Rhode Island Reds are an American dual-purpose breed, raised both for its meat and brown eggs. They are found in both standard and bantam form, and the plumage colour can range from a lustrous deep red to almost black, with a black tail. The comb is usually single and the legs are yellow. It’s an important breed that has been widely used to produce commercial hybrids. They are good-size birds, great layers of large brown eggs, have a friendly temperament (with the exception of some roosters that can display territorial behaviours) and are well adapted to all types of the Australian climate, characteristics that render them particularly popular down under.