The Rhodebar thread!

[Ihilani Coffee]

Strange thing.... I got some chicks from her and they lay a nice BROWN EGG. No blue color at all! I have an unrelated roo over them so I hope he is not carrying the green egg genes. Blue eggs are DOMINATE so I know the girls just didn't get that from the dams or sires. They autosex really well at hatch too. I have not had any issues sexing them, I am selecting for darker pullets and roos to improve the autosexing in the next gen.

My roo is about 9 months old and is a good size roo but I can't help you with a good age to harvest roos.... I just don't do that yet, don't have the space or time to grow them out.

So do you cull the cockerels at hatch?

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: I have a roo guy that takes day olds and up. He grows them out for meat. Another roo guy that I can send the older roos off with he usually eats them pretty quickly. He culls 2-3 month olds for his freezer since he lives alone.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I have a roo guy that takes day olds and up. He grows them out for meat. Another roo guy that I can send the older roos off with he usually eats them pretty quickly. He culls 2-3 month olds for his freezer since he lives alone.

I'd be interested to know how long the one person keeps the day-olds before butchering them. Can you ask him?

 

[RedRidge]

The questionable egg colors that some people have received is why photos (from hatching eggs on) are so important.
Take pics folks.

 

[DMRippy]

 
I have a roo guy that takes day olds and up.  He grows them out for meat.  Another roo guy that I can send the older roos off with he usually eats them pretty quickly.  He culls 2-3 month olds for his freezer since he lives alone.

I'd be interested to know how long the one person keeps the day-olds before butchering them.  Can you ask him?

I don't think he has butchered any yet.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

The questionable egg colors that some people have received is why photos (from hatching eggs on) are so important.
Take pics folks.

For the hatching eggs that are being shipped to me now, there are photos of the parent birds but no egg photos. Seller says his camera is broken. We will see!

 

[RedRidge]

 
I have a roo guy that takes day olds and up.  He grows them out for meat.  Another roo guy that I can send the older roos off with he usually eats them pretty quickly.  He culls 2-3 month olds for his freezer since he lives alone.

I'd be interested to know how long the one person keeps the day-olds before butchering them.  Can you ask him?

I don't think he has butchered any yet.

we didnt butcher any of ours this year until they were 5-6 months old. We wanted to make sure of who our 2 breeders were going to be before culling the remaining ones.
Carcasses were no great shakes as compared to the HRIR... yet another area the Reds will improve them.

I have 2 breeding pens set up with cockerels over HRIR hens. .. I will cull all those F1 boys this go around. But I have 1 pen of Rhodebar trios I am pleased with so will have some pure rhodebar next summer. I will potentially have some cockerels and pullets I will sell next summer. The plan is to grow them out to July or so, pick 2 of each sex to keep, cull the bottom feeders, then sell the remainder as POL pairs and trios... or just cockerels for someone needing a cockerel

 

[ortluk]

RedRidge,

What kind of lay rate do you get out of your Rhodebars? and the HRIRs?

 

[RedRidge]

HRIR are about 180-200/yr
Rhodebars are just now to POL - will letcha know.

I spent some time looking at your F1 results post last night.
The reason I decided to cull all my F1 cockerels was because I am concerned about identifying those questionable F2 chicks. Yes, lack of confidence in what iam looking at for some wheaten carriers. Since all F1 cockerels will only be single barred I set up yet another pen of just Rhodebars and figured I'd use a cock from there (known double bar) to save a step trying to identify wheaten and wild carriers in my F2.
Some carries are so "in the middle" and my lack of confidence in identifying the wheaten and wild carriers at birth just isn't there for those gray area chicks.
Last year each chick got weekly photographed and tracked from egg to 3 months. That is a LOT of work. But it helps confirmed down colors. I didn't want to pick breeders from lighter chicks. I'm glad I did it because some of those turned out to be pretty nice adults and it would have tempting to use them if I hadn't tracked them from birth.
While I plan to do the same thing this year I will have a lot more chicks so things could get confusing quickly. I have 4 rir I am putting rhodebar roos on. Then I kept only one rhodebar trio for true rhodebar mating. So I will have a lot of F1 chicks and suspect it could get confusing quickly if I'm not careful. There are only so many colors of vet wrap for individual id. LOL
The biggest thing I have going for me is that my rir are exceptional. But we will eat a LOT of chicken next year. Lol
I will likely have lots of pictures and want lots of opinions this coming spring. I'm trying to think ahead but at this point I'm just anxious to get as many F1s on the ground that I can and get them well documented.

 

[malndobe]

While I plan to do the same thing this year I will have a lot more chicks so things could get confusing quickly. I have 4 rir I am putting rhodebar roos on. Then I kept only one rhodebar trio for true rhodebar mating. So I will have a lot of F1 chicks and suspect it could get confusing quickly if I'm not careful. There are only so many colors of vet wrap for individual id. LOL

Will the Rhodebar roos over the RIR hens producing autosexing chicks?

I had 12 Rhodebar eggs shipped, 1 was smashed during shipping, 4 weren't fertile, 6 quit part way (I think a few were pullet eggs, they were pretty small) and 1 hatched. A cute little Rooster who was easy to sex before he'd even dried out. I was hoping at least 4 of the eggs would hatch and give me at least 1 rooster and 1 hen, of course preferably 1 rooster and lots of hens LOL I love the look of the Rhodebar, but what I really like is the autosexing ability. So will this little Roo be of any use in that area, or would I be looking at a multi-generation project? I don't know of anyone in my area who has Rhodebars for chicks, and I'm not sure I want to do the shipped egg thing again.