Rhode Island Reds
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Prices
- Chicks - $ 5.00 ea., Unsexed. Quantity discount of $ 4.50 ea. available for orders of 25 or more chicks. *** We may have a space for a couple of orders for chicks hatching in mid-June. If you are interested, please contact us to get on our waiting list. Otherwise, we are sold out of RIR chicks for the year. *** - Hatching Eggs - $ 3.00 per egg, $ 36.00 for 1 dozen, or $ 60.00 for 2 dozen. Price does not include shipping. Read our Hatching Egg Sales Policy (bottom of page) before ordering. About Rhode Island Reds are an old dual-purpose homestead standby known for their excellent production of large brown eggs. This is a hardy, vital, prolific-laying strain that reaches the true heritage Rhode Island Red size. Great start for a sustainable home chicken flock for egg and meat production. Our Rhode Island Red hens lay approximately 250 large eggs a year. Egg color may be dark pink, medium brown, or dark brown and sometimes speckled. Young roosters from our flock dress out at around 5 lbs. at five to six months old. Our birds are vigorous and are excellent foragers. They are well-adapted, intelligent chickens. Hens are very broody and make exceptional mothers. Rhodie hens are extremely friendly and make good pets, too. We breed Rhodies for good temperament and do not retain aggressive cocks. Please see the price list above. Please contact us if you are interested in chicks or hatching eggs. Sometimes we have a limited number of adults and adolescents available as well. They will be posted on this page when they become available. To Those Asking About the Strain's History This strain is reminiscent of the heritage Rhode Island Reds you'll see in old homesteading photos. The photos of our adult breeding birds on this page are good representations of what selected stock from this strain looks like. Our Rhode Island Red strain is the result of a cross between a beautiful Standard-bred exhibition-quality Lloyd Flanagan strain of Rhode Island Reds and a purebred production strain of heritage Rhode Island Reds. We made the cross in order to develop a strain that lived up to the Rhode Island Red's reputation as an excellent dual-purpose homestead chicken, because we felt that most of the modern exhibition strains, though very correct in type, color, and size, do not achieve the egg production of heritage Rhodies from bygone days. The resulting descendants of that cross are exactly what we're looking for in a Rhode Island Red as far as production and homestead qualities go. They are extremely vigorous and hardy, excellent layers, and a good size for a meat bird as well. Fertility and hatchability are exceptional. They readily go broody and make great mothers. Many individuals have nice type and color, though we continue to work to improve these areas, as we would like to see more consistency. We do not recommend them for APA exhibition at this time due to this, though some individuals may compete well. They will compete fine in 4-H or FFA shows where presentation is important, as they are confident, friendly chickens. Our long-term goal is to develop a strain of exhibition-quality Rhodies that sacrifice nothing in practical production qualities. In pursuit of that, we select for: ~ Vigor and hardiness; ~ Medium-framed, long-bodied, well-fleshed birds with correct breed characteristics; ~ High egg production and laying longevity; ~ Egg size (large to extra-large); ~ Shell strength and egg quality. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. Further Reading About Rhode Island Reds ~ The Livestock Conservancy: Rhode Island Red--Non-Industrial Chicken ~ Oklahoma State University Department of Animal Science: Poultry Breeds, Rhode Island Red ~ Rhode Island Red Club of America |
2020 Breeding Flock, Cockerel and Pullets. Photo by Joshua Krebs. Do not use without permission.
2020 Breeding Flock, Cockerel and Pullets. Photo by Joshua Krebs. Do not use without permission.
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