The Rhodebar thread!

[RedRidge]

Here is some info I found when researching Rhodebars, we are new to these also DMRippy. We have only hatched a few, so far the autosexing is looking good but would like to see a little darker feathering on my cockerels.


The Rhodebar has a full breast and a deep, broad body with a long back. They are a deep reddish colour with fine buff barring. They have a single upright comb, rounded wattles and a short beak. Legs and feet are yellow and they have 4 toes. The tail is small with a black tip to the feathers. Sexing day old Rhodebar chicks is fairly straightforward. Yellow chicks are the males and the females should have dark stripes or barring down their backs. Adult Rhodebar birds look very similar to Rhode Island Reds in shape and colouring but have a black tip to the tail.
Breeding Hints

Again.. not sure where this quote came from but... one problem... you do not want to keep "yellow chicks".
The males should have a white spot on their head... the ones who are solid yellow are not autosexed unless they have that white spot.

 

[RedRidge]

Notice the white spots on the heads... these are all cockerels except one....

 

[DMRippy]

my pullets are egg laying machines too. 2-3 eggs almost everyday kinda like my leghorn.

 

[DMRippy]

Notice the white spots on the heads... these are all cockerels except one....

my roos look like that at hatch. I am keeping the darker roos for the mahogany color.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

I will post picture of my hatch tonight- all should be fluffed out by the time I get home. This doesn't tell about the chicks but, I found this on the poultry club of great Britain

The Poultry Club of Great Britain
Breed Standard
for the
Rhodebar​

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS :
MALE:
Carriage: Upright and graceful.

Type: Body large, fairly deep, broad and long. Back broad, long and somewhat horizontal in outline. Breast broad, full and well rounded. Wings carried well up, the bows and tips covered by breast feathers and saddle hackle. Tail rather small, rising slightly from the saddle, the sickle of medium length, well spread and nicely curved, the coverts being sufficiently
abundant to cover the stiff feathers.
Head: Strong, but not thick. Beak moderately curved, short and stout. Eyes large and bright. Comb single, medium size, straight, upright, well set on, with well-defined serrations, and free from side sprigs. Face smooth. Ear-lobes of fine texture, well developed and pendant. Wattles to correspond with size of comb and moderately rounded.
Neck: Of medium length and profusely covered with feathers flowing over the shoulders, but not too loosely carried.

Legs and feet: Legs wide apart and of medium length, stout and strong and free from feathers. Thighs large with well rounded shanks of medium length. Toes four, strong, straight and well spread.

Plumage: Of silky texture, free from coarse or excessive feather.

Handling : Firm with abundance of muscle.

FEMALE
The general characteristics are similar to those of the male, allowing for the natural sexual differences.

COLOUR
Plumage, Male: Hackle deep red-gold barred, with centres black and grey-white barred, the black centre portions rather longer than the grey-white; the front of the cape showing less black, the feathers towards the tips of the cape lying on the back showing wider black and grey-white barring. Wing primaries, lower web red-gold, faintly barred, upper grey and white barred, slightly gold tinted; secondaries, the whole alternately black, white and gold barred, lower web showing more gold; flight coverts very bright red-gold and white barred, tips red-gold. Wing bows very brilliant chestnut red and gold barred. Tail, including sickles, uniform black and white barring from tip to base, including the shaft. Tips black. Saddle hackle deed red-gold and grey-white and narrower black barring towards the tips. Back and saddle deep red-gold barred, with occasional black bars towards the end of the feathers. Undercolour light creamy buff. Breast uniformly barred, deep red-gold and creamy white and black.

Plumage, Female : Hackle deep buff red with bright chestnut edges, each feather with deep buff, gold, black and white narrow barring, the barring becoming narrower as it approaches the lower cape feathers. Tail feathers black with reddish tinge. Wing primaries, upper web red-buff, lower black; secondaries buff-red. Remainder, general surface dark buff-red barred with buff and buff-red, the tips of the feathers of the lighter colour. Undercolour creamy buff-red, as deep as possible. Quills yellow.
In both sexes: Beak red-horn or yellow. Eyes orange or red, pupils clearly defined. Comb, face, ear lobes and wattles bright red. Legs and feet bright yellow.

Standard Weights :
Cock: 8½lb (minimum); Cockerel 8lb .
Hen: 6½lb (minimum); Pullet 5½lb

SCALE OF POINTS
Type 30
Colour 20
Legs 10
Condition 15
Head 20
Weight 5
100 Points

Serious Defects : Male's comb twisted or falling over. Ear-lobes other than red. Legs other than yellow, orange or light willow. Squirrel or wry tail. Side sprigs on the comb. Eye pupils other than round and clearly defined. Crooked breast or any bodily deformity.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

here are my little hatchings- out of 4 that were set all 4 hatched.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

Here are my two roos and 3 hens

 

[ortluk]

Hi guys, I know I'm probably a bit late on this but I've created a chart that I believe should show a strategy for recreating the Rhodebar. Let me know if you think this would work. It would likely take about 2 years using 2 breeding pens. Also as an added benefit you would end up with Legbars if you added a third pen and did a sibling cross in pen B before crossing the two pens to introduce the Rhode island red genes.

 

[RedRidge]

Why start from scratch? Why not just improve the lines that exist?
Granted, the need a LOT of improvement. I put a LOT of Rhodebars in the freezer this year.
But the few who remain are pretty decent and over the HRIR will hopefully produce a couple of exceptional pullets to cross back.
Yes, I will put hundreds in the freezer next summer, but at least the base I have started with is Rhodebar genetics.
I am not being critical at all... Just wondering why you would do it the hard way and in reality have something that is similar to rhodebars but isnt.
I am always looking for new knowledge for improving bloodlines, but I don't see barred rocks as doing that.

 

[ortluk]

Mainly this is an exercise. Testing my knowledge of chicken genetics. That being said, by the time you got to the fourth generation the birds from this plan should be indistinguishable from the imported lines, so long as you select for the RIR traits and away from the leghorn traits. It seems that it would be a good thing to have more strains of the breed to inject some genetic variety into the lines.

After a few outcrosses back to good quality HRIR, the type should improve as well. Unless there's something I'm missing, I think these birds would be just as close to the standard as the lines that are currently being worked on, rather than something similar to rhodebars.