The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[Asmorilda]

Red Ridge is in TN. She has wonderful birds. Maybe get on her list for chicks or fall trios. Clearly the trios cost more money but imo its so much better as you can see right away that they are the real thing.

I found it. They are in the Knoxville, TN area. According to where they are in/around Knoxville & depending on traffic conditions, they are 6 1/2 to 8 hours from me.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: I think that is about how far they are from me too. Some day I'll make the trip or find a way to meet up with her. She has 2 different breeds that I'm interested in. These heritage rir birds that I have are great. And I know hers are great too. But it has been a rough couple of years growing my rir flock. I started out with a very small flock then for two hatching seasons I have gotten high percentages of males. It makes it hard to end up with lots of hens. I keep wanting to sell off chicks so others can get these birds too but I'll have to see how the next hatching season goes. This year I'm only selling birds after I've grown them out and decided that they did not make the cut for breeding.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Breeding Question:
What is the highest number of hens recommended to be with one rooster. I plan to have 2 roosters for RIR breeding, each in their own pen. So now I am thinking about how many hens I should keep. Most of the pullets are still to young to make my picks, but I would like to get a good number in mind. I'll be keeping a pair of backup RIR roosters for breeding sex links and olive eggers too. These roosters are just so good looking and friendly.

 

[gander007]

Breeding Question:
What is the highest number of hens recommended to be with one rooster. I plan to have 2 roosters for RIR breeding, each in their own pen. So now I am thinking about how many hens I should keep. Most of the pullets are still to young to make my picks, but I would like to get a good number in mind. I'll be keeping a pair of backup RIR roosters for breeding sex links and olive eggers too. These roosters are just so good looking and friendly.

I only go as high as 9 hens per roo in a breeding pen ....... But it really depends on the roo

 

[immyjay54]

Hi all,
As everyone can see, I don't post much anymore. I really don't have to much to say. I do read up on here quite often and still have a few birds. Not as many as I used to have. Old Rocky Raccoon paid a visit this summer and took 8 or 9 of my nice big girls and 2 of my young project birds. He did this all in 2 nights but the 3rd night I had the trap setting right in front of the door that he had opened the night before and so the next morning he met Mr. 22. Haven't lost any since.
Just thought that I would post a couple of my young project birds. More pictures on my site if anyone wants to see. These birds were 5 months yesterday.
Gee this won't let me upload the picture of the cockerel. Will try doing another post with him by himself. Never had this happen before. Same camera, same bunch of pictures. DUH.

 

[immyjay54]

Trying for the cockerel now. LOL This is so crazy, guess if you all want to see other pictures, you will have to go to my site. Project reds page.
Wanted to also say that it will be 2 years tomorrow since our old buddy passed. Still miss him so much. It just isn't the same without him on here. RIP Bob.

Jimmy

 

[immyjay54]

Breeding Question:
What is the highest number of hens recommended to be with one rooster. I plan to have 2 roosters for RIR breeding, each in their own pen. So now I am thinking about how many hens I should keep. Most of the pullets are still to young to make my picks, but I would like to get a good number in mind. I'll be keeping a pair of backup RIR roosters for breeding sex links and olive eggers too. These roosters are just so good looking and friendly.

Sally,
My dad always told us that one rooster could cover 15 hens with no problems. I've had as high as 12 with no fertility problems and that was with birds in their 1 through 2 year old years. I hate having just a couple because if the male is any good at all he will drive the girls crazy.
Just my 2 cents worth. LOL
Jimmy

 

[Asmorilda]

I think that is about how far they are from me too. Some day I'll make the trip or find a way to meet up with her. She has 2 different breeds that I'm interested in. These heritage rir birds that I have are great. And I know hers are great too. But it has been a rough couple of years growing my rir flock. I started out with a very small flock then for two hatching seasons I have gotten high percentages of males. It makes it hard to end up with lots of hens. I keep wanting to sell off chicks so others can get these birds too but I'll have to see how the next hatching season goes. This year I'm only selling birds after I've grown them out and decided that they did not make the cut for breeding.

I don't know when we will be going back up Knoxville way. We used to go to that area every year for vacation but life is in a different season now. I do understand your struggle to build your RIR flock. When we bought our 5 chicks, we bought them straight run. They were about 1 1/2 weeks old so we didn't know what we had. Turns out we had 3 roosters & 2 pullets. We've been told we need at least 8 hens to a rooster so we are pretty short on future hens at the moment. We plan to keep 2 roosters. One will be a spare & the third is promised to our daughter. I haven't learned how to judge them for good breeding stock. We are excited that time is getting closer for our RIRs to start laying. We are seriously considering incubating the eggs instead of letting the hens go broody. We would really like the hens to do what hens do with their eggs & babies but with such a small flock, it makes better sense to incubate the eggs & hatch them ourselves. Maybe we can let nature take its course after we have our flock built.

 

[PattyH7]

Hello;
We are moving to the country in a little town in Texas called Comanche. We wanted Rhode Island Red chickens and after reading the comments I know I want the Heritage Reds. Where do I find these chickens? It will be the first of 2016 before we are ready for them so I just wanted to know where to purchase them.

Thanks for the comments, I learned a lot.

PattyH7

 

[CalgaryFarmer]

I spent some time watching my chickens yesterday. The one RIR hen was checking out the nesting boxes. Her comb and waddles are now redder. I am pretty sure they are also getting bigger.

At any rate, what I found fascinating was the rooster was checking out the nesting boxes. As well, there was lots of chatter. Below is the translation.

"Look Honey, this one has three walls and a sloping ceiling. However, the pine shavings are a bit old."

Hops into the second box.

"Hey Honey, I really like this one. It has three walls and a sloping ceiling as well. The pine shavings seem to be a bit old but there is more. It should be softer and warmer for the eggs and chicks."

In fact, he went into the nesting boxes more times than she did.