The Rhodebar thread!

[Afewbantams]

We have one rhodebar chick, hopefully a girl. Amber is orange/rust with a dark brown patch on her head. Someone said look for white patches, she doesn't have any white patches. Is she a girl?

 

[Papa Brooder]

We have one rhodebar chick, hopefully a girl. Amber is orange/rust with a dark brown patch on her head. Someone said look for white patches, she doesn't have any white patches. Is she a girl?

Just compare to these photos. All chipmunk striped are girls, as my kids call them they have black racing stripes. All boys have a white spot on their head.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I got some buckeye pullets and a 'dark RIR' pullet to use with "Stewson" (our rooster, Stew's son) to make our second generation cross. So we should get some rhodebars and buckbar type chicks, I'm sure we'll get both pea and single combs from the mating. If all goes as planned, the girls will be laying by this fall, same time as the legbars so I can do a hatch of them and have 3rd generation rhode/buckbar chicks by mid spring. It will be interesting to see how the 3rd generation will turn out, egg color included since "Stewson's" sisters should lay nice green eggs.

Thanks for the pics of the chicks, some pics I have seen aren't too clear and they just show one pullet and one cockerel, which as we all know, they wont always look the same, so some folks may wonder

 

[draye]

Hey, Monkey
Do you have a picture of Stewson?

Getting me a program started if my plans don't go awry. Only for a Buff Barred egg layer. Waint on the chicks to mature to see if any will make the cut.

 

[Afewbantams]

Thank you for your photos, they are lovely chicks. Humm, well Amber is rust/orange without chipmonk stripes and no white spot. She has a small dark brown blaze on her head, like the female chicks, but it is a lot smaller. Amber has deep red/brown stripes across her little wings (nearly 3 weeks old), they really are quite pretty. As far as I can see she doesn't have any black feathers at all. I'll try and learn how to load photos.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Draye, I don't have any pictures of him yet. We've been so busy around here with everything, plus starting a new job that I haven't had time to take pics of anything lately. His type and actions are very much like his father. Over the next week or so I'll work on getting updated pics of my various projects. Stewson is only about 2 months old right now. Which to be honest, he was originally meant to be food like the rest of his brothers but he had the spark that caught my eye even as a chick so he was spared. I might keep another brother of his from this next batch so I have a second line to work with.

 

[draye]

Draye, I don't have any pictures of him yet. We've been so busy around here with everything, plus starting a new job that I haven't had time to take pics of anything lately. His type and actions are very much like his father. Over the next week or so I'll work on getting updated pics of my various projects. Stewson is only about 2 months old right now. Which to be honest, he was originally meant to be food like the rest of his brothers but he had the spark that caught my eye even as a chick so he was spared. I might keep another brother of his from this next batch so I have a second line to work with.

That's quite okay. I'm not much of a picture taker myself, want to just don't find the right time to get it done.

 

[Marengoite]

I got some buckeye pullets and a 'dark RIR' pullet to use with "Stewson" (our rooster, Stew's son) to make our second generation cross. So we should get some rhodebars and buckbar type chicks, I'm sure we'll get both pea and single combs from the mating. If all goes as planned, the girls will be laying by this fall, same time as the legbars so I can do a hatch of them and have 3rd generation rhode/buckbar chicks by mid spring. It will be interesting to see how the 3rd generation will turn out, egg color included since "Stewson's" sisters should lay nice green eggs.

Thanks for the pics of the chicks, some pics I have seen aren't too clear and they just show one pullet and one cockerel, which as we all know, they wont always look the same, so some folks may wonder

Do you have any pics of mature Buckbars? How do they compare with the Rhodebar? I've been toying with the idea of trying this cross next year as well since Barred rocks were used in creating the Buckeye. Do you have adult weights on your F1 and F2 hybrids?

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

No adult pics of buckbars, I think I might be the first person to make them since I haven't found any info about them anywhere. My F1 is still growing out, they're about 4 months old. This fall when they start laying I'll be hatching out F2 (the joys of having a heated chick shed) and hopefully by this time next year I'll be on my F3. I just like the idea of them because of the pea combs and they're different looking than others

 

[Marengoite]

We'll have to keep in touch, Michael. I'm just getting started in chickens this year. We've raised turkeys the last three years for the fair and my son wanted to expand into 4H chickens this year. I had picked up some Buckeyes to raise as dual purpose birds and this year our country decided to add a "Any Other Breed" or "Heritage" class to the broiler competition, so we're going to compete with the Cornish cross and Freedom Ranger folks, although we have an earlier hatch date than them. I was going to save back my best roo and cross him over some Barred rock pullets I picked up at a local hatchery. Jeff Lay, the moderator on the American Buckeye Club yahoo group suggested creating a Buckbar to see what turns up. He thought they should impart a hybrid vigor to the offspring in addition to the chicks being sex-linked. That way, we would still have Heritage chickens, by the ALBC's definition, even though they are hybrids, and in the F2 and later generations we could build a population of auto-sexing birds. I'd recommend joining the Yahoo group if you get a chance. They also have a facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/126598094076064/

What really hooked me on the project (besides the fact that you're the only one I know of who's working on it) is that the Rhodebar fowl have a red crele pattern. I'm a sucker for both red and crele and to find them together in a single bird would make me a happy camper. To add a pea comb on top of it for an autosexing heritage hybrid capable of withstanding the worst that an Ohio winter can dish out was just frosting on the cake. I look forward to seeing how your project turns out and following along behind you. It'll be good to compare notes.

And don't you feel they'd sound much better if we called them Buckybars? Rolls off the tongue better, don't you think?