The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[cmom]

I have some heritage rir that are out of George Ryan stock I received from seller luckypickens on ebay. They are over 7 months, but not laying yet. I was just wondering if anyone knew if this is normal. I guessing it may be because of the heritage breed. Bye the way they are beautiful.

My Heritage RIR are from a different line. My birds were a little over 7 months old before they started to lay. At almost 9 months old I still have some that haven't started to lay yet.

 

[melroseladi]

I have second generation Ryan line birds that are 13 weeks old. For the most part I am not happy with the way they are looking so far, although 2 of the pullets aren't looking to horribly bad, but for the most part the tails are to high, really light legs, and the combs on the cockerels leave a lot to be desired. While the pullets are very friendly, the cockerels are getting more and more less pleasant. The pullets will go into my project pen and the cockerels will go to freezer camp.

I have the Underwood line, both SC and RC, in the incubator right now and am excited to hatch out some to get my flock of RIR going. Since I will be needing to keep roosters to get and keep this line going, I was hoping that they would be easier to raise and handle then other roosters I have had and have heard about.

I do not keep anything that is human aggressive no matter how pretty they are, but I do need roosters that aren't afraid to take on predators, since I do free range and live in the woods. Thanks for all the responses. It has eased my mind a great deal.

Penny

 

[Dee Dee 2]

WOW ! Thanks for the info. on the REAL R. I. R. I am very interested in preserving the heritage breeds of chickens and would like to become more knowledgable. My store bought R. I. R. were purchased first of May and started laying as soon as they reached full size. They lay almost every day (? ) and the eggs are larger than the Black Australorps of the same age. I will continue to follow your new postings with great interest. Thanks!

 

[Robert Blosl]

WOW ! Thanks for the info. on the REAL R. I. R. I am very interested in preserving the heritage breeds of chickens and would like to become more knowledgable. My store bought R. I. R. were purchased first of May and started laying as soon as they reached full size. They lay almost every day (? ) and the eggs are larger than the Black Australorps of the same age. I will continue to follow your new postings with great interest. Thanks!

I read your store bought R I Reds. What breeder did they come from?

In regards to the line that came out of Arkansas Ryan line I think. I never heard of them in all the reading I have done going back to 19112.

I have seen pictures of them and they don't look like the strains I have followed.

A classic line of production line is Ideal hatchery. They look like they are half and half. That's is half Standard and half Production.

They lay well but any time you have production blood in your red chickens you will have males that could be mean and the ones that are sold by the thousands those are the ones who have given the Rhode Island Red name a bad name for aggressiveness. If I had children I would not have them on my priority. Its a wonder a older male with long spurs has not scared or put out a eye of a small child going into a pen with their parents. Remember R I Red Bantams are dark there are no producing Red bantams.

There are about six strains of Standard Breed or Heritage or Heirloom Rhode Island Reds. They are breed by personnel breeders and not hatcheries.

Thats it on my view. Look at what you are buying and I dont think there is any Heritage R I Reds being sold on ebay. I would not buy any Reds from Ebay as your chances are they will not be what this tread is about.

 

[mstricer]

Here is a picture of one of the top Red Males for 2012 on the ground and below is the picture that we breeds shoot for when we breeders these R I Reds.
There is one male who I saw two or three days ago at Matt 1616 house that is equal to this male. I hope to take a picture of him on the ground as he is the biggest Mohawk male I ever handled and I had raised them for many years. So lets get excited and get more Rhode Island Reds in the hands of Back Yard Poultry hobbyist.
rc

I want to be one of those backyard hobbyist. I just need to find the right birds. I would love to find some RC RIR eggs to hatch, but don't know where to start. I'm going to Ohio National Poultry show and will be there on and off, from Friday until Sunday (have to make the drive daily due to my dogs. I don't think my Pyr will like being locked down for 3 days. So if any of you out there want to sell me some eggs or even chicks, Please PM me.

 

[Robert Blosl]

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[NYREDS]

I have some heritage rir that are out of George Ryan stock I received from seller luckypickens on ebay. They are over 7 months, but not laying yet. I was just wondering if anyone knew if this is normal. I guessing it may be because of the heritage breed. Bye the way they are beautiful.

Is your Avitar picture one of the birds you're talking about? If so he's a production type Red not a "Heritage" bred Red. Here's a link to a luckpickens listing on ebay so people can see their birds.http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Old-Type...910?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item416db951e6 Like Bob, I went through all my old Red literature & didn't find any reference to a George Ryan.

 

[catdaddyfro]

I have some heritage rir that are out of George Ryan stock I received from seller luckypickens on ebay. They are over 7 months, but not laying yet. I was just wondering if anyone knew if this is normal. I guessing it may be because of the heritage breed. Bye the way they are beautiful.

I have 4 of the lucky pickens (Ryan family farms) strain they are not a heritage RIR strain they are from Murray McMurray stock that George Ryan started with over 50 years ago. I can most definitely see the differences between them and my Horstman RIRs, MUCHO differences. lucky pickins claims to to have some of the choctaw blood(cowboygourmet/RoyAutry) stock in the mix but the mixes still aren't a heritage RIR strain, nice birds and very good producers of big brown eggs. I'm putting mine in the pen with my cherryeggers (pro-reds)to introduce some new blood into the mix(don't have to worry about any traits going afoul with these ones) as there is no standard for production chickens other than them to lay over 300 or more big eggs a year.

Jeff

 

[melroseladi]

Is your Avitar picture one of the birds you're talking about? If so he's a production type Red not a "Heritage" bred Red. Here's a link to a luckpickens listing on ebay so people can see their birds.http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Old-Type...910?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item416db951e6 Like Bob, I went through all my old Red literature & didn't find any reference to a George Ryan.

You can see in those pictures what I am talking about the "light" colored legs and how the combs are. I have a couple where the combs are bent over to the side in the middle of the comb.

The pullets are super friendly though and I will make use of them. The cockerels, uh-uh, freezer camp for them without a doubt.

 

[groundpecker]

I have 4 of the lucky pickens (Ryan family farms) strain they are not a heritage RIR strain they are from Murray McMurray stock that George Ryan started with over 50 years ago. I can most definitely see the differences between them and my Horstman RIRs, MUCHO differences. lucky pickins claims to to have some of the choctaw blood(cowboygourmet/RoyAutry) stock in the mix but the mixes still aren't a heritage RIR strain, nice birds and very good producers of big brown eggs. I'm putting mine in the pen with my cherryeggers (pro-reds)to introduce some new blood into the mix(don't have to worry about any traits going afoul with these ones) as there is no standard for production chickens other than them to lay over 300 or more big eggs a year.

Jeff

I have seen a few birds from the pickens line. they look to be mixed between hatchery and Heritage. According to the ads i have seen, they claim to have purebred Heritage reds and they are not.
I guess they sell more by claiming so, and people buy before researching what a true Heritage bird is supposed to be.