The Rhodebar thread!

[malndobe]

hi-
I have a 2 month old Rhodebar female from Greenfire Farms and her color seems different from photos I've googled.... She has a bit more blue grey in her body. Is this her juvenile markings or will she keep this color? thanks

I can't help you with the color, sorry. Mine are younger than yours so they haven't gone through that stage of development. I have a question about her though, in the photo I can see various shades in the feathers, but don't see a barred pattern. Does she look barred in person?

 

[RedRidge]

Hmmm. The cockerel above looks awfully dark for his age if he is to be double barred. The pullet with the grey does not look full Rhodebar to me.
It's hard to tell from the pics of course, but from what I can see i would question the lineage of this hatch

 

[malndobe]

Hmmm. The cockerel above looks awfully dark for his age if he is to be double barred. The pullet with the grey does not look full Rhodebar to me.
It's hard to tell from the pics of course, but from what I can see i would question the lineage of this hatch

Do you mean the out of focus one in the background? That's either a BCW or Blue Orpington, I can't tell with the focus issue. The Rhodebars are the two looking to the left of the photo and the cockerel looking towards the camera. I will have to get some outdoor photos with a real camera, he's not as dark as he looks in that photo. I have 3 from this hatch, they are all darker than my lone cockerel from a hatch of eggs from another source, but not as dark as the photo appears. Unfortunately one of the legs on my lighter cockerel is messed up (turns backwards), have been working with different types of hobbles since he hatched but it won't correct so he's going to have to be culled.

 

[malndobe]

A couple more bad photos, I promise if I make it home before dark today I will get some better shots.

I marked the Rhodebars in this photo, there are also Barnevelder, BLRW, BCM and barnyard mixes in the pick so just ignore them.

Another cockerel picture, not sure if it's the same one as before or not. Is it the darkness of the red or the thickness of the barring that indicates if he's single or double barred? I thought it was how thick or thin the bars are? Laying down in the background of the photo you can see my cockerel from a different hatch/egg source, unfortunately he's the one with the wonky leg. He is lighter than the others, although the lighting in this picture over emphasizes the difference.

 

[RedRidge]

Do you have pics of their down when they were hatched. What I would do is track each of the 5 separately with photos. .. Hopefully from birth on. .. At least every 2 weeks. Then when you get close to pol, choose your best of reach sex, look at their down pics and make sure they were easily autosexed, then cull the rest. Breed those two and do it all again...
Culling deeply will be the quickest way to improve. This is assuming you are breeding RB x RB and not trying to improve by out crossing (different topic).

 

[malndobe]

I didn't hatch them, I bought them at about a week old from someone else who got the eggs from a BYC person and hatched them. I know of the 6, 2 of the hens and all 3 cockerels were easily sexed at hatch. The 3rd hen, the one I banded and who has the funny feather pattern, wasn't. She had faint chipmunk markings, and was colored more like the males with a light colored head but did have an obvious "chipmunk" stripe on her head. They thought she was a cockerel, I thought possibly pullet because of the pattern she was feathering in, it matched the other 2 pullets who all feathered in their chipmunk stripes first, the cockerels feathered in a different pattern.

I have been taking photos of them since I purchased them to track development. Right now my plan is to breed RB x RB. If I find some quality RIR I might take that on, but I have to many chickens already I'll be selling off a bunch of POL pullets in the spring, once I get the numbers down then we'll see. It will depend on how good of layers these RB are, I wanted them for the autosexing but my #1 reason for keeping chickens is the eggs and meat, so I'm still looking for breed(s) that meet the requirements of an attractive layer flock with a variety of colors/patterns, that lay well, have a robust immune system, and are good foragers. If they don't meet the above requirements autosexing isn't going to be enough. If they do, then they may become one of my projects.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I didn't hatch them, I bought them at about a week old from someone else who got the eggs from a BYC person and hatched them. I know of the 6, 2 of the hens and all 3 cockerels were easily sexed at hatch. The 3rd hen, the one I banded and who has the funny feather pattern, wasn't. She had faint chipmunk markings, and was colored more like the males with a light colored head but did have an obvious "chipmunk" stripe on her head. They thought she was a cockerel, I thought possibly pullet because of the pattern she was feathering in, it matched the other 2 pullets who all feathered in their chipmunk stripes first, the cockerels feathered in a different pattern.

I have been taking photos of them since I purchased them to track development. Right now my plan is to breed RB x RB. If I find some quality RIR I might take that on, but I have to many chickens already I'll be selling off a bunch of POL pullets in the spring, once I get the numbers down then we'll see. It will depend on how good of layers these RB are, I wanted them for the autosexing but my #1 reason for keeping chickens is the eggs and meat, so I'm still looking for breed(s) that meet the requirements of an attractive layer flock with a variety of colors/patterns, that lay well, have a robust immune system, and are good foragers. If they don't meet the above requirements autosexing isn't going to be enough. If they do, then they may become one of my projects.

Well said! I do understand that many people raise chickens just to see chicks hatching, or because they are pretty, or because people pay a lot for eggs, chicks, or birds. I also require production appropriate to the breed, and for most of my choices they also need to make a decent carcass because we all know how many extra cockerels we end up feeding. It seems to me that different lines have widely varying lay rates, dressing percentages, etc.

In that vein, I am prepared to take the heat for my next question/comment. How many are willing to state in these forums WHERE they got their birds/eggs from, regardless of the outcome? Clearly there are a lot of people raising birds now, and many (not all) on auction sites just go for the big bids. Even more importantly if people are getting chicks or birds consistently from one seller and the quality is not there, wouldn't we all like to know that? Conversely (and I do see this more often than truth-telling about culls), let's ring the bells of those that are selling quality stock!

 

[Nagi]

thank you--there is barring on her neck feathers and some light "barring" on her other feathers but it is not distinct(I will look at it when I can to see if it is barring or some other marking as it looks more like the Barnevelder's marking). the male Rhodebars I got look like typical Rhodebars. I got Bielefelders in this auction too but this female doesn't look like them. I was told I was shipped a Sulmtaler but it was a Birchen Maran so maybe this is not a Rhodebar but another breed? thanks!

 

[Nagi]

thank you!
sorry, I'm new to this--my answer is above <


RedRidge--thank you--good to know!

 

[RedRidge]

Just candled the first eggs I set 8 days ago. ALL 7 are viable and growing. Yeah!