The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[cmom]

Matt is right the Ideal Hatchery in Texas sells production RIR chicks. They are not SOP bred. They are not the old time RIR that your first post mentioned. They will be great layers. But they will look nothing like the RIR from Matt's photos and they will not act like Matt's birds either.


@Matt1616 and others, is there a production RIR thread started? If not maybe we could start one to show off the production qualities of the RIR from the hatcheries. So many people get them, come to this thread and say Ohh I hope mine are these. Maybe if we could refer them to a thread all about the chicks that the feed stores call RIR they could better understand the production breed.

There are a couple of Rhode Island Red threads. I haven't read them yet.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644420/rhode-island-red-thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/717537/the-rhode-island-red-thread

 

[cmom]

Eni

Quote:
I don't think the intention is to stop you from being proud of your RIR chicks and I think you misunderstood, Ideal does sell,Rhode Island Reds and very nice RIRs, just not pure heritage. They may also have chicks grouped in to low, medium and high grades but a high grade is not pure heritage but are very nice chicks. I have a few Production RIRs and I love them as much as the rest of my flocks. You should be proud of them. Ideal is one of the best if not the best hatchery. My original Production RIRs came from Ideal. If you have hatched chicks in your years past when you had chickens, you should know that every chick/chicken is different. One may have a longer back, deeper chest, flatter or more rounded head, etc and even different personalities. Enjoy them. Good luck with your chicks and have fun...

 

[RIR-YELLOWLEGS]

I don't think the intention is to stop you from being proud of your RIR chicks and I think you misunderstood, Ideal does sell,Rhode Island Reds and very nice RIRs, just not pure heritage. They may also have chicks grouped in to low, medium and high grades but a high grade is not pure heritage but are very nice chicks. I have a few Production RIRs and I love them as much as the rest of my flocks. You should be proud of them. Ideal is one of the best if not the best hatchery. My original Production RIRs came from Ideal. If you have hatched chicks in your years past when you had chickens, you should know that every chick/chicken is different. One may have a longer back, deeper chest, flatter or more rounded head, etc and even different personalities. Good luck with your chicks and have fun...

thank you and yes you are right each chick is different and i have alredy noticed even at 6day olds of this there physcial appearance my not be top notch but i do have 6that there color is much darker red than the others all had red bodies with the dark brown blackish line on the tops supporting a female but one isvalready bigger longer in the legs thicker in the legs and they are yellow and it walks with a longer leg stride hint a roo maybe?only time will tell each one litlle beak has a reddish hue and their intelligent is beyond me already coming when being called hint luke im mother hen hehe i do love taking care of my little flock and thank you for a kind reply.

 

[RIR-YELLOWLEGS]

Aleida, this is the original post...Loud Hen clearly stated that the birds came from Ideal Hatchery in Texas.  They never made mention of a place in Georgia.

Ideal Hatchery is a large scale hatchery in Texas.  One of the largest and most popular hatcheries in the U.S. and in my opinion their birds are the best that you can get from a hatchery but they are still hatchery stock.  By the "best" I am talking about productivity(laying eggs) and not being anything near the Standard of Perfection.  Like I stated earlier...Ideal Hatchery does not sell "Pure Bred/Heritage" Rhode Island Reds.  Their chickens are bred to lay eggs not win poultry shows and they do a very good job of it.  This is not intended as a cut on Ideal Hatchery as they are my Hatchery of choice when I buy birds for layers but if you are really looking for what you are calling "Heritage" Rhode Island Reds...Ideal is not the place to get them.

Loud Hen, my statements are not meant as an insult to your birds...it is an attempt to educate you on what you have.  You made the statement that you "just hope they are the real, true heritage breed" and I am simply letting you know the answer to that question. 


Matt

thank you and at least from what i am getting the picture of if i had to get a brood farm fowl at least it is a good brood farm.But i do have 6little ones that are a very much deeper in color than the others.oh well they are only 6days old and it much to early to tell anything even if they do have the drak blackish brown strip on the head hint suppose to be all pullets one already walks like a roo at 6day old .and is larger than the others so far i only have one that is smaller they were all the same size last week but growing so fast

 

[cmom]

Quote:
They still have their down. It's hard to tell. It won't be long and they will be getting in their feathers and loosing their down.

 

[RIR-YELLOWLEGS]

You are right they do very much have there down and the diwn is of no indication of what the feathers will be or the mature fowl will be as i will day OH WELL THEY MAY NOT BE HERITAGE FOWL REDS BUT THEY ARE STILL MY. HUSBAND RHODE ISLAND RED BITTIE CHICKS and I sill will be proud of them thank y'all for the enlightenment and i may still search for my own heritage fowl.

 

[Matt1616]

Lol yes some ROOs my better guard dogs than do and i am not comparing ideals roos to your Mohawk &Reese line its justcthat there was a comment by Matt that i didnt even possibly have rhode island chicks and to me that was upupsetting rude to tell me that ideal does not even sell a specific breed of bird which in fact they do.

Matt maybe right about the difference between his Rhode Island Reds and ideal rhode island red i didnt say anything about HIS fowlbut i do believe that he was a little rude in the manner of which he handle his comments of ideal not even selling rhode island red fowl ,oh well to each his own and neither of each persons comments can stop me from being proud of my little 6day old. Rhode Island Red peepers.

Loud Hen, If I offended you I apologize. It was not my intention to be rude to you. I always have a problem conveying my thoughts through a keyboard. I don't come on this site real often but when I do the only time I post is when I feel like I can help educate someone on the topics that I am familiar with. I am usually pretty straight forward and to the point and I am sure that can be interpreted as being rude but that is not my intention.

Matt

 

[RIR-YELLOWLEGS]

Loud Hen, If I offended you I apologize.  It was not my intention to be rude to you.  I always have a problem conveying my thoughts through a keyboard.  I don't come on this site real often but when I do the only time I post is when I feel like I can help educate someone on the topics that I am familiar with.  I am usually pretty straight forward and to the point and I am sure that can be interpreted as being rude but that is not my intention.

Matt

apologies accepted and i will apologize for coming back so rudely but i try to be straight forward as well and if i feel like im being pecked on i will peck back as i said apologies accepted and i apologize back.

 

[Rancher3535]

I have, for once, be reading the post. No one on this site ever means or tries to be rude to anyone. Like Matt said, sometimes what we type and what our brain is thinking, it comes out in a totally different interpretation than what was meant. As a reader I have to read something several times before I respond because at the moment other factors are and could sway my interpretation of what was written. Oh the joins of our get world of technology. Personally I would rather just pick up the phone and talk than type. LOL

I teach a Backyard poultry class through the School Districts community education. When I teach the class I like to take in examples of bird and let people get a hands approach experience with the birds. I will haul in at least 6 breeds and two of the breeds I show them is a comparison of a commercial bird to a Standard Bred bird. When the people see the differences between commercial and standard bred bird they are amazed. Both my Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks are so different in many respects, size, color, type etc. Then comes the questions WHY is there such a difference? Pretty easy to say…the industry cares about egg production more so than anything else. As the breeds have evolved over the years less and less attention has been given to keeping the breeds pure. Most breeds from a hatchery now are really a hybrid of the breed. They may have kept egg production but have lost other uses such as being a true dual purpose bird.

Notice I have called them Standard Bred birds and not the trickery word of “Heritage” which in my opinion really gives a false impression of what the bird really is. I saw an ad on Craig’s List the other day for selling heritage birds…they really were just a production bird from a hatchery. From what I have heard APA is trying and would like to get away from the word “Heritage” and go with the words standard bred which is what we are doing, breeding our birds to the standard.

Enough rant on my part and I apologize if I have said something that triggers someone off but I am just expressing my thoughts.

 

[cmom]

I have, for once, be reading the post. No one on this site ever means or tries to be rude to anyone. Like Matt said, sometimes what we type and what our brain is thinking, it comes out in a totally different interpretation than what was meant. As a reader I have to read something several times before I respond because at the moment other factors are and could sway my interpretation of what was written. Oh the joins of our get world of technology. Personally I would rather just pick up the phone and talk than type. LOL

I teach a Backyard poultry class through the School Districts community education. When I teach the class I like to take in examples of bird and let people get a hands approach experience with the birds. I will haul in at least 6 breeds and two of the breeds I show them is a comparison of a commercial bird to a Standard Bred bird. When the people see the differences between commercial and standard bred bird they are amazed. Both my Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks are so different in many respects, size, color, type etc. Then comes the questions WHY is there such a difference? Pretty easy to say…the industry cares about egg production more so than anything else. As the breeds have evolved over the years less and less attention has been given to keeping the breeds pure. Most breeds from a hatchery now are really a hybrid of the breed. They may have kept egg production but have lost other uses such as being a true dual purpose bird.

Notice I have called them Standard Bred birds and not the trickery word of “Heritage” which in my opinion really gives a false impression of what the bird really is. I saw an ad on Craig’s List the other day for selling heritage birds…they really were just a production bird from a hatchery. From what I have heard APA is trying and would like to get away from the word “Heritage” and go with the words standard bred which is what we are doing, breeding our birds to the standard.

Enough rant on my part and I apologize if I have said something that triggers someone off but I am just expressing my thoughts.

I agree, but I do like the terms pure and heritage mainly because I think that to a lot of people relate to the term standard is just standard, not a standard in the APA SOP. Heritage and/or Pure to me mean pure unaltered bloodline. I can only guess why Bob Blosl titled this thread "The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site". My best guess is that he wanted to bring peoples attention to the pure, heritage and/or standard of the breed according to the SOP. I really don't see anything wrong with calling the pure birds either pure or heritage. Just wanted to express my opinion.

Here are a couple of definitions of Heritage: Can't these same thoughts be (applicable) to raising a certain line of chickens or other animals.
The status, conditions, or character acquired by being born into a particular family or social class.
Something possessed as a result of one's natural situation or birth.