The Rhodebar thread!

[michaelf]

your double barred males look that dark ?

my original male was dark mahogany red. You can see him a few post up . You can also see difference in body from original to the backcross cockeral in above post also.
They will be dark mahagony red barred. I have not yet raised had any double barred.(i have been backcrossing To RIR.)The male chick in above picture will be double barred . As you can tell they are auto sexing. This is my first to have generation of what I feel will look good. I will use these chicks( more hatching) to put back into improving them . The cockeral I will put back over RIR and put back over some of these chicks and hatch . remember cull all yellow and faintly wild type chicks . They will grow up looking like a RB but will all be wrong genetically. Yes they will be auto sexing but not RB as people say.

 

[dheltzel]

This is similar to what they should look like. Basically look at the SOP for RIR. Added auto sexing and barred! If you are propagating wrong genetic birds you are hindering the advancement of the breed. They have way to many faults and way to many people selling so called RB. I am being honest, Because I care about them and work hard to improve them. So do some others.
Yes they are an excellant breed, very docile , lay tons of eggs, and they look good. A great duel purpose birds. A great addition to a backyard flock. I give my culls away as back yard layers and do not call the RB . I say barred egg layers!
These are RB chicks that have been improved, but still have work to be done. These will be used to back cross again to RIR .( not production reds) they are a work in progress , cull all yellow chicks.. The above cockeral is single barred. Just showing how the stance should be.

Nice stock you have.
You must be really upset at all the commercial hatcheries, because what they sell as RIR bears little resemblance to the SOP. Same with every breed, the "barred rocks" they sell are not even close to what a high-quality BR look like. They should call them "cuckoo rocks" or something besides BR, because by your standards they are also clearly hindering the advancement of the BR breed!

I'm not saying you are wrong to hold that opinion, just that I believe that ship has sailed. You do what you can and create show quality RB's (someday we'll probably call them "heritage rhodebars"). In the mean time, using them as production birds in people's backyards does a lot to advance the breed, IMO. Most people will never hear of a Rhodebar because the hatcheries don't sell them (yet), and those that do and want to try them often face a nearly impossible task of locating stock. I'm doing my part to fix that locally. I may never create any customers of "show quality Rhodebars", but I might. If not, is what I'm doing (selling production quality Rhodebars to backyard keepers) really hurting you? Does a commercial hatchery selling "production reds" hurt the producer of high quality heritage RIR? I certainly don't see how. Would you really prefer I cull all my RB's and switch to selling Bielefelders?

I realize this opinion is not likely to be welcome here, but I think it's something you should at least consider before trying to stamp out all Rhodebar keeping that doesn't meet your personal goals.

 

[rc50]

Ok I didn't think he was double barred... Just I see too many single barred males... that are darker than their double barred males are... and leads one to think.. those that do not know, to think that a pure breeding double barred male will be as dark when they are not.....

 

[michaelf]

If we are selling a breed should we pay homage to the breed and breeders of the breed by helping to keep them the best they can be? All birds need work and are work. "My standards "are that of th APA and the SOP for the breeds of the birds!

Nice stock you have.
You must be really upset at all the commercial hatcheries, because what they sell as RIR bears little resemblance to the SOP. Same with every breed, the "barred rocks" they sell are not even close to what a high-quality BR look like. They should call them "cuckoo rocks" or something besides BR, because by your standards they are also clearly hindering the advancement of the BR breed!

I'm not saying you are wrong to hold that opinion, just that I believe that ship has sailed. You do what you can and create show quality RB's (someday we'll probably call them "heritage rhodebars"). In the mean time, using them as production birds in people's backyards does a lot to advance the breed, IMO. Most people will never hear of a Rhodebar because the hatcheries don't sell them (yet), and those that do and want to try them often face a nearly impossible task of locating stock. I'm doing my part to fix that locally. I may never create any customers of "show quality Rhodebars", but I might. If not, is what I'm doing (selling production quality Rhodebars to backyard keepers) really hurting you? Does a commercial hatchery selling "production reds" hurt the producer of high quality heritage RIR? I certainly don't see how. Would you really prefer I cull all my RB's and switch to selling Bielefelders?

I realize this opinion is not likely to be welcome here, but I think it's something you should at least consider before trying to stamp out all Rhodebar keeping that doesn't meet your personal goals.

 

[Madisan]

This is Roosti my rhodebar rooster I love him!

 

[dheltzel]

If we are selling a breed should we pay homage to the breed and breeders of the breed by helping to keep them the best they can be? All birds need work and are work. "My standards "are that of th APA and the SOP for the breeds of the birds!

I was not aware that the APA had accepted Rhodebars as an official breed or that an SOP had been published for them. They aren't yet listed on the APA website, so that must be a recent event.

As to "paying homage", you may if you want, others may chose not to. If you think that is not right, you may certainly hold a different opinion. I still maintain that you cannot force every breeder of Rhodebars to "work toward the SOP", nor would it be beneficial to the hobby if you could force that. Do breeders of Rhode Island Reds also maintain that everyone with a "mutt" RIR ought to not call them RIR's? I think they'd be laughed at for even suggesting such a thing, yet the heritage RIR breeders are in a much stronger position to suggest such things because the RIR is a heritage breed with a long history (over a century) in the US, and a well established SOP. If the heritage RIR breeders are willing to accept the existence of hatcheries and small time, non-heritage breeders, you should be also.

A good heritage RIR is worth a lot more than a hatchery RIR. An improved Rhodebar will also be worth a lot, and the difference in appearance will be obvious (as it is for RIR). By all means, please continue to work towards a better Rhodebar. I hope to buy some of those someday. Current Rhodebar owners are your future customers, not enemies trying to subvert your improvement project. The current stock of Rhodebars may be inferior in your eyes, but they are seeding a market to help you recover some of the costs you are incurring as you work to improve your birds.

 

[mikeybrownie]

How much can I get for rhodebar chicks?

 

[dheltzel]

How much can I get for rhodebar chicks?

It depends.
(isn't that the answer to most questions in life?)

Seriously, I was getting $8 for pullet chicks last spring, but I was not able to sell all of them at that price and sold some surplus ones for $5. Right now, I could not get $2 for them, because no one wants to raise chicks in the winter in my area.

Males I give away, but if I could buy a high quality male from someone that has done the work to cross them to heritage RIR and get them back to good autosexing, I would happily pay $20 for a single male chick. So, it depends on a number of factors - demand (including seasonality), supply, quality (very much tied to demand also), whether you can ship or only sell local, your reputation, etc.

I suppose you wanted a simple answer, didn't you, and not a treatise on the microeconomics of selling chicks. I apologize for being long-winded, I can't help it, I think it's genetic.

 

[mikeybrownie]

It depends.
(isn't that the answer to most questions in life?)

Seriously, I was getting $8 for pullet chicks last spring, but I was not able to sell all of them at that price and sold some surplus ones for $5. Right now, I could not get $2 for them, because no one wants to raise chicks in the winter in my area.
Thank you
Males I give away, but if I could buy a high quality male from someone that has done the work to cross them to heritage RIR and get them back to good autosexing, I would happily pay $20 for a single male chick. So, it depends on a number of factors - demand (including seasonality), supply, quality (very much tied to demand also), whether you can ship or only sell local, your reputation, etc.

I suppose you wanted a simple answer, didn't you, and not a treatise on the microeconomics of selling chicks. I apologize for being long-winded, I can't help it, I think it's genetic.

 

[chickyduck]

I have 2 Rhodebar pullets.

What can I use to breed with those 2 girls to give me auto sexing offspring that can still be considered a rhodebar? And what will give me a rhodebar cockerel for future breeding?