Autosexing & Breeder Use

True autosexing is different from a one-generation sex-link cross. In a correctly maintained autosexing line, male and female chicks show repeatable differences in down color or pattern at hatch generation after generation. That makes chick pattern itself a trait worth selecting for.

Our Rhodebar Line

Our Rhodebar work is preservation-focused. Our birds trace back to the original Greenfire Farms import, and we have worked with surviving older stock from the other focused U.S. preservation flock. We select with the goal of keeping the line useful, recognizable and genetically viable rather than simply producing the largest possible number of chicks.

Breed & Line Notes

The Rhodebar is my new Favorite. They are so friendly. They follow us around the yard and are great foragers.

Our RhodeBars are dual purpose, lay large brown eggs through hot and cold weather, and are very social. They are also great mothers. I've had several to go broody.

They develop wonderful personalities and I have never had any of them to show aggression. This is one of the most famous and all time popular breeds of truly American chickens bred to show Sex Linked Traits at birth. Developed in the early part of this century in Britain and imported in the usa by GreenFire Farms a few years ago, they have maintained their reputation as a dual purpose fowl.

Outstanding for production qualities, they have led the contests for brown egg layers time after time in Britain. Our strain is keeping up the fine reputation of this old favorite. For the fans of the Rhode Island Red this is the breed for you.

They are a Rhode Island Red with the Barring Gene to give them their autosexing capability. Baby chicks can be sexed by anyone at any age. They are a popular choice for backyard flocks because of their egg laying abilities and hardiness as well as their autosexing gene which will allow small farms to keep the pullet chicks and a male or two just to keep them around the farm, and to sell the surplus.

Our Rhodebars lay brown eggs, not green as some people received from Greenfire Farms near the end. The original Rhodebars they sold were brown egg layers. Later they added something to them, maybe as a project or possibly by mistake but many people got Rhodebars with crests and green eggs.

What to Expect From Live Birds

Breed descriptions are a guide to the line, not a promise that every individual will mature identically. Egg production, mature size, temperament, color and breeding performance are influenced by genetics, age, season, nutrition and management.