What path are you taking to get rose comb legbars?Rose combed rhodebars will be interesting. I am working on rose combed legbars because as my birds proved, the huge single combs will not work in my climate.
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What path are you taking to get rose comb legbars?Rose combed rhodebars will be interesting. I am working on rose combed legbars because as my birds proved, the huge single combs will not work in my climate.
I crossed my legbar rooster with a rose comb light brown leghorn. That gave me all crested, rose combed birds that are basically crele looking. I was lucky enough to hatch out a good ratio (1 male/2 female ratio). I hatched out about 30 chicks and culled down to one cockerel (just to see how he turns out) and 6 pullets. On the pullets, the main thing I looked for was good tails and good combs, the crest can mess with the rose comb some and make it look funky so I selected only birds with good spikes.What path are you taking to get rose comb legbars?
Jeremy, yes - they are autosexing, I said as much - that isn't the point, is it? They aren't "pure" Rhodebar - but you wouldn't be able to tell, would you? That's what frustrates me - people getting a bird, outcrossing it, and selling the F1's as purebred. The autosexing feature is just a feature, it doesn't make the breed.Technically speaking, you can have auto-sexing offspring after as little as 2 generations.
Rhodebar X Rhode Island Reds = F1, single factor barred cockerels and pullets.
Cull the single factor barred cockerels from this breeding and then breed the single factor barred pullets back to their Rhodebar father.
Rhodebar X F1 pullets = F2, double factor barred cockerels and single factor barred pullets… a.k.a auto-sexing birds. The gender of these chicks will be identifiable at hatch.
From there you can breed back to the Rhodebar father again or breed the F2 offspring together and continue to get auto-sexing offspring. What many will consider pure Rhodebars.
Now I think I understand what you’re saying, these birds aren’t technically “pure” Rhodebars because they are genetically ½ Rhode Island Red, or ¼ Rhode Island Red. But they are still auto-sexing.
If you continually breed back to the Rhodebar cock bird eventually you will have offspring that are almost pure Rhodebar again, however you may be propagating faults from your original cock bird. In order to correct type, color, size, shape, etc. of the Rhodebars that were imported by Greenfire Farms they need to be outcrossed to true Heritage Rhode Island Reds, this is the only way you will be able to improve your line. Outcrossing to production/hatchery stock Rhode Island Reds will do nothing for your line except perhaps boost productivity. The birds imported by Greenfire Farms are no where near perfect and need a lot of work to fit within the British SOP for the Rhodebar. Outcrossing is a must.
Does that mean that the offspring of these birds should be called something other than a Rhodebar? I think that’s a topic for debate. I say no, they shouldn’t be. The Rhodebar might have been created from a Brussbar and countless other breeds but it was created to serve the purpose of producing an auto-sexing bird that could be used for both meat consumption and egg production. The outcrossed birds I’m sure will fit this description and will adhere to the SOP for a Rhodebar more closely.
ETA: I remember seeing pictures of an F1 pullet from a Rhodebar X RIR breeding that Cheryl had and was using for breeding in her Rhodebar flock. You said you purchased her stock, are you using the F1 pullet for breeding? Do you consider her offspring pure Rhodebars?
Rose Combed Leghorns I guess.What path are you taking to get rose comb legbars?
so much wrong on this postJumping in:
I have been looking through this and other threads and am a bit bothered by this assumption that, because someone did it before, Rhodebars are little more than a hybrid and it would be easy to recreate them. Sigh.
People, just about everything started as a cross, certainly. BUT... The Rhodebars were developed *from* Brussbars, Rhode Islands, etc - they are a PURE BREED that took many years to get where they are. Even the assumption that crossing a male to a female Rhode Island and then crossing that offspring back to a Rhodebard will produce a PURE Rhodebar... NO! You will get sex-links, but you just lost your purity. It doesn't come back that quickly. Especially if the quality of that RIR isn't up to standard for the OLD-TIME birds, and is a modern commercial creature. Do the math: