The Rhodebar thread!

[nicalandia]

Quote:
chicks that you could sex at Hatch? yes but only the Wildtype looking ones, the other ones that look wheaten then will not be sexable at hatch

 

[enola]

No the hen has to be the barred bird to get sexing at hatch benefits.

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
he is talking about Autosexing, not Sexlinks... big difference

 

[enola]

Ok, I stand corrected. So.....what is the answer then??

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

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.

While researching this breed I found this page: http://poultrykeeper.com/chicken-breeds/rhodebar-chickens
"If egg numbers are low, fresh blood can be introduced into your Rhodebar strain if you find some good utility Rhode Island Red hens and you can put your Rhodebar cockerel over these hens. The offspring from this mating will give you pure Rhodebar hens but the cockerels will not breed true. Next, put your Rhodebar cockerel over these pure Rhodebar hens. The offspring will now all be pure and you can continue with your line, hopefully now with increased egg numbers."

Do you agree with the above statement that 2 generations will give "pure" Rhodebar cockerels? I would always choose the heritage RIR for this, and luckily have a breeder of some gorgeous HRIR fairly local (next state over).

 

[nicalandia]

Ok, I stand corrected. So.....what is the answer then??

Quote:

 

[nicalandia]

Do you agree with the above statement that 2 generations will give "pure" Rhodebar cockerels? I would always choose the heritage RIR for this, and luckily have a breeder of some gorgeous HRIR fairly local (next state over).

Not Entirely..

you see RIR are based on the none Autosexing gene trait Wheaten and while wheaten x wildtype(autosexing e allele) chicks can look wildtype in nature, not all of them do, so they are not Pure per say but only due to them being e+/eWh instead of pure e+/e+

I have posted this in this thread before but I will do it again..

best thing you could do is cross Males from that cross that looked wildtype when they hatch and had a headspot while chick.. when these males are full grown they will look dark red barred, I would take these males and cross them back to RIR and be in the look out for better e+/eWh B/b+ males , these second generation males will be superior to the F1s,

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Not Entirely..

you see RIR are based on the none Autosexing gene trait Wheaten and while wheaten x wildtype(autosexing e allele) chicks can look wildtype in nature, not all of them do, so they are not Pure per say but only due to them being e+/eWh instead of pure e+/e+

I have posted this in this thread before but I will do it again..

best thing you could do is cross Males from that cross that looked wildtype when they hatch and had a headspot while chick.. when these males are full grown they will look dark red barred, I would take these males and cross them back to RIR and be in the look out for better e+/eWh B/b+ males , these second generation males will be superior to the F1s,

The site I quoted was saying to toss all the F1 males and only cross the pullets back to a Rhodebar cock. That is what I was asking about. So you are saying the dark red barred "Rhodebar" cocks are actually recently bred from a RIR infusion? I have seen photos of both the light red barred and dark rich red barred cocks and all of them were labelled Rhodebar. Just trying to understand here, and thank you for helping out.

 

[RedRidge]

The dark red are frequently single barred. This is a source of contention for me as true breeding rhodebar roos should be double barred (thus making them appear lighter). One of the reasons you see both is that in some countries it is common to "show" the single barred males because some people consider them more striking. Apparently those who show single barred males use their double barred males for purebred breeding pens.
Some will argue that a rhodebar cock can be single barred or double barred. I disagree. .. the single barred will not breed true 100% of the time.
So. .. there are many ways to skin this cat. .. Just depends if you want the skin or the meat. ;-)

 

[nicalandia]

The site I quoted was saying to toss all the F1 males and only cross the pullets back to a Rhodebar cock. That is what I was asking about. So you are saying the dark red barred "Rhodebar" cocks are actually recently bred from a RIR infusion? I have seen photos of both the light red barred and dark rich red barred cocks and all of them were labelled Rhodebar. Just trying to understand here, and thank you for helping out.

well by crossing back to Rhodebar males you would gain double barring BUT lose alot of the good genes you just infused by crossing to RIR...

what would I do? use the Best Darkest males that hatch wildtype and with a head dot(e+/eWh) and cross it back to RIR, that way I pick more of the good stuff..

keep all of the Wildtype looking chicks and discard the yellow/Orange looking ones