CHAPTER III 

 HOW TO PRODUCE EXHIBITION RHODE ISLAND REDS 



GOOD BREEDING OF PRIME IMPORTANCE IN PRODUCING EXHIBITION R. I. REDS-DOUBLE MAT- 

 ING A GREAT DETRIMENT TO THE BREED-UNIFORMITY IN COLOR IS NOW BEING ATTAINED 



D. W. RICH 



NO ONE who takes notice of the wide-spread popu- 

 larity of poultry shows, both in this and in 

 foreign countries, can fail to perceive what a 

 great and dignified business the production of 

 exhibition birds has come to be. It is attracting people in 

 all walks of life as a healthy, fascinating and profitable em- 

 ployment. 



The fancy poultry business depends chiefly upon the 

 intrinsic merits of the various breeds of fowl. Beauty alone 

 in a breed is not enough to insure it a high and permanent 

 rank as an exhibition fowl. In addition to beauty there 

 must be native qualities of practical value and usefulness. 

 In these characteristics the Rhode Island Reds are now 

 decidedly in the lead, and as exhibition fowls they have on 

 that account a great future before them. 



There are a multitude of little details connected with 

 the task of raising an exhibition Rhode Island Red, and 

 most of them are understood only from experience. Aside 

 from these daily cares, which commence when the chick 

 first opens its eyes upon the world and end when it stands 

 in its coop, beautifully groomed, waiting for the blue ribbon, 

 there are a few important principles of breeding which the 

 fancier cannot know too well. Good buildings, ample range 

 and proper care are essential and play their part, but the 

 first class show specimen must, after all, get its good mark- 

 ings with typical shape and sound color from a well-bred 

 ancestry. , 



The fancier shovdd also understand the difficulties that 

 confront him and know how to overcome them and how to 

 attain desired improvements in the breed. I am convinced 

 that the most difficult problem in breeding fancy Rhode 

 Island Reds is the matter of producing the right color. 

 Shape or type is more easily acquired, is better understood 

 and is less likely to be lost, than color. Not that color is 

 more important, but it is essential and cannot be ignored. 



It is in a way vmfortunate for the Rhode Island Reds 

 that they became popular so suddenly. The demand for 

 them is so great, that many incompetent breeders, sacrificing 

 the purity of the breed for insignificant private gain, intro- 

 duce into their flocks, and put on the market, birds that are 

 wholly unfit to be used as breeders. The consequence is 

 that, with so many undesirable and inferior birds in the 

 breeding yards, the difficulty of breeding Rhode Island Reds 

 true to type and color is thereby immeasurably increased. 



The importance of good breeding in trying to. produce 

 exhibition Rhode Island Reds can therefore not be too 

 strongly urged. A bird descended from ancestors having no 

 uniform type or color will, without a doubt, produce a flock 

 as varied in color and type as the birds that constituted its 

 family line. "Like begets like," is a familiar rule, but it 

 should be remembered that in trying to reproduce a certain 

 bird, you have to contend with what precedes both male 

 and female. But good points are transmitted as well as 

 bad ones. If the ancestors were uniformly good, the off- 

 spring is certain to be as good, and, in the hands of a skilled 

 breeder, better. Typical and standard birds are not pro- 

 duced by chance. They are the result of careful and scien- 

 tific breeding, continued year after year, perfected by 



slowly improving section after section. Characteristics ac- 

 quired in this way, and transmitted from generation to 

 gerjeration, become fixed in the breed and are easily trans- 

 missible. A good wing marking, for instance, that exists in 

 a marked degree in a family for a long time is so fixed that 

 it will continue to appear unless stopped by an indiscrimi- 

 nate cross. The wisdom of looking into the family history 

 of a bird intended as a breeder of exhibition quality is then 

 clearly recognized. Always ask the question "Whence 

 oomest thou?" The bird should possess blood transmitted 

 by a long line of ancestors that were free from undesirable 

 traits. The value of a bird as a breeder does not consist in 

 what it will score, but in what it is able to produce. 



Double Mating Unnecessary 



Having decided that the bird is well bred, the next 

 thing to consider is its shape and color. The bird coming 

 nearest standard requirements is the one to select, and this 

 applies to color as well as it does to shape. I believe there 

 should be no difference between the color or type of a breeder 

 and that of a standard or show bird. Standard males and 

 females mated together ought to produce exhibition birds. 

 There would be no occasion for double mating if matings 

 were made up in this way. Double mating must eventually 

 be detrimental to the breed. "We must never lose sight of 

 the relatiou existing between the exhibition bird and its less 

 handsome but productive kin. It is only by reason of the 

 popularity of a breed as a utility fowl that the show bird has 

 an existence. A breed first establishes a reputation as a 

 utility fowl, as a money maker, and as a fowl that may be 

 easily bred by the beginner and the non-expert. It is then 

 possible for the breed to become popular as a show fowl. 

 This, precisely, has been the history and the course of develop- 

 ment, of the Rhode Island Reds. 



Now if the color of standard Rhode Island Reds is to 

 be different from that of the bird used as a breeder, if the 

 farmer, the non-expert, the small chicken raiser, is com- 

 pelled to go to the trouble of keeping two or more matings 

 of birds of various shades of color to produce a few right 

 colored birds, if the difficulty of breeding Rhode Island Reds 

 is increased by double mating, the value and popularity of 

 the breed must necessarily be diminished. And that is not 

 all. Double mating can never settle the color question. 

 If we must use as breeders birds that are not standard, we 

 cannot hope that a large per cent of their progeny will be 

 standard. Go and look over a flock of Rhode Island Reds, 

 and you will find that some of the birds are light in color 

 and others are dark. This is a fault that everybody notices. 

 Double mating perpetuates this fault, because from breeders 

 some of which are light and others dark, it is only possible 

 to get both hght and dark colored birds. 



On the other hand, if we mate standard males to stand- 

 ard females, and continue this methodby judicious Hne_breed- 

 ing for a number of years, until the]color becomes reasonably 

 fixed, why will we not get standard birds? Why will the 

 flock' not be more uniform in color and in type? Why will 

 not the quality of the color be infinitely improved? The 

 aim in mating Rhode Island Reds should be to produce a 



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