44 



RHODE ISLAND REDS 



mistakes of the present. Do not hesitate to pay a good 

 price for a good bird or two if you need them to strengthen 

 your flock. Learn by experience what you need and then 

 get it. Then show your best birds, win all you can, adver- 

 tise, but do not claim to have the "world's best," when you 

 win at a state fair. Just advertise that you have good Reds 

 for sale that have been carefully bred and send them on 

 approval. You will be on the right track and if you stick to 

 it in a few years you can go to New York and Boston and 

 win and you will deserve the spoils. 



Do not figure on a bird that makes a great showy ap- 

 pearance, as much as the one that handles the best. If a 

 bird does not show the proper shade do not consider it at all. 

 Beware of smut and run from white. There should be no 

 white in the ear-lobes, no crooked combs, no red tails, no 

 pale legs. See that the legs are deep yellow or horn colored. 

 Try for nice heads. Consider the head only in detail. Shape 

 makes some breeds, but it does not make Rhode Island Reds. 

 Color is the cue and color it 

 must be. Let them come big 

 because little hens, as a rule, 

 do not lay big eggs nor hatch 

 chicks that make big broilers, 

 roasters or show birds. For 

 over sixteen years we have 

 carefully followed the above 

 laws of breeding with results 

 that are well known. 



C. L. Buschmann, Indiana 



The only objection we 

 have ever heard against the 

 Rhode Island Reds was the 

 fading of the color of the fe- 

 males after they pass the pul- 

 let age. Apparently there is 

 no reason for this and it is 

 difficult to account for. Brown 

 Leghorns do not fade nor do 

 black hens; why should Reds? 

 When we stop to consider that 

 a red cow or a bay horse will 

 hold its color, it seems strange 

 that a R. I. Red hen should 

 not hold hers. Any live 

 stock turned out in the hot 

 sun during the summer 

 months will get sun-burned, 

 which changes the color slight- 

 ly, but they always shed and 

 return to their natural color 

 in winter. 



When we first discovered 

 several hens two years old in 



our flock of Reds that had held their color, the thought came 

 to us that it was possible to build a strain of non-fading 

 Rhode Island Reds, so we began to experiment. We found 

 that some of the chicks from these hens also held their color, 

 so we began to breed for this particular feature and have 

 succeeded in fixing the color of the hens. The males usually 

 held their color and by bringing in new blood through a 

 female bred to our best male and using the young cockerels 

 having fifty per cent of the original stock, we kept the strong 

 male line intact and still kept breeding from the same hens 

 and pullets. 



In breeding R. I. Reds, size, shape, color and laying 

 qualities are all of great importance. We how succeed in 

 breeding a majority of birds that hold their color, changing 

 only a little under the burning summer days and under the 



R-C'R.\.Rtb.- PULLET WINNER AT CHICAGO 1910. 

 F\R5T PRIZE, 5HAPE ANb COLOR SPECIALS . 



BRE.C) ANb OWHEb BY, 



MALTBIE&SHELLEY GENEVA 0^10. 



heavy laying strain of the breeding season. They 

 return to their natural color after moulting and we beheve 

 in a few more years it will be possible to breed flocks of R. I. 

 Reds that will all be non-fading, but to arrive at this pomt 

 breeders must never use any females that show signs of not 

 holding their color and that are not laying properly. Such 

 hens should be sold for market purposes and neither used 

 in the breeding yards nor sold to some other breeder. It is 

 no uncommon thing to have served on our table a five or 

 ten dollar bird in preference to selling it at a fair price, be- 

 cause she would make a poor advertisement if pointed out 

 in some one's yards as coming from our flock. 



After the Chicago show, December, 1909, we had the 

 pleasure of traveling to New York with the late Mr. Tuttle 

 and Mr. Coffin, ex-secretary of the R. I. Red Club of America. 

 Mr. Coffin told us he had a hen several years old that looked 

 like a pullet and also of other breeders who had a few, but 

 they apparently had not thought of using them to build up 



a non-fading strain. We be- 

 lieve that breeding from 

 such birds is the way to es- 

 tablish the color so that R. 

 I. Reds will not fade with 

 age. One of the reasons that 

 so many R. I. Reds fade is 

 that the majority of Red 

 breeders have resorted to ex- 

 treme matings, such as breed- 

 ing a very dark male with 

 exceedingly light females and 

 breeding dark males and fe- 

 males together, such as those 

 that have been winning in 

 many eastern shows. These 

 birds are much nearer brown 

 or mahogany in color than 

 brilliant red. A bird of this 

 description bred to a lighter 

 bird is sure to produce birds 

 that will not hold their color, 

 many of them will be mealy, 

 shafty and mottled, giving 

 the bird a very undesirable 

 and unsightly appearance. 



It takes time to pro- 

 duce a flock of stay-red 

 birds, but it is worth it and it 

 is what we will all have to 

 do, and then the R. I. Red 

 will be in a class by itself — 

 the greatest fowl on earth. 



W. F. Volz, Iowa 



There are too many Reds 

 exhibited carrying the Wyandotte shape. The Reds have 

 a shape and type unlike any other breed. The long back 

 and full breast, with the appearance of a slight tip 

 forward, is desired, and must be secured and maintained. 

 Here is where so many Red breeders are failing and unless 

 type is given more attention by many breeders, there will 

 not be the desired improvement in the breed. While in 

 attendance at several shows last season we were asked by 

 a great many breeders how we obtained those long, broad 

 backs and full breasts. We will endeavor to explain how 

 we have obtained our best results. 



When the pullets are fully matured, we select the best 

 shaped, as we all know it is from the females that we get this 

 feature. We then select the best colored of these and mate 

 them to the best colored male for the purpose; always try- 





