Joey, what makes this 7 year old thread worthwhile and perhaps why it has lasted is because the Red is honored here and it's Standard is paramount. There are hundreds and hundreds of threads on this site with "see my pretty bird", followed by the requisite gushing. No standard is mentioned, as most wouldn't even pass muster of any breed standard. That's all fine. But here, we deal with reality and work hard in setting a high bar of quality, promotion of the true bred, pure bred, Standard bred Rhode Island Red, the regal breed that it is.
If we are to have such Reds, just buying some simply isn't enough, we must continue to breed them. They don't drop from the clouds nor come in the mail from a mass production hatchery. Really great Reds are as rare as diamonds. I hope everyone understands that we really, really, really need breeders and where is the future generation of breeders of the Reds??? Without breeders, they're gone in a flash and the gene pool will be empty, forever. All you'll have left is the scrub bird posers. As Bob stressed from the beginning, there are probably less than 300 quality large fowl breeder birds alive come January in the US. That's pretty scary for a breed that once numbered in the hundreds of thousands birds strong. Anyone can propagate and flock reproduce birds, but breeding, real breeding is artistry, similar to learning to paint and/or sculpt masterpieces. It ain't easy. I've been at it for now almost 7 years with these red birds. One of these days, maybe I'll figure out a little something about breeding them. LOL
