Rhode Island Red

The official state bird of Rhode Island, this is a dual purpose layer/meat breed. They are good natured hardy breed, perfect for the back yard fancier.

The orgin of this breed can be traced back to Adamsville, Rhode Island when a black breasted malay cock bird was imported from England. This single bird is the father of the breed and is currently on display at the Smithsonian.

The deep color, strong comstitution, and relatively hard feathers of this breed results from the influence of this malay blood.

Roosters will weigh in at 8.5 pounds, hens 6.5 pounds. Hens are exceptional layers, 250 - 300 brown eggs each year.

Rhode Island Red

Tying with Rhode Island Red Quills

The quill from the Rhode Island Red rooster is called for in tying the Red Quill. This fly is used to immitate two seperate mayfly hatches, one in the spring, the other later in the summer.

Somewhere along the way, a tyer realized that wrapping the stem of a neck feather around a hook produced just the right look and shape to immitate this fly. The color was perfect, and the taper gives the body of the fly just the right shape.

The first step is to strip the barbs from the stem. The quills then will have two shades of brown that when tyed produce the segmented appearence on the thorax of a fly. Although you can buy packages of already stripped quills, capes have more flexible quills and a better range of sizes.

capes
saddles
fly patterns

Capes

These are pure Rhode Island Red. The quills on these capes are flexible, tapered, and just the right color. There is some variation in the colors of these roosters. Click on a thumb nail image for a close up look.

$35


Medium	Dark	Light

Saddles

$25

I'm looking for pictures of flies and the recipies you used to tie them. Please give me a call or email me for more information.

Thanks!