The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Asmorilda]

I can't tell by the pictures whose line they may be descendants of. I know the line of my birds because I purchased my original birds from breeders of my line and I haven't bred any other birds into it. If I do get any birds to put with mine, I know the breeder I get them from so I can keep the line pure.

Do they look like Mohawk Rhode Island Reds?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Mohawk.

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but the term "mohawk" was just a name Bob Blosl gave to a particular feathering type in one of his lines. Bob had other colorful "names" for feathering quality he saw in other of his birds. The term was useful and had meaning to Bob, but it has become far too over blown by folks these days.

There are many suberb quality Reds around and certain "lines" worked on hard and long by others as well. These names are sometimes abused by those who are marketing and hyping their birds. The buyer would be well advised to pay far less attention to such things and learn the Standard, clerk for a top Red's judge at some shows and be mentored by someone who can help them see good type, shape, combs, feather, keels, back lines, etc in Reds.

Relying on jargon or hype is not a good method. A pen of birds can have all the supposed "names" in the world proclaimed over them and yet? Shockingly, perhaps, if one may not understand breeding, there's not a single bird of quality in that pen. Not a one. Every last one of them could be little more than potential soup stock for dumplings.

Mrs Donald Donaldson and the rather famous Reese line of Reds is a good line. But, what one has in a backyard pens is entirely up to you and your abiities to select and breed good birds. We don't breed names. We breed birds. It takes a lot of experience, trial and error, time, more time, more feed, more matings, more hatchings, more culling than you might ever imagine to produce a decent bird here or there.

OK, that's my $.02 for this morning. I've got some outstanding Red birds to go take care of. I asked them yesterday if they knew anything about Mohawk and not a single bird answered me. All they wanted was their fresh water and feed bowl refilled. hmmmmm...

 

[cmom]

A quote from Bob Blosl

"[COLOR=000066]one year I raised a cockerel named number 68. I sent him to the 1998 Ohio National Show and he did not place. Matt Lamont kept him one more month and showed him at the Connersville Indiana show and he would best Rhode Island Red. Matt sent him back to me and from this male I developed what I called the Mohawk line of my Rhode Island Red Large Fowl."[/COLOR]

 

[cmom]

When do the hens start laying? They are not squatting or showing any interest in the nesting boxes. My wife think they are duds!

While I was not given a definitive birth date (I was given a month of birth), we are anywhere between 29 and 33 weeks.

My heritage Reds tend to start laying quite a bit laying than my other birds do. Most of my pure Reds were around 8/9 months old before they layed an egg. I have some 6/7 month pullets and my RIW's just gave me their first egg recently but the Reds haven't. They have been exploring the nest boxes.

 

[Asmorilda]

Mohawk.

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but the term "mohawk" was just a name Bob Blosl gave to a particular feathering type in one of his lines. Bob had other colorful "names" for feathering quality he saw in other of his birds. The term was useful and had meaning to Bob, but it has become far too over blown by folks these days.

There are many suberb quality Reds around and certain "lines" worked on hard and long by others as well. These names are sometimes abused by those who are marketing and hyping their birds. The buyer would be well advised to pay far less attention to such things and learn the Standard, clerk for a top Red's judge at some shows and be mentored by someone who can help them see good type, shape, combs, feather, keels, back lines, etc in Reds.

Relying on jargon or hype is not a good method. A pen of birds can have all the supposed "names" in the world proclaimed over them and yet? Shockingly, perhaps, if one may not understand breeding, there's not a single bird of quality in that pen. Not a one. Every last one of them could be little more than potential soup stock for dumplings.

Mrs Donald Donaldson and the rather famous Reese line of Reds is a good line. But, what one has in a backyard pens is entirely up to you and your abiities to select and breed good birds. We don't breed names. We breed birds. It takes a lot of experience, trial and error, time, more time, more feed, more matings, more hatchings, more culling than you might ever imagine to produce a decent bird here or there.

OK, that's my $.02 for this morning. I've got some outstanding Red birds to go take care of. I asked them yesterday if they knew anything about Mohawk and not a single bird answered me. All they wanted was their fresh water and feed bowl refilled. hmmmmm...

I've done some reading but I've never seen more than a picture of what is termed the Mohawk line. I am just trying to figure out what I've got here so I know whether to keep them or start over with a quality line. I am not really interested in showing them. Once we were told about the heritage line & I did some reading, we were interested in preserving the line. I know we have to invest in more pullets. Because of that & our desire to preserve heritage lines, I wanted to make sure what we had was indeed a heritage line before breeding them with heritage birds. I don't want to buy heritage birds to breed to our birds if our birds are not heritage. That would defeat our purpose of trying to keep a heritage line going. Since I was told our birds were descended from the old Georgia line of Mohawk Rhode Island Reds, I am thinking they are the Reese line but I don't know for sure. If they are not heritage line birds, it's o.k.. I will just purchase like birds for breeding & expanding the flock or cull them & start over.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
They may be pure, but my opinion is to start over since you really don't know for sure and there is really no way to be certain from the pictures. Many years ago I bought eggs from someone who told me his birds were "Heritage". I hatched out the eggs and they turned out to be Production Reds. Then a few months later I bought some birds at a poultry show and was told they were from the Reese line. They were nice and dark but weren't show quality and I do like to show my birds. My original Reese birds were ok but not great. I did eventually sell the birds and started over with birds from a different breeder. I sold the birds to some people that really didn't care about the characteristics and forms, they just wanted the pretty dark red birds for eggs and pets. I do show my birds and have been very happy with the last birds I got. Any one can say they have birds from the Reese or Mohawk line. I would invest in some birds from a reputable breeder. There are quite a few. If you haven't read these websites, I posted them again. I am an old lady and am sometimes forgetful. I have to write everything down. Good luck, have fun and happy reading...

http://bloslspoutlryfarm.tripod.com/id64.html
http://jimspetsandpoultry.weebly.com/

 

[Fred's Hens]

Here are some pics of my birds. What do you think? Are they Mohawk line? You can see the eye color in the third pic though it does look a little more yellow / gold than it actually is. They are about 4 months old now. Will their eye color change when they get older?

I don't care what name is or is not on these birds. If you don't want them because they lack a name, no problems. Just box 'em up and I'll gladly take them off your hands. LOL

They're very nice and it looks to me as if you have a very, very good start. If it were me, I just get to work with them and enjoy every minute. It doesn't matter what name is on them. The judges don't ask at the shows. They just evaluate each bird and place them accordingly.

Are your birds show winners? Are they perfect and without fault? Nope, probably not. But they're pretty decent, from what we can see, so again, if you wish to get some other birds, do let me know. hahaha.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I agree, but if you want to work with a line and preserve it, why would you want to work with the unknown. I guess you could always start your own line. There are quite a few different RIR lines out in the world. If you go to Jim's website he has had many of them and gives his opinions. http://jimspetsandpoultry.weebly.com/

 

[Asmorilda]

They may be pure, but my opinion is to start over since you really don't know for sure and there is really no way to be certain from the pictures. Many years ago I bought eggs from someone who told me his birds were "Heritage". I hatched out the eggs and they turned out to be Production Reds. Then a few months later I bought some birds at a poultry show and was told they were from the Reese line. They were nice and dark but weren't show quality and I do like to show my birds. My original Reese birds were ok but not great. I did eventually sell the birds and started over with birds from a different breeder. I sold the birds to some people that really didn't care about the characteristics and forms, they just wanted the pretty dark red birds for eggs and pets. I do show my birds and have been very happy with the last birds I got. Any one can say they have birds from the Reese or Mohawk line. I would invest in some birds from a reputable breeder. There are quite a few. If you haven't read these websites, I posted them again. I am an old lady and am sometimes forgetful. I have to write everything down. Good luck, have fun and happy reading...

http://bloslspoutlryfarm.tripod.com/id64.html
http://jimspetsandpoultry.weebly.com/

Since we don't want to show them, I don't think we'll get rid of them soon. I think I need to know more about the lines before I start over. Besides, these are really more my husband's birds than mine. I have been taking care of them but he loves them. I just don't want to breed them to a heritage line if they are not a heritage line themselves. I thank you for those websites. I do believe you must have posted them earlier because I had already seen & saved them. I do need to read more on the sites though. I didn't get completely through both of them. I am an old lady too & I can't always remember everything I've read anyway so it's good for me to keep revisiting information.

 

[Asmorilda]

I don't care what name is or is not on these birds. If you don't want them because they lack a name, no problems. Just box 'em up and I'll gladly take them off your hands. LOL

They're very nice and it looks to me as if you have a very, very good start. If it were me, I just get to work with them and enjoy every minute. It doesn't matter what name is on them. The judges don't ask at the shows. They just evaluate each bird and place them accordingly.

Are your birds show winners? Are they perfect and without fault? Nope, probably not. But they're pretty decent, from what we can see, so again, if you wish to get some other birds, do let me know. hahaha.

I'm one of those weird people who "just have to know". Sort of like the "a place for everything & everything in its place". My husband bought 7 bantam roosters from a farmer who said they were game birds. Each one if different from the other & I've tried to look up game birds & the various kinds to find out what they are even though we don't plan to do anything with them. But, the fact that I can't identify them specifically, drives me to distraction. This has been true with the RIRs as well. I think at this point, I need to learn more about these birds before making any decision on them. There is obviously more to know than the fact that they are big, dark & have black tail feathers & that's all I knew a couple of months ago. I have learned a little more but still have much more to learn. I am still hoping to move forward with a proven line at some point, simply to help preserve the heritage line & because my husband loves RIRs.