The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[immyjay54]

Hi Penny,
You would know better then most on here because you have some just a week younger then these. The color is absolutely stunning on these birds. My SC cockerel is really nice with his perfect 5 point comb and the RC boys are really nice also just that one has a nicer comb then the other. No double combs or anything like that one is just a little more flat right now.
I just posted these girls because it seems that there is so much talk about the boys and I look more at my girls for the long, wide backs etc. I think it is just as much if not more important to have the really nice girls to produce these nice chicks. I haven't seen any pinched tails and all are pretty nice in the black color on the tail feathers. I see a lot of nice tee pee shaped tails. I'm just extremely happy with these girls like my Nelson girls. Now if the egg production is just as good. Then I would be 100% satisfied with what I have. lol Pretty birds without egg production does not fill my belly at breakfast time. Plus, it will be kind of hard to keep a line going if they only lay 1 or 2 eggs per week per bird and this is what I'm finding with some of the different RIR lines. Gosh, I'd have to keep 50 of each line. lol
Jim

 

[stefanfarms]

very nice, our TSC is the same hauling them out left and right

 

[stefanfarms]

Originally Posted by immyjay54

Just wanted to post a couple pictures of my 19 week old Underwood Juvie's. I got eggs from Jim Heinz back in October and hatched these out 10 November. Thought I would brag a little about Gary Underwood's birds. Check out the brest, back width and color on these girls. These girls/boys are 19 weeks and are as big or bigger then any of the other lines that I have that are 11 months or older. I also have 24 chicks straight from Gary that are 6 weeks old.






nothing beats the true color, cant wait to see pics when they are lil bit older. Got 9 SC to hatch out of the Dick Horstman batch and another 8 to hatch out RC same line. Hopefully they will turn out like the ones we had when i was a kid. Time will tell

 

[Robert Blosl]

Its interesting to here comments like Tee Pee Tails. Wide width of backs and not tapering to the oil gland and then the even rich color which these pictures demonstrated. These are all of the true traits of a Standard Breed Rhode Island Red. So many of you are having these kind of birds on your yards and I wonder if the lurkers who come on here who have supposedly Rhode Island Reds wonder why there's don't look like these. Hopefully, they will learn over time. However, if you are happy with your Tractor Supply Golden Rhode Island Reds that's good if you are happy I am happy.

I got a email from a fellow that made me think. Some comment has been made on some Rhode Island Red male tails as they don't like the way some look. I told one fellow that I think one male will be just fine when he molts and is 18 months old. He told me he cant wait till he is 18 months old I want a true to life Standard of Perfection tail at 7 months of age.

Then I asked myself what Standard of Perfection is he reading or going by. This triggered some old articles and stories told to me by old master breeders when I was a kid. There is nothing like sitting at a poultry barn and listing to four or five old time 70 to 80 year old master breeders and then telling stories about Judges and old breeders they once know. It made me think and I think I will write down some thoughts of these old stories in a kind of make be leave article but some are true but will change the names of the judges and breeders so we wont embarrass their legacy.

One of the questions use to be who do you think was or is the best Rhode Island Red Judge alive. What did he like in a good Red. One guy said who do you think was the best exhibitor who showed Rhode Island Reds. One thing I did learn there where many but they showed birds that the judge wanted as each judge was a freak or faddist about something. One judge wanted a perfect wing color that is black in the right places. Type did not mean nothing to him. Some judges wanted a bird that filled up the cage and did not care if he was three pounds over weight. Some liked Reds with High tail angles or even short bodies. Some judges wanted a long bird and would not cut a bird because he had no chest or the brick shape was cut off.

Then there was the GREAT judges who judged the bird on the whole. Some judges where Harold Tompkins, Maurice Wallace, Kenneth Bowles, Cliff Terry, Judge Fertterly from Arizona and Maurice Delano from Owen Farms and of course many loved Arturo Schilling.

Wanting a Cockerel to look like the Standard of Perfection when it called for a 18 month old bird was often questioned by these old timers. A cock bird that was 18 months old was suppose to look like the picture in the standard as many of the cockerels turned out to be culls as cock birds because the lost their type to aging.

I think the best advice is to learn what the judge likes and make sure you bring that kind of bird to the show as it may not be a bird you will breed from but you will win with such a bird. Something to think about as we learn how to pick our birds from the APA standard of perfection this year. One judge said its just his personnel opinion of what he thinks or his view of the Standard of Perfection . One breeder said ya it is but it does not mean its right. When I left the tables I often wondered if I would ever figure out what they where talking about or if things would change today. I still don't know. I just breed them by the black and white pictures as 18 month old hens and cock birds and the heck what these new judges want. Heck in bantams it seems today they are more interested in color than type.

Just a thought hope you think about this as time goes on. What are you going to do or follow?????????????????????????

 

[flowerchild59]

I was curious on how many of you use your culls as meat birds and how they fare. Of course I understand they are not cornish crosses, just was wondering how their carcasses were.

 

[flowerchild59]

Anyone know of any rosecomb RIR breeders in southern illinois or SE MO, TN or KY?

 

[Robert Blosl]

Where to get Rose Combs ? CHRIS lives somewhere in that area and Gary Underwood in Ill.

All Standard Breed American large fowl are good eating birds. That is what the foundation of the original Rhode Island Red was Meat, Eggs Beauty.

The current Rhode Island Reds in feed stores only have on positive trait. EGGS and lots of them, no beauty and just a little meat on them.

That's what they are breed for in the 1930s high egg production to be used in Commercial Egg laying houses and today they are used along with the Golden what ever they call them to lay a egg a day then just before they molt or during the molt take them to the slaughter house and they end up in your super market section as a cooking hen. They do not have the long term five to eight years ability to lay and produce.

However, you type in Rhode Island Reds into Bing pictures and look at all the pictures of this breed and 95 percent of the pictures will be production reds. They have high jacked the name and every buddy and their brother will tell you they are the real McCoy's and our beloved dark Rhode Island Reds are something from MARS.

Hope this helps you. Do you have some of those feed store Champions? My neighbor just ordered 25 of them for his egg laying business from Ideal Hatchery. I told him he can make a profit from them as Mr. Fox has a good strain of pullets that will lay almost a egg a day. He's happy and I am happy. I can buy eggs from him if I want to eat.

 

[Fentress]

I was curious on how many of you use your culls as meat birds and how they fare. Of course I understand they are ot cornish crosses, just was wondering how their carcasses were.

I am interested as well. Does the standard of perfection produce a true dual purpose bird that has some meat on it's bones. At the Good Shephard (Frank Reese) web site, the pictures of the New Hamp and Barred Rock carcasses are many times better than the New Hamp and Barred Rock that I got from the hatchery. Does any one have any pictures or data on carcass weights and ages for the HRIR?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Sorry, I could not bring myself to process the HRIR Roos. I found someone that was very happy to get them.

 

[FOGELLY]

We eat almost all of our cull cockerels.
I have never weighed them after butchering. They do taste good.
We sometimes try to hold "Heritage Breeds" to a level that they never were. What we deem a good carcass was probably not what our ancestors deemed acceptable. I remember some pretty good chicken dinners at Grandmas back in the day, and some of those birds were not all that meaty.

As for Frank Reese's birds, he has been breeding for meat for along time. This has the same effect as breeding for eggs. So are his birds truly DP?
The GSBR are by far the meatiest non CornishX birds we have had, but they won't set the world on fire as layers.

Our Columbain Rocks are also really meaty and very good layers. They still need a little work to get SOP, but are a fine bird.

Ron