The Rhodebar thread!

[nicalandia]

Quote:
Thats correct, more so if you have limited space, IF they all turn out to be just Females, that still good because they will also be Barred(from Dad) you could take this females and cross them back to RIR(to further improve type and color) or back to Rhodebar to introduce some of the good genes back to rhodebars... you could do both I guess if you give the hens enough time(from matings) I was Banking on being able to easily identify the F1 males so we could continue to use them, but as you can see this is not the case, in any case wildtype looking females is great also as we can identify the all important e+ gene, this means that even breeding back to RIR could produce e+/eWh chicks that will be able to identify from their pure eWh/eWh female siblings.. having e+ females that lack barring is not as bad as you may think, say you have a 90%+ pure RIR that is e+/eWh and a good F1 Male which is also e+/eWh and with Barring this cross would bring back the Barring gen while also produce e+/e+ pure birds

 

[RedRidge]

I would advise you to fully identify each chick an document their progress, because all of the chimpmunk striped chicks could be all females(or not) and some of the not so well defined chicks could be males(specially the ones with lighter heads than body)...


I think the chick I Highlighted is a Male, his cick pattern is not defined AND his head is lighter(also check his comb size)

OK... let me make sure of your recommendation here...
Tracking each one individually would be great but... UGH! I have another 100 chicks in the bators.
So....
Because I will have so many of these I am thinking I should put them in "categories" and either mark them or brood them separately.
Tell me if you think this is a bad idea... IOW, the dark chipmunk stripes in one group, less obvious (but still there) chipmunk stripes in another group, and then maybe divide the non striped chicks into 3 different groups based on how dark they are and how light their head is.
Thoughts?
Will tracking them way work? And if so how would you define your categories.
If not, I may have to come up with a creative way to really track each of them... combinations of toe punches and vet wrap colors until they are old enough to band with numbers. (or maybe I could find tiny numbered bands? don't know how tiny they come).

Also... keep in mind that the HRIR hens I am using are Rose Comb (dominant), so looking at combs early on will not be very useful relative to the single combs.

When looking at the chicks without any striping are you saying that the darker chicks with the lighter heads are "possibly" my best shot at a decent F1 male?
I'm trying to identify the more subtle down features of wildtype...

 

[melroseladi]

Sheri, double check the comb on that chick Marvin circled in your pic. It could just be the angle but it looks SC from the pic.

Penny

 

[canSttent]

OK, after posting to this thread, I went back and read everything up until page 120. This is fascinating, and very important too. Unfortunately, just when I think I understand what I need to do, I realize I have no clue whatsoever.

My goal is to have a flock of true breeding, darker colored RBs with cleaned up genetics. I want to have it down to auto-pilot; I understand this takes time, a lot of it.

Please correct me, as I know I'm most likely wrong:

Single barred - darker male chick
Double barred - lighter male chick

Quickest route is to breed RB Rooster to HRIR hen. Then breed back the f1 single barred cockerels to HRIR, or is it RB hen? Or is it f1 RB hens back to father RB?

Then what? I've read conflicting things, or maybe I haven't and I'm just swimming in waters over my head, haha.

If I were to then breed the offspring to one another (from the f1 bird x parent), how would I know which ones to breed? Would that resulting generation breed true from then on?

From what I understand, you want to only breed double barred roosters for a pure, true breeding flock. Is this correct?

How many generations does it take to have a "purebred" Rhodebar rooster and hen? RB defined as a auto-sexing, barred, Rhode island red (with brown eggs, of course). The chicks all hatch the same color, respectively, the colors always match throughout life, etc. I understand as time goes on, a reintroduction of HRIR will keep the line pure.

I will be posting pictures on Monday. I work all weekend so Monday is the soonest I can get pictures of what I'm working with. My pullets and cockerels are 15 1/2 weeks old.

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
Why are you hatching so Many? F1s are share the same Genotype(e+/eWh Co/Co Mh/mh+ and so forth) that hatching more than 20 is over kill... now BC1(back cross to HRIR parents) would require more than F1s as 50% of the total chicks are culls,
Quote:
it would be a great idea to separate in categories
Quote:
I would think so as I have yet to see this pattern on pure RIR, Dark body and lighter heads

 

[RedRidge]

Ok... I am currently hatching HRIR too, so I will take some pics of them at the same age but. .. I believe a few may have lighter heads. .. I will document them.

In the comb... I will check that chick. The single comb will come thru a few times but is not sex dependent.
About 3 out of 20 will be SC in my experience... The 20 I hatch last time I had 2 cockerels and 1 pullet that were SC

 

[melroseladi]

Ok... I am currently hatching HRIR too, so I will take some pics of them at the same age but. .. I believe a few may have lighter heads. .. I will document them.

In the comb... I will check that chick. The single comb will come thru a few times but is not sex dependent.
About 3 out of 20 will be SC in my experience... The 20 I hatch last time I had 2 cockerels and 1 pullet that were SC

My RC Cock is Rr that is why I only breed him to my RC hen and not the SC girls.

Penny

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
The quickest rout is to breed Rhodebar x Rhodebar to get more Rhodebars, saddly the state of the Rhodebar Body and Type is on bad shape(genetically and phenotypically) so an outcross to HRIR have been deemed as necessary to regain their type and body.... get the Best Rhodebar male and cross it to a HRIR or Good Type RIR Female, The F1 females would be good to Back cross to Rhodebar to produce better quality Rhodebars(better than current Rhodebars) but some of this F1s cross back to HRIR would Greatly improve Type and Color now only 50% of this birds will have both e+ and the barring gene need it and even then they will be only on heterozygous form(e+/eWh and B/b+) the e+/eWh non barred females would be great to use back to Rhodebar males as they would produce 50% e+/e+ B/- pure rhodebar females with better quality

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
Rose Comb is one of the Few rare Completely Dominant gene in the chicken genome, most are incompletely dominant, R/r+ birds are Undistinguishable from pure R/R birds, Silver is Completely Dominant but only on the chick down

 

[canSttent]

Quote:
I get your first comment; I say quickest route because I know my current cockerels are not pure by any means.

So take the f1 hen, cross back to Rhodebar parent to produce a better quality rhodebar, genetically speaking.

or

Take the f1 rooster, cross back to HRIR, to improve color, type, etc.