What and Why RI: It's filled in now, but in its prime Rocky Point pool hosted Olympians. Here's the story. A Rhode Island Red chicken — the official state bird — roams a backyard in Middletown.

The chicken is especially dear to the village of Adamsville in the town of Little Compton, Rhode Island. This is because the bird was first bred near the village way back in the 1850s.

Our house came with a chicken coop, complete with a fenced-in chicken run. We were used to cats: after the one we had for 16 years died, we loaded up with four more. Four cats is a lot, but that ...

The Rhode Island Red is the best-known and most successful dual-purpose U.S. breed. Perhaps the best layer of all dual-purpose breeds, Rhode Island Reds can lay between 200 and 300 eggs per year.

Production Reds, a mix between the New Hampshire Red and Rhode Island Red breeds, are the best brown egg layer, according to Leslye Woodard, the owner of Woodward Mercantile in Maize.