.

Sounds like you have a good plan. Our daughter some years ago moved to a place where she couldn't have pets so we inherited her walker hound. She (Daisy) never bothered the chickens and we never had any predators when she was alive. She lived a nice long life. I'm too old now for another dog. I would probably get a puppy to train but it would probably out live me. I have had several dogs in my life. We are in our 70's now.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Robert "Bob" Blosl


Some of the folks who read on this thread and maybe now post on this thread never had the chance to interact with it's creator, Bob Blosl. Bob started this thread to do what Bob did best. Promote Rhode Island Reds. No, no, not from the hatchery, Bob called those "rusty scrub birds". True bred, real, honest to goodness, breeder preserved and maintained Reds. Bob had a special gift for promoting this breed.

Sadly, Bob was taken from us far too early, having passed from this life to the next when he went home to be with the Lord a couple of years ago. It saddened a lot of people who got to "know" Bob through this thread, through his mangled syntax and endless story telling. In his honor, some of his old, self narrated video has been posted to various Red's club sites and posted on YouTube. If you never had the chance to actually hear him talk or visit with him, I believe you'll enjoy spending 40 minutes watching Bob describe bird after bird at his place in Southern Alabama in 1993. So, from 25 years ago comes Bob's voice as he walks around among his Reds at that time. Enjoy. Just click on the link below.

Blosls Reds 1993

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[sgribble]

Thank you for posting this Fred