The Rhodebar thread!

[RedRidge]

See my response to the message I sent you... this is the exact project I am working on.
All the girls are POL... simply waiting a few more months to add them to the roos in the all the breeding pens.
This is step in 2 in my breeding plan.

The message from earlier to several of you was in the interest of sharing more documentation with other so that everyone can benefit from each others successes and failures.
There will be a lot of differing opinions about how this is to be done.
For instance I plan to cull all my single barred cockerels... some do not agree and while using those single barred males correctly could be advantageous, I prefer to eliminate them in the F1 round. I may change my mind if there is an exceptional male in there, but thus far they need so much improvement that the majority of this improvement will have to come from the RIR side

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
are you breeding RIR rooster to Rhodebar Females? if thats the case all of your F1 males will be single barred, and the Females will be none barred.. I would keep the best F1 single barred males and mate them back to RIR...... since you all that you will be getting on the F1s and BC1s(Back to RIR Parent) are single barred males, I would not sujest you doing it... and since the ONLY(not majority) of this imporvement will have to come from the RIR side, I would sujest you using Single Barred males back to RIR at least twice before you even concider doing sibling mating(single barred male mated to his barred sister)... the first F1 Males you will produce will Undoubtedly be superior to the Rhodebar parent, taking this F1 single barred males and mate them back to RIR hens will produce some Pure Rhodebar Females that have exceptional quality to them.... these females will be e+/eWh(looking like Rhodebar females) B/- Mh/Mh s+/s+ making that lonly eWh(wheaten) gene the only Foreign gene in the pure Rhodebars

 

[DeltaBluezTess]

This is my idea...since I have about 8 roos, I will keep about 3 of them. Breed them to my RIR hens and keep the hens chicks and breed back to a different rhodebar roo. Willing to vary this as needed....I also have about 8 rhodebar hens....

 

[RedRidge]

All the while we need to be contentious of the chick down... We don't want to lose auto sexing

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
yes, keeping the Chipmunk striped one will assure that.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

Ok Enlighten me on the genetics of the Rhodebar, I am not going to change anything for 2014 but I may want to improve mine after that and for sure don't want to lose the autosexing. This is the main reason for getting them.

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
what makes the Rhodebar an Autosexing breed is the e+/e+ wildtype e allele, which has chipmunk stripes and its called wildtype because its found on the Wild Red Jungle fowl, the e+ gene mated to the Autosexing barring gene will produce Autosexing chicks... now thats the only difference between the Rhodebar and the RIR, or at least thats what it should be. now the Rhodebar breed as it is needs alot of improvement, and this improvement can be achieve by outcrossing to good Quality RIR.. this first cross will produce chicks with a chipmunk stripe pattern similar to pure Rhodebar but perhaps less sharp. but not all of the chicks will come out looking like that some will come out looking solid orange. you keep the Autosexable chicks and breed it back to RIR to further improve the Rhodebar lines

 

[RedRidge]

Quote:
I'll add to that... that Rhodebars are supposed to be a barred, autosexed version of the RIR.
If you compare the Rhodebar to quality RIR you will see all the vast differences... there is no type, no brick shape, terrible tail sets, etc.
Males should be double barred, females single barred (females carry only 1 barring gene).
As a side note, in some countries, people keep the single barred males for show because they are darker and more striking (some other's opinions, not mine). They may only breed the double barred males but show the single barred ones. Breeding the single barred males will result in some chicks who have no barring or improper barring, so culling correctly to maintain the barring and autosexing is critical.
Also note, that getting yellow/orange chicks is possible even in straight rhodebar breedings.
Documenting the colors of your chicks and choosing breeders accordingly is very wise if you want to maintain autosexing. That's the reason I document with pics from hatching and make sure my leg band colors (I use vet wrap on the youngsters) are always up to date.
I don't care how nice a cockerel looks when he's breeding age, if he was solid yellow or orange at birth he is going in the freezer. I choose my "potential" breeder males at hatch, the others aren't even in the running, and then my breeders are chosen when they are older from those potentials. The others who were not in the running went into the grow out pen for meat as soon as they left the brooder.
You can't fix/improve everything at once... you have to pick and choose... and most importantly you have to be willing to cull ruthlessly!!

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
Thats why I think the Rhodebar is a Immortal breed that cant die out, they are as you said autosexed version of the RIR and as long as there are good quality RIR on the Planett they cant die out...

 

[minihorse927]

i hatched these two and in having trouble sexing these two. They were the only two i can't decode. The rest were easy.