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 Rhode Island Red was originally bred to be a dual-purpose chicken, and is one of the most well-known chicken breeds. The egg-laying strain is now most abundant.

That was the 1930s, when the Rhode Island Red ruled the roost. The buff-chested bird was the fowl of choice at America’s dinner table from the turn of the 20th century through World War II.

How soon will my chickens lay eggs, and how often will they produce eggs? Chickens typically start laying at six to seven months old. How many eggs depends on the breed. A Longhorn may lay one a day.

The New Hampshire chicken began as a strain of the Rhode Island Red breed and is a dual-purpose bird. It is a medium-sized chicken with a red hue brighter than its Rhode Island counterpart.

Six months later, we had three hens slowly but surely laying eggs, and one rooster — a handsome Rhode Island Red we named Henry. As our fine West Brighton neighbors know, Henry got his cock-a ...

An example of this breed is the Rhode Island red. No Bird Brain The domesticated animals we know as chickens descended from the red jungle fowl of Southeast Asia about 8,000 years ago. Because the ...