Recent content by blackdotte

No, it's a "golden" Wheaten, similar in color to golden duckwing. It is basically a Wheaten with both silver and gold genes. A golden duckwing is a fancy name for a silver/gold split. Same thing just a different way of saying it. No way you can be sure it is Wheaten, as you would get the same...

Birchen,Silver,single comb,white skin,lack of Dermal Inhibitor.

A crossbred, genetically a silver/gold split.

Heritage is linked to country of origin. All the breeds mentioned do not have their origin in the USA. Welsummers & Barnevelders are of Dutch origin, and are heritage breeders in Holland. Marans are French, same applies. Thus none of them are American heritage breeds.

They are eWh Wheaten, gold s+/s+ or s+/_w, mahogany,melanotic and pattern gene , rose comb R/R or R/r with rough surface He+/He+, white egg shell o+/o+, white skin W+/W+, dermal melanin id+/id+ or id+/_w David

What quarantine test & restrictions would apply, because I can't imagine there would not be any? David

Side sprigs are genetically resessive Sorry this is totally incorrect. Side sprigs are caused when two dominant genes are concurrently present. If only one or the other is present you will not get side sprigs, but will be breeding carriers. This is the reason why side sprigs can suddenly...

I would breed the splits to each other to get the [average of] 25% lavs, then go back to Marans at least once. More like 6 to 8 times I would have thought!!

Nope They are recessive, or they are supposed to be anyway as they originated as Recessive White Sports that popped out of Barred breedings. This is very true of exhibition fowl, but utility/commercial White Rocks (& White Wyandottes, RIW) had White Leghorn bred into them in the early days. If...

And one more thing I dont understand, while importing all these rare breeds from Australia, why just 1 pair of Silvers? Probably because he was not able to find a second pair. As I have said they are very rare here, and the quality is generally poor. The best (photos) Silvers I have ever seen...

I now understand why you have Silvers of such poor quality. It is because here in Australia we have very few Silvers & they are not up to much. David

None of the birds shown are good examples of Silver Sussex, the hen is the best of the lot. They should be sold as what they are - crossbreds. Light Sussex are a Silver Columbian Wheaten, Silver Sussex are a Silver Birchen. David

They should be a White Leghorn male over Australorp hens. This was a standard commercial cross in Australia for many years, 1940 to 1960s. David

Very short life, restricted mobility, unlimited refined food = very little taste, i.e. commercial broilers in supermarkets, max 6 weeks old, 10,000 in a shed, up to 37 per sq yard. Longer life, free range, varied feed = much greater taste. Google the required feeding regime for French Bresse...

Here is some information I typed up, from The American Breeds of Poultry by Frank Platt, 1921 This was written before the US Standard was changed in circa 1929 in favour of the dark cockerel breeders that are the common bird today. Australia did not follow the US & stuck to a two pen system...