Confused about Rhode Island Red combs

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

"The single combed variety was admitted to the APA's Standard of Perfection in 1904 and the rose combed birds a year later. "
(from FeatherSite)

Hi! I picked up some Rhode Island Reds (supposedly) for a pal yesterday (while I was picking up my Jersey Giants and a couple of Seramas (insert big grin)) and didn't notice til we were unloading them that some were single combed and some were rose combed.
I was admiring what a dark mahogany red the RIR hens were and noticed leg color, but honestly, I was paying more attention to *my* new birds.
Is one comb type *better* than the other?
I was only able to get hens, so what comb type rooster would be best? Or one of each?
I never knew a breed could have 2 diff accepted combs types.
Most confusing...
Thanks,
Lisa

 

[rooster-red]

All my RIR's have single comes, and I've never seen a rose comb RIR, but that doesn't mean they don't exsist.

I can't see there being any advantage of either comb over the other.

 

[Marlinchaser]

sounds like a road trip is brewing, introduce that big red roo to both types of combs and see what happens.

 

[EweSheep]

Some breeders indeed DO have Rose Combed RIRs...Sandhill Preservation has them and a few breeders on Eggbid does too. Its rare but they are just as beautiful as the single comb cousins of theirs.

Enjoy them!

 

[speckledhen]

I've seen them; in fact, the feedstore had some, I believe, from Ideal, but maybe not, can't recall. They'd be great in cold climates, I'm sure. I guess it depends on your preference as to which rooster you'd get. If I'm not mistaken, rose combs are dominant features, so I'm not sure how it would be if you bred a rosecombed RIR to a single combed hen. Might be something a little more unusual to breed, the rosecombed ones, Lisa.

 

[EweSheep]

Rosecombs are dominant....

If Rosecomb roo crossed with single combed hens...all will be rosecombed
If Rosecomb roo crossed with rosecombed hens...all will be rosecombed.

If single combed roo crossed with single combed hen...all are single comb
If Single comb roo crossed with rose comb hens...all will be rosecombed

If this is wrong...correct me!

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds right to me, but I'm a bad genetics student, LOL. I always ask Tim Adkerson and then just quote him, so if I tell you anything wrong, it's Tim's fault!

 

[kstaven]

Yup ... rosecomb is dominant. One thing that is better with a rosecomb bird is that in extreme cold they are not as prone to frost bite and damage from any agressive pen mates.

Only one place I would tend to argue with the cross is that with a single comb rooster to rosecomb hen I have had single comb chicks.

 

[Julie in Al]

I have a beautiful Rose comb Roo and he looks absolutely just as good as my Single comb. I only have one RC pullet. I am going separate them to a single pen soon and hatch me some Rosecombs for next year. I will be showing them both in Nov Show locally

 

[barg]

Quote:
The only thing I would add to that is that all of the rosecomb offspring will be rosecomb/single comb splits and that, any of the original rose combs could be rosecomb/single comb splits, if that were the case, then the cross between the opriginal rosecombs and a single comb would produce 50% rosecomb offspring and 50 % singlecomb offspring and again, all of the rosecomb offspring would be split.

I could go on, but that was enough mental exersise for now, I think I'll move on and misspell words in a different post now.