Sorry Debid, I'm a little confused. Are you in agreement with purchasing purebred fertile eggs to hatch - BUT not mixing them with my existing flock to breed with should I hatch a rooster?
Dear Sutherland, I have just googled "Easter Egger chicks" as I had never heard of these before - other than the chocolate variety! My hatch about a week ago had a few chicks which I nicknamed cleo and cleopatra as they had the dark eyeliner around the eyes and black zebra like stripe from head to tail. I attach a picture. The picture shows them by the feeder. They are a light autumn brown with eyeliner around the eyes and speckled wings.
Sorry Debid, I'm a little confused. Are you in agreement with purchasing purebred fertile eggs to hatch - BUT not mixing them with my existing flock to breed with should I hatch a rooster?
If you're wanting to start a serious breeding program, your first visit should be to the breeder forum here to learn more about what a purebred RIR looks like. Then you'll understand why your hens aren't going to make chicks that people will want for showing or breeding but for backyard flocks, they are fine. If you just like chicks running around and you want a sustainable flock, it makes no difference, get whatever makes you happy.
But, do your research. Lots of breeders out there, most struggle to break even.
As far as your breeding program, I didn't want to say it in my earlier post, but you don't actually have RIR hens. RIRs suffer from the same problems that Ameraucanas do: everyone wants them, so hatcheries pump out millions of "RIR-ish" chicks that are red and lay lots of brown eggs but don't meet the breed standard. Very much the same as hatcheries selling millions of "Ameraucanas" that aren't even close to breed standard and are more properly called Easter Eggers. You have what's called "Production Red" which are a mixed breed red bird that hatcheries sometimes call RIR. The birds don't have the very deep auburn red color of a true RIR and the body type is completely different. If you're looking for information on true, purebred RIR you might check out the heritage RIR thread on this site: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/407294/the-heritage-rhode-island-red-site. In order to have "real" RIRs, you'd need to visit a breeder and see their stock.
That being said, there's nothing repeat NOTHING wrong with a good mutt chicken. They have interesting feather patterns, no two are alike, and they often lay quite well. There's nothing really wrong with a good Production Red, either. They lay better than heritage RIR, in fact. You could get a "RIR" rooster from any hatchery and breed it to your "RIR" girls and get lovely Production Red chicks that will be adorable and lay very well. Absolutely nothing wrong with that--I just wish hatcheries would be honest. Some are. For instance, Townline sells both RIR and Production Reds. Their RIR aren't show quality, but are much closer to the real deal than Production Reds. I have a couple of their RIR to use in breeding sex links--which are also mutts, just a "specialty mutt" as it were.
Here's a bird that's closer to a real RIR in color but is missing the "brick" body shape and his Barnyard Special daughter (crossed with a Red Sex Link, probably):
Boy, you have to be so careful. The lady I'm thinking of buying my eggs from has shown me a picture of her RIR rooster. It is the rich dark glossy brown with a black tail and deep red comb - does this sound like a true RIR?
He looks like the real deal. I would say you could get a good start of RIR from them. Maybe someone else will chime in on this subject that knows more about RIR than I do.
