Rhodebar Questions???

[Circle W Farms]

I have Production Reds and Dominiques. From what I have read, if I cross my RIR cock over DOM hens then I will have Rhodebars. Will my first hatching be Rhodebars or will I have to take those offspring and breed them back to get them. Also can I breed my DOM cock over RIR hens to get the same affect? How productive/popular do ya'll think they are/could be?

 

[SunHwaKwon]

If you are looking for autosexing, you need to put the RIR rooster over the dominique hens.

 

[The Moonshiner]

You wont get rhodebars.
Although you can get a rhodebar type after a few generations and a lot of culling along the way.
No a dom rooster or rir hens will not work.

Put rir roo over dom hens. Offspring will be black pullets and black barred cockerels.
Breed those cockerel chicks with rir hens for your second generation.
You should get a variety of chicks from that pairing. Keep ONLY pullets and cockerels that are both barred and your rir chick color. Cull unbarred, blacks etc.
Third generation breed those chicks together. You should get all chicks that are your rir chick color. Some pullets wont be barred. Some pullets will be barred. The cockerels will be either single barred or double barred. Keep only double barred cockerels.
Now you have your rhodebar type autosexing chickens.
Breed your double barred cockerels to your barred pullets. All offspring will be what youre wanting.
You can also throw in your unbarred pullets with your double barred cockerel. Those pullet offspring will also be what youre wanting. Although all their cockerel chicks will be only single barred so they will need culled.
When you start keeping back chicks as breeders keep only the lightest colored cockerels and the darkest pullets.
Youll want to keep the male chicks and female chicks that look the most different to keep the autosexing as easy to see at hatch as possible.

 

[Circle W Farms]

Thanks that helps a lot. How are their productivity?