Heritage Rhode Island Red

Description

Heritage Rhode Island Reds are the most successful dual-purpose bird and backyard chicken. They’re a very hardy, sturdy breed and even with limited conditions the hens will still produce eggs.

Did you know that the true Heritage Rhode Island Red is on the watch list of the Livestock Conservancy? We decided it was time to help in the conservancy of this beautiful American breed.

Since the 1940’s the Rhode Island Red has been selectively bred for more efficient egg production as a result they’ve become a bird that no longer resemble the true Rhode Island Red. They’ve bred them to be lighter in color, smaller body sized and less broody. It is becoming ever more difficult to find the “old type” that are darker colored, larger bodied, broodier and rarer. As the poultry industry has tried to meet industry needs, they’ve single handedly bred the Heritage Rhode Island out of existence.

Heritage Rhode Island Red are the most successful dual-purpose breed. They’re a very hardy and sturdy bird and even with limited conditions the hens will produce eggs.

Don’t confuse this bird with what the large hatcheries are selling, they’re nothing alike! We’re working with the single comb HERITAGE variety; they can lay up to 200+ eggs per year. They still have their natural poultry instincts, meaning they can go broody and have good mothering abilities. They’re a non-aggressive bird, super melo and calm. Even the roosters are super docile.

Our hope is to offer you a heritage chicken to meet all of your needs whether it be egg production, meat bird or backyard pet. I feel confident you’ll fall in love with this huge mahogany colored chicken that produces lots of big beige to cream colored eggs. Chicks are sold straight run.

Mature roosters are weighing 9lbs. Hens are weighing 6lbs. (copied but we couldn’t have said it better ourselves)

As you can see from the pictures, our Heritage RIR won Grand Champion at the County Fair in Arkansas. We are super proud of them.

However, Arkansas had the 3rd hottest year on record in the summer of 2022. When that happened we, along with several others posting on the internet, had several birds that stopped laying. Our Heritage RIR completely quit laying. We were not able to use their babies to replenish our stock like most breeders normally do so we no longer sell Heritage RIR until we can replenish our stock.