The Rhodebar thread!

[malndobe]

At what age do Rhodebars normally start laying? I know my roosters have hit sexual maturity, (about 5.5 months old now) they are harassing the heck out of my hens and are going to have to be removed from the flock soon. I have quite a few "teenagers" now of various breeds and my male/female ratio is off. Since everyone is currently in with the layer flock I'm not sure if my girls are laying yet or not, I have quite a few pullets that are just starting to lay so ... Wondering if I should put them in their own pen for a few days and see if anyone lays any eggs. I won't incubate right now, although I might in a month or two, but it would be nice to know approximately when they started to lay.

 

[jerryse]

At what age do Rhodebars normally start laying? I know my roosters have hit sexual maturity, (about 5.5 months old now) they are harassing the heck out of my hens and are going to have to be removed from the flock soon. I have quite a few "teenagers" now of various breeds and my male/female ratio is off. Since everyone is currently in with the layer flock I'm not sure if my girls are laying yet or not, I have quite a few pullets that are just starting to lay so ... Wondering if I should put them in their own pen for a few days and see if anyone lays any eggs. I won't incubate right now, although I might in a month or two, but it would be nice to know approximately when they started to lay.

No need to separate them and possibly disrupt their laying. Just check their vent for size. If laying the vent should be large moist and pliable. If eggs are being laid the opening will be large enough for the egg to exit.

 

[michaelf]

Ok .. I need some more of your awesome expertise again. These are Rhodebar/HRIR cross. The chick without stripe and lighter color . Is that a cull or chance a male? If you need better pictures I will get some this afternoon . Thanks you guys are great!

 

[malndobe]

No need to separate them and possibly disrupt their laying. Just check their vent for size. If laying the vent should be large moist and pliable. If eggs are being laid the opening will be large enough for the egg to exit.

LOL Didn't even think of the obvious Good idea.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I'm on the same page as michaelf...here are my first F1 chicks. There are two super dark, two medium, and two light with stripes and varying amounts of eyeliner as well as one light red chick. Cell phone photos as that's all I have!









Now the wait for sexing. I'm only doing the F1 and then backcrossing to RB. Opinions are good...let me know if you all want to see eyeliner, etc.
Edit: These are all from the same hen, a Padgett X Underwood HRIR

 

[melroseladi]

I would mark the darkest ones, the ones with nice dark stripes. Watch for fast tail growth, those should be your females.

Ihilani I like the coloring of the chick in top pic to the right. That burgundy type color of the HRIR.

Penny

 

[Wasson6Pack]

The most important thing for the beginning of a breed improvement project with Rhodebars is to make sure you begin with easily autosexed chicks. Then go from there.
I personally think there are a lot more important things than how dark a cockerel is that are higher priority if looking at foundation. Autosexing, correct barring, and type being the highest three priorities in my book. I'd be curious what others think though.

I hatched about 100 HRIR and kept about 40 of those. Some SC but most RC. I will keep those now until mid summer and then sell all but a handful.
With the Rhodebars I have several ages for sale right now... Why? Because my sister the teacher asked to hatch a batch of eggs for school two weeks ago and the Rhodebar were the only fertile eggs to give her. Lol.
So... she will hatch about a dozen for me on Monday. I have two adult pairs and 2 teenage trios also. All easily autosexed thank goodness. I need to only keep 2 cockerels for what I am planning since I have several dozen F1 - so... I have quite an assortment right now and need to cut back.
If I can help you out in any way let me know. I'd love to see some of these go to someone who really wants to work on breed improvement.

I would be interested in a few HRIR as well.

 

[RedRidge]

@michaelf and @ Ihilani
Statistically id give the darker striped ones a 75% chance of being being female and the lighter a 75% chance of being male.
My opinion, FWIW ;-) I would mark and use only the darker striped group.
Tail sexing in a few weeks has proven to be pretty accurate if you just can't stand. Lol
What I did was mark them as chicks. Then at 6 weeks I divided them into two separate grow out pens. I try not to look too closely at them every day when I feed and water... It makes grow out pass quicker.

 

[RedRidge]

The most important thing for the beginning of a breed improvement project with Rhodebars is to make sure you begin with easily autosexed chicks. Then go from there.
I personally think there are a lot more important things than how dark a cockerel is that are higher priority if looking at foundation. Autosexing, correct barring, and type being the highest three priorities in my book. I'd be curious what others think though.

I hatched about 100 HRIR and kept about 40 of those. Some SC but most RC. I will keep those now until mid summer and then sell all but a handful.
With the Rhodebars I have several ages for sale right now... Why? Because my sister the teacher asked to hatch a batch of eggs for school two weeks ago and the Rhodebar were the only fertile eggs to give her. Lol.
So... she will hatch about a dozen for me on Monday. I have two adult pairs and 2 teenage trios also. All easily autosexed thank goodness. I need to only keep 2 cockerels for what I am planning since I have several dozen F1 - so... I have quite an assortment right now and need to cut back.
If I can help you out in any way let me know. I'd love to see some of these go to someone who really wants to work on breed improvement.

I would be interested in a few HRIR as well.

Welcome to the Rhodebar thread.
Looks like you are here in TN.
Are you looking for RIR for a Rhodebar breeding project or just RIR in general? Production or standard bred? RC or SC? What exactly are you looking for?

 

[Wasson6Pack]

Welcome to the Rhodebar thread.
Looks like you are here in TN.
Are you looking for RIR for a Rhodebar breeding project or just RIR in general? Production or standard bred? RC or SC? What exactly are you looking for?

I am wanting to make my own rhodebar line. I bought some from dmrippy and love them. They are light do far, but easily sexable. In my mind I think I would want standard and sc. Does that found about right? This will be my first breeding program and I want to do it right.

Thanks for the welcome, I just moved here from Iowa and am glad to be on a farm now. I have been learning alot from this group.