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. ;-)