The Rhodebar thread!

[Ihilani Coffee]

Very helpful photos Donna, mahalo! I didn't like those white legs and that strangely colored pullet either. We'll see what comes out of the 'bator and make choices from there.

 

[DMRippy]

In my opinion, if you have good Heritage Rhode Island Reds. I would cross the single barred ones back to them to improve the line and Keep the double barred ones with your pure rhode bar pullets, so will have pure rhode bar eggs from your rhode bar pullets while working on improving the line in another pen. once you have all of the traits you want from the RIR in a single barred rooster cross it with pure rhode bar pullets to get back to an improved pure line.

If that would be a good method why not use a double barred roo with your HRIR? ALL the chicks will be barred and you can use the pullets and the single barred pullets too. Put the pullets with your Old line of Double Barred Rhodebar roo and they should breed true. Put a single barred Roo with your Rhodebar pullets and pick for the double barring or just toss the roos and use the ones from the other line. Kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak.

 

[ortluk]

I am new to wild type down and barring but why would being double barred lighten the color of the chicks??? Barred rocks and cuckoos even golden cuckoos are not lighter at hatch with double barring. The lighter look comes later as the barring starts to express. The yellow is WHEATEN the darker chicks didn't get 2 copies of recessive wheaten.

It is due to the E locus. in barred rocks it is the Black allele E/E for the down color and even though it the dosing effect doesn't lighten the down except for making the head spot bigger, it does inhibit the black pigment in the shanks causing males to have lighter colored shanks than females in barred rocks. But on the wild type and some others of the e locus the whole chick is affected by the dosage effect.

 

[DMRippy]

Very helpful photos Donna, mahalo! I didn't like those white legs and that strangely colored pullet either. We'll see what comes out of the 'bator and make choices from there.

Tag the ones that are EASY to sex. Go from there.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: I will disagree with your about the leg color on BR..... my Heritage Barred Rocks don't follow that at ALL..... neither do they follow the bigger head spot. I can't sex my GSBR at all.... never have been able too. Hatchery BR birds yes. Cuckoo Marans I can sex mostly by the spot.

Can I ask why we keep going back to RIR? Why not Barred Rocks???? Could you put your Rhodebar Roos Barred Rocks? If they are single barred and need type and size could you not work that direction?

 

[ortluk]

The reason we keep going back to the RIR is because the rhode bar standard is pretty much identical to the rhode island red, except for the autosexing ability from the barring. So back crossing to high quality rhode island reds will bring your offspring closer to what the breed should be.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I posted this last week and it still seems relevant...

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."

This person is suggesting to cull all F1 cockerels and only cross the F1 pullets back to the Rhodebar cock, which should then give all double barred cockerel chicks and improved F2 pullets.

 

[ortluk]

That is only partially true, as the e locus on those f1 pullets will be heterozygous for the wheaton allele. the given crosses will work but only some of the f2 chicks will be pure, i.e. properly barred and homozygouse for the wild type e allele. the barring will be correct in all f2 chicks but half will have to be culled due to the wheaton gene. if all wild type f2 chicks are selected and bred together then all f3 chicks will be pure.

 

[mrshawman]

Very true. I had a blond chick hatch late, you can't see a head spot at all. Thanks for all the help!

 

[RedRidge]

In your opinion, to keep the line true, do I want to breed the darker single barred roos?

No. Unless. .. dontcha hate exceptions... you are purposely wanting to use that to for other exceptional traits and are willing to cull properly.
rhodebars roos MUST be double barred to breed true... so, if you have a breeding plan that includes out crossing that is different. But if you are breeding rhodebar to rhodebar then all roos must be double barred. If they are not then you don't have true Rhodebars