- Yeah, here we go, chicks.

- [Pamela] 100-year-old Wayne Durfee likes spending time with a lot of young chicks, Rhode Island Reds to be exact.

Some of these little peeps will grow into roosters with striking plumage.

This is the Ocean State's official bird.

- That color of the Rhode Island Red, kind of a deep mahogany red of the body and the black tail feathers is very distinctive.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I think they're beautiful, but not everybody does.

- [Pamela] Yeah, Durfee has always had an expert eye for poultry, beginning as a little boy on his family's farm in North Situate where he was born and raised.

- I can remember very clearly going up and getting scratch feed, you know, it's a combination of corn and oats, wheat, scratch grains, and putting them in my pocket.

And then I'd go down to the house and I can remember sitting on the back step in the sunshine and reaching in and getting some corn.

And, "Here, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick."

My goodness, they'd come from everywhere.

- [Pamela] Durfee left that bucolic setting right after high school to join the Navy during World War II.

He served as a torpedo man, launching depth charges at sea.

Durfee later went to school on the GI Bill, eventually, earning his doctorate.

He taught for decades at the University of Rhode Island, where he's now Professor Emeritus of Animal Science.

Durfee, also volunteers here, at the South County Museum.

- My only goal, my only real purpose here, I guess, is to be sure that the hatching schedule is developed.

- [Pamela] Durfee watches over the chicks like a mother hen supervising their arrival for an annual community event.

- Those eggs have to go in the incubator on a day in June in order to hatch three days before the 4th of July.

That's so that on the 4th of July, little kids can come in and they got chicks to handle.

And they were hatched right here.

They're a single comb Rhode Island Red.

- [Pamela] Durfee says he admires the Rhode Island Red because it's a hearty breed that can withstand harsh New England winters.

And he says it's also gentle, social, and a chicken that's productive as well as attractive, known for both meat and big brown eggs.

- They were competing with other breeds from all over the world up at the Rhode Island egg laying test.

And the Rhode Island Reds always came out very well.

The original Rhode Island Red, the male was purchased from a whaling vessel.

(gentle folk music) - [Pamela] That rooster came to our shores in 1854 according to Marjory O'Toole, executive director of the Little Compton Historical Society.

- Very customary in the 1800s for our farms to take market wagons to the docks in New Bedford, bring produce to the whaling ships.

And, in return, sometimes those farmers would return with items that had been brought in from all over the world.

- [Pamela] Little Compton poultry farmer, William Tripp fancied the exotic rooster that had voyaged from the far east.

- And William bred it with his barnyard chickens.

And he noticed that their offspring were bigger and better than anything that we had seen in Little Compton before.

- [Pamela] The all-purpose poultry became popularly known as Tripp's fowls.

Yet another little Compton farmer, Isaac Wilbur, took it a step further.

He crossed, bred the Rouge Rooster with hens at his barnyard here.

And the Rhode Island Red revolutionized the industry.

- At one time, he had as many as 5,000 birds.

The eggs and the birds are starting to be shipped all over the country, Canada and some sources even say Europe.

- So was this the biggest poultry business in the world?

- We like to say that Rhode Island was the poultry capital of the world at the end of the 1800s, - [Pamela] Wayne Durfee says it was Isaac Wilbur who gave Tripp's fowls their new name and claim to fame.

An expert from URI, the agricultural school at the time, came to view the celebrated chickens.

- And he said, "Mr. Wilbur, you've got a new breed here.

"Have you thought of a name for it?"

And Mrs. Wilbur came back and said, "Wouldn't Rhode Island Red do," so that stuck.

- And that became the official symbol of Rhode Island.

- Yes, it did, but not until 1954.

- [Pamela] Durfee says The Rhode Island Red was not only vital to the local economy... - It had a major role and recognition right after World War II, when so much of Europe had been decimated by the war and the agriculture was in chaos over there, they had no big poultry industry and food was needed everywhere.

- [Pamela] The eggs were shippable in these metal crates.

Also, Rhode Island Red chicks could withstand an overseas flight.

The chicken with the colorful name became part of pop culture by mid-century, honored with this monument in the Little Compton Village of Adamsville and mentioned in this episode of the classic TV comedy, I Love Lucy.

- Why don't you tell 'em you were born in Providence, then they can call you Rhode Island Red.

(audience laughing) - And at one time, Rooster Booster lapel pins were a popular plug for Rhode Island pride.

Durfee is so proud of the heritage breed he wanted to ensure it would continue existing in Rhode Island at the South County Museum for future generations to enjoy.

More and more farms began disappearing.

And a decade ago, Durfee went on a mission to collect a nest egg.

Why was it so important for you to raise $10,000 so that there would always be a perpetual flock here in Rhode Island?

- It just seemed to me that since the Rhode Island Red was developed here in Rhode Island, that Rhode Island Reds should have a home here.

- As a symbol of Rhode Island, what do you think it represents?

Or what does it say about us?

- Well, it's sort of a symbol of productivity, long life.

- [Pamela] And as for the secret to his own longevity, Durfee says it's protein, especially the kind that you break out of a shell.

- I eat an egg and a half a day.

I have two eggs one day and one egg the next and the time I have one egg, then I have a half a sausage.

So anyway, you know... - That's your secret?

- I don't know.