F1 Cemani Outcrosses?

Caesura

In the Brooder
5 Years
Sep 23, 2014
16
2
24
Who all here is working on fibro projects? I am working on one, and am curious about the first generation results I've gotten so far.

Anyway, I wasn't expecting the F1 crosses to be so fibro. More, mulberry faces and not so black, like an F1 silkie cross. Here is a picture of one. I will try to get some of the older pullet tomorrow. The older one is probably the best, she only has one black toenail. The others have a few more clear toenails, but all have jet black skin and coal black insides of their mouths.



Sadly, there are only three survivors so far this year (have a hen on five eggs, fingers crossed). For some reason the cemani Xs are really fragile in the incubator. They'd gestate full term then die in the shell while eggs of other breeds incubated alongside just fine. Even some from the same hen, but fathered by a different non cemani rooster had a 90% hatch rate vs. the less than 10% these had. All of the babies dead in the eggs were the same level of fibro as this chick. Black to the bone.

Mom is a 4 year old australorp. She's a daily layer after all these years, very hardy and survived several disease outbreaks at my friend's house without showing any symptoms, which is why I borrowed her for this project. Hoping the three survivors will bring some of that to the next generation.

Dad is pure cemani, not GF or Toni-Marie lines. The woman I got him from was having a terrible time with color leaking in the hackles of the cockerels. My boy was a hold back, all black nails, fibro as could be as a chick but then got some gold leaking in his adult feathers. Perfect for my project though, he has cool golden eyebrows. lol

If anybody else has pictures of their F1 fibro cross birds, I'd love to see them!
 
Okay, was bored and the two youngest are in the house so snapped some photos. Their toes are way better than I thought! I hadn't looked super closely at them I guess.

Anyway, a week and a half old.

Chick 1:


Chick 1 has one clear toenail.


Chick 2: ALL BLACK NAILS. WOOHOO. Just need to fix that beak. lol



This one is a little less fuzzy under the wing, so you can see its little black armpit.


I tried taking pictures of the insides of their mouths, but it's really hard to pry open a chick's beak a hold it open with one hand while trying to take a picture. lol.

Also, these will NEVER be sold as cemani. I will never allow any project birds that could pass as cemani to leave my property alive. I believe it's very important to make sure they don't get bred into a pure line by someone thinking they are pure, because they absolutely are NOT. My project will eventually (hopefully) produce nicely fibro birds with colorful markings, so the end result shouldn't ever be mistaken for pure cemani.
 
If you decide to sell one or 3 of these, i would be happy to take them off your hands :) i would like to see a more productive fibro bird seeing as they usually stay small and lay few eggs. To have one that was larger and lays plenty of eggs like the australorp would be nice.
 
I'll keep you updated on the project! The first generation crosses are really fragile. Only 2 have survived hatching and the first couple of weeks. The two survivors are *really* tough though, and very substantial. It will be a few more years of work but I am hoping these two will be a solid foundation for a more hardy and productive fibro line.
 
The hen is doing very well. Surprisingly, she's been outproducing my golden comet and leghorn hens. They went on strike while molting and I presume that turned into a winter strike. The australorp x cemani however, has been giving me a nice big brown egg every other day all through her molt and now into the winter. Some eggs are in the incubator now so next season hopefully we'll find out how much of that she passed on.
 
The hen is doing very well. Surprisingly, she's been outproducing my golden comet and leghorn hens. They went on strike while molting and I presume that turned into a winter strike. The australorp x cemani however, has been giving me a nice big brown egg every other day all through her molt and now into the winter. Some eggs are in the incubator now so next season hopefully we'll find out how much of that she passed on.
Updates??
 

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