The Rhodebar thread!

[melroseladi]

It isn't of GFF stock. I do have one out there that is of GFF stock though. She is darker like the dark one pictured here..and Red..I am not eating one of my chickens. LOL>....I have a small flock, they are my girls. Now if an earthquake happened, and we needed food.. hmmm...
I come on here and read up on all of you knowledgeable folks though. I can look at them and wonder what my HRIR will make with one of them. I'm learning a bit about F1's..or something like that. Hope ya don't mind me buggin every now and again. I just wonder about that light one being a girl. Darn it, I thought for sure it was a girl, now the one I got the eggs from says she still thinks it's a boy. I don't. :/

Well the light one is very similar to the coloring in my male F1's so maybe she is a he, lol. Time will tell. So the person you got eggs from developed her own Rhodebar line? I would love to see pics of them.

It took me a long time before I could eat any of my birds and I am only at the point where I can eat the males, and there are certain males that I don't think I could eat. The danger of naming and making some pets instead of livestock, so I understand you not eating them.

We are all here learning so don't ever think you are bugging us.

Penny

 

[RedRidge]

No post is ever bugging. We are still very much learning and bouncing ideas and pictures off each other is how we learn.
I personally tend to be a little blunt sometimes with my opinion because I figure people wouldn't ask of they didn't want a straight answer and because I like it when folks shoot straight with me. That said, I suspect I can come across as abrasive in writing sometimes and that is not the intent.

I will say that I am becoming more and more frustrated with the problems people are having receiving eggs and chicks in this breed. While we can pick apart type and color all day long and realize the need for improvement, that does not negate the fact that this is an autosexed breed. When people receive chicks or hatching eggs that are not ALL auto sexable, it is an assault on the breed and imo it is dishonesty. No Rhodebar breeder should be selling anything that isn't autosexable - PERIOD! I believe it is the breeders responsibility to accurately represent the breed and if they are not verifying their autosexing ability through breeding they shouldn't be selling eggs. Autosexing should not be a crap shot where "some" of the chicks are autosexed... The entire hatch should be. IF they aren't and IF someone wants to perpetuate them as RB, then only the easily autosexed should be bred and only proven stock should be used to produce eggs.
Now IF someone is wanting birds for eggs or looks and didn't care about perpetuating or improving the breed, that's fine. We all need egg layers. But those birds should not be called Rhodebars, they should be called backyard layers.

I feel for those people who are receiving eggs that are not autosexable when they thought they were receiving RB. It is giving the breed and the breeders a bad name. And instead of pursuing the breed, these folks are becoming disenchanted and leaving the breed. And at the other extreme, breeders who are selling these misleading genetics (whether intentionally or out of ignorance), are perpetuating problems. And in many cases making a lot of money selling what are really back yard birds.

Here's my concern: The few very serious breeders out there who are developing really nice stock are going to become disenchanted with the breed because they cannot compete with the high priced, misrepresented stock that are being over produced and flooding the market. Over the next few years many people will give up the breed as they realize their stock is not autosexable. And worse, more people will jump on the band wagon with unproven stock.

Only a very small fraction of RB breeders are on byc. But all the other RB groups are having all the same growing pains. And many are very openly critical of RB breeders because they are selling something that is a misrepresentation of the breed. MANY folks have been publicly critical of this problem, but just add many keep breeding and selling eggs from two birds they really know nothing about.

Basically we all have or own goals. And those goals are never wrong - as long as they are represented accurately and honestly.
Guess I better get off my Sunday morning soap box now. ;-)

 

[mrshawman]

Very well said. It is the breed I am interested in, not just buying eggs, hatching them, and then selling what they lay. I purchased several lots of eggs last year and only a few have been what I consider to be true RB. It will take some time to get where I want to be with my program! And until then I wont have RBs.

 

[melroseladi]

I think what everybody needs to keep in mind is unless they are purchasing stock from an IMPROVED line then they can/should expect to be getting problems that run the gamut from color, type, egg color, and cross bred birds. As I have said in the past most if not all Rhodebar in the states came from foundation stock from GFF and while they did seem to have 1 pen of "decent" RB the rest of the stock seems to have been mixed and definitely poorly bred.

I know that people have different goals when they decide to have a RB flock, but I have to agree with Sheri as far as passing on not only inferior birds but birds that do not really even qualify as true RB is just wrong. Now I have no problem with people selling eggs or chicks with full disclosure.

RB should be 100% auto-sexable at hatch by anybody looking at them, imo. You should not have to have a comparison chart or a genetics degree to sex them at hatch. If there is any question about them (chipmunk stripe/head spot) they should be culled and not bred and NOT sold to people as RB.

Just my opinion

Penny

 

[nicalandia]

what bothers me alot is the fact that the birds dont look anything like RIR, Rhodebars are Autosexing RIR, so even if Autosexing was lost at some point, and the barring on the females is way off or even if the females have lacing, this is just the cherry on top of the Bad cake... the birds just dont look RIR in Type and size, forget about color. they dont have the Type and size

 

[RedRidge]

Yep... I want my Rhodebar to look like a barred version this little 7 week old chick.
He is standing at attention so you can't tell, but when he relaxes he is very brick shape with excellent type. Looking at him from the front, top, and rear, he is very wide and consistent all the way back with a brood chest. Who knows how he will mature but... If I had RB chicks that looked like this I would be happy. I snapped this shot yesterday in poor lighting but he is one of 45 HRIR in my grow out pen right now.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I totally get not selling or representing as RB birds that are not autosexable 100% at hatch. Where my confusion comes in is the "other" feather patterns we are seeing on RB that are autosexable. Do we call these "poorly marked" RB and work with them? I have only seen the lacing and pencilling and partridging in the hens and not the cock/erels (because of only one barring gene with females?). There are simply not enough "good" RB out there (type, color, or pattern) from what I can see.

I agree that selling culls for layers needs to be done carefully. I believe it is a mistake to give a "pedigree" on "mixed layers" no matter HOW BADLY the urban chickenkeeper wants you to. Some people have a real need to label everything. Their little mutt is a Chiweenie or a Schnoodle or whatever. They want to be able to say their hen is a Red Island Rhodebar or somesuch. It's ridiculous. As long as we say MIXED LAYER and adamantly refuse to use the word Rhodebar when referring to the mix it will help prevent that person in a year selling that hen as a Rhodebar, because that's all they can remember or all they want to remember when looking at pricing on craigslist. That being said, if only 1% or less of the people breeding do this, all is lost and I'm pretty sure that's the case.

 

[melroseladi]

what bothers me alot is the fact that the birds dont look anything like RIR, Rhodebars are Autosexing RIR, so even if Autosexing was lost at some point, and the barring on the females is way off or even if the females have lacing, this is just the cherry on top of the Bad cake... the birds just dont look RIR in Type and size, forget about color. they dont have the Type and size

Exactly, Marvin. Heck there are people getting RB that don't even know that a RB is a barred Red. I am thinking though, with several people now willing to work on improving the RB line that in a few years we will see a much different looking bird. I do have concerns, as Sheri said, that the market will be so flooded with "Wanna-Be Rhode Bars" that there won't be much of a market for true RB. I keep hope though in that even though hatchery reds have flooded the market there is a rekindling interest in Heritage Reds.

Penny

 

[melroseladi]

Yep... I want my Rhodebar to look like a barred version this little 7 week old chick.
He is standing at attention so you can't tell, but when he relaxes he is very brick shape with excellent type. Looking at him from the front, top, and rear, he is very wide and consistent all the way back with a brood chest. Who knows how he will mature but... If I had RB chicks that looked like this I would be happy. I snapped this shot yesterday in poor lighting but he is one of 45 HRIR in my grow out pen right now.

I am seeing much, much better type in my first hatch F1 cockerels then I expected. While I still have a couple with high tails and not good type I am seeing some that look very promising, especially that one with the awesome comb. Goodness it's pretty. Now my pullets are just dang ugly, imo, lol.

Penny

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

what bothers me alot is the fact that the birds dont look anything like RIR, Rhodebars are Autosexing RIR, so even if Autosexing was lost at some point, and the barring on the females is way off or even if the females have lacing, this is just the cherry on top of the Bad cake... the birds just dont look RIR in Type and size, forget about color. they dont have the Type and size

I try to evaluate youngstock in a colorblind state. I go back to "The Call of the Hen" over and over, because if a bird (or breed) isn't productive, what's the point? I'm not a "fancier"...for us there must be eggs and meat in exchange for feed, labor, and electricity here. It can be difficult when a BCM has gorgeous beetle green sheen and that perfect mix of coppering and eye color, etc...but if there's no rear end or balance I have to put them in the freezer. If a RB is all red except the tail and double barred but has a narrow pelvis or no chest...off he goes.

Sometimes I miss the days where I just had only hens and ate eggs, blissfully unaware.