The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Fred's Hens]

I was asked to come on and chat a bit. There is a great thread here on BYC where you see hundreds of pages of true bred, pure, Rhode Island Reds, sometimes called heritage birds. The true RIR is deep, rich mahogany in color, has dark red/black/brown horn on it's beak. The tails of the males are rich green in color. The body "type" is a brick. Think a rectangle, long ways, body shape. Not the soup bowl of a Rock, nor the V-ship body commonly seen on hatchery stock.

A so called production red is a generic red bird, usually with lots of RIR blood, but is bred for higher egg production than a heritage bird. 95% of all RIR sold by hatcheries are actually production reds. True bred RIR are very rare, but their "fan base" is growing as fast as it can, given that there are just so many birds to go around.

The productive or utility type Red is not sex linked at hatch.

The Red Sex Link is a sex link. Some people also call red sexlinks production reds, but this just serves to further complicate the matter.

Again, I urge everyone who thinks they have RIR to visit this thread. Start at today's post and work backward. LOL. Starting at the beginning is too long running to go way back there.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/407294/the-heritage-rhode-island-red-site/2900

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

I was asked to come on and chat a bit. There is a great thread here on BYC where you see hundreds of pages of true bred, pure, Rhode Island Reds, sometimes called heritage birds. The true RIR is deep, rich mahogany in color, has dark red/black/brown horn on it's beak. The tails of the males are rich green in color. The body "type" is a brick. Think a rectangle, long ways, body shape. Not the soup bowl of a Rock, nor the V-ship body commonly seen on hatchery stock.

A so called production red is a generic red bird, usually with lots of RIR blood, but is bred for higher egg production than a heritage bird. 95% of all RIR sold by hatcheries are actually production reds. True bred RIR are very rare, but their "fan base" is growing as fast as it can, given that there are just so many birds to go around.

The productive or utility type Red is not sex linked at hatch.

The Red Sex Link is a sex link. Some people also call red sexlinks production reds, but this just serves to further complicate the matter.

Again, I urge everyone who thinks they have RIR to visit this thread. Start at today's post and work backward. LOL. Starting at the beginning is too long running to go way back there.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/407294/the-heritage-rhode-island-red-site/2900

Thanks Fred,

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Here are the eggs I got today, one EE laid her first egg today, nice and green(looks blue in the pic though)

 

[Fred's Hens]

This is a true Rhode Island Red



This is what many hatcheries will sell as RIR, but is really a production red.
Frankly, it isn't a terrific pro red, some are prettier than others.




This is a Red Sex Link. Note the white in the underwear and tail area.





The only accepted breed is the RIR. Neither the production red, nor the red sex link is a breed. They are just names used by hatcheries and common folks, that's all. It is also correct that the best layer is the RSL, followed by the PR and last, is the heritage fowl, the true bred RIR. However, the heritage fowl usually outlive the production oriented hybrids as their genetics causes them to grow slower, lay a bit slower, but like the turtle, they win life's longevity race over the hare, in most cases. Hope that helps.

 

[Melabella]

This is a true Rhode Island Red

This is what many hatcheries will sell as RIR, but is really a production red.
Frankly, it isn't a terrific pro red, some are prettier than others.

This is a Red Sex Link. Note the white in the underwear and tail area.

The only accepted breed is the RIR. Neither the production red, nor the red sex link is a breed. They are just names used by hatcheries and common folks, that's all. It is also correct that the best layer is the RSL, followed by the PR and last, is the heritage fowl, the true bred RIR. However, the heritage fowl usually outlive the production oriented hybrids as their genetics causes them to grow slower, lay a bit slower, but like the turtle, they win life's longevity race over the hare, in most cases. Hope that helps.

As always, very helpful Fred...Thank you!

 

[Bulldogma]

Again, I urge everyone who thinks they have RIR to visit this thread. Start at today's post and work backward. LOL. Starting at the beginning is too long running to go way back there.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/407294/the-heritage-rhode-island-red-site/2900

Fred -
Thank you for visiting with us and sharing this information. I'll be spending a lot of time on that thread to learn more about the breed!

 

[Sally8]

This is a true Rhode Island Red



This is what many hatcheries will sell as RIR, but is really a production red.
Frankly, it isn't a terrific pro red, some are prettier than others.

This one looks like mine. Bought her at 25 weeks and I believe she is my soft shell layer. She's my favorite so I'm trying to over look it. Sue (Thanks for coming on and explaining. Appreciated!)

 

[jendodd79]

Just some pictures for today - the girls had some supervised free range time in the backyard. It's getting warmer!

This is our BCM Moll - her comb and wattles are starting to grow! Actually she's growing on my quite a bit

This is Little One - I thought she was going to be a drab colour but he's turning out beautiful. She's an EE

Our Lavender Orp Sylvie

Our crazy bird Nellie Olsen. She is crazy, and I love her. She jumps on my arm when I go in the pen, and she won't stop talking ever. Lol! She's either an EE or a pure Ameraucana

Our BLRW - Her dark blue is starting to lighten up quite a bit.


I have some questions about combs with my EEs. Are you able to tell what kind of comb they will have from these pictures? I know that they aren't great pictures for telling, but I wonder if someone has a keener eye than I!


Here's Nellie








Anne Shirley

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

I have some questions about combs with my EEs. Are you able to tell what kind of comb they will have from these pictures? I know that they aren't great pictures for telling, but I wonder if someone has a keener eye than I!


Here's Nellie








Anne Shirley

They look like pea combs to me, definitely not single combs. They likely carry the blue egg gene, so you could end up with blue to green eggs. I would bet the lighter colored EE's lay bluer and the darker lay more greener

 

[countrygirl74]

Thanks for the info on the "reds" - I have the regular hatchery production red... and speaking of....

I really need some help from some of you that are more experienced. Here's the story...

I had 12 chickens total. They were all SUPPOSED to be pullets but had a very bad sexing experience with the hatchery and ended up with 5 hens and 7 roos!! Three of the 12 are silkies, and we are keeping all of them even though 2 are roos and only 1 is a hen. We culled 4 roosters last week and kept 1 full-size EE roo that we just love. This roo was hurt once and kept inside the house, mistakenly from the flock for too long. We had to do a slow introduction through a fence to get the rest of the flock to accept him back. He was a big scaredy cat and would run and hide either under us or in the very back of the coop because everyone picked on him. This all happened with him BEFORE we culled the other roos. Anyway, it worked and he was fine with the flock - in fact everyone was getting along beautifully!!
Then, last Sunday we culled the 4 roos, leaving us with 4 regular hens, 1 regular roo, 1 silkie hen, and 2 silkie roos. Obviously, I know that we still have way too many roos but we are getting a whole new batch of babies in a couple weeks. I was hoping that my flock could handle the over-abundance of roos until we get these new girls (hopefully sexed correctly this time!!) grown up enough to join them?? Our current flock is about 4 1/2 months old.
All of a sudden, as of today, that I noticed, my RIR girl is being isolated from the rest of the flock. She is always trying to get away from everyone else, either hiding in the house, or up on a roost and won't come down. Before this, there was no issues at all!! She is a sweet, calm little thing, always minding her own business. What happened? She's afraid to eat with them and everything. When I sat out there for a while to observe, she just stayed as high as she could or under me. The only one I really noticed that bothered her was my EE roo, but my husband said he saw all of them chasing her around earlier. I couldn't tell if our roo was just being a brat or trying to mount her as she would just scream and run away. What are your thoughts? Did the culling of those 4 other roos change the dynamics completely? Why, all of a sudden, do I have one that is scared to death to be in the coop with the others when there never was an issue before? Any advice greatly appreciated... I have absolutely no idea what the heck happened when they were all best friends a few days ago.