Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion - Page 56

Working to understand chicken genetics.

Lets say I got hens from Karimw from the same hatch as the cockerel Spartacus got from Karimw.   Then I get a cockerel from Spartacus that is two generations downstream from the cockerel he got from Karimw and that cockerel only appears in the 1st generation. 

If I am trying to avoid close inbreeding,  does the Spartacus 2nd generation provide enough separation to be at least line breeding?

Hopefully, I got my thought across although I may not have used the correct terms. 

Since the Iowa Blue gene pool seems limited it appears inbreeding is inevitable unless some other breed is brought in.

There are some missing elements in this equation.  If Kari bred more than one hen for this hatch, there could be some separation there.  Then there would be the wild card of the brood hen that my cockerel would come from.  So there would be a lot of common genes, but there would Potentially be as many different genes too.
 

This example would not be true line breeding, but it would be close.

This is the practice I'm using in my flock right now. The eight hens in my breeding flock are from at least 3 different combinations. I have also been rotating roosters on the same group of hens. This way when I cross birds from the "white" roo with the offspring of the "black" roo they will have less genes in common. Right now I also have the "white" roo's female babies in with the "black" roo. Eventually I will have a specific lines to cross, but I am getting such variety I'm still really trying to identify what this breed consists of.

For example, last year I crossed one of the dark birchen colored cockerels on 8 Black and 3 Blue Ameraucana hens and got black and blue offspring with pea combs and muffs. The cockerels sprouted some interesting colors on hackle and saddle but the hens stayed solid. I though that made sense. The birchen should be masked by the black.

So this year I crossed this Iowa Blue with a similar, if not the same Ameraucana hens.

And got a bunch of black and blue chicks:

And these. What the heck are these?

Spartacus and Karimw,

Thank you for your insights.  I was beginning to think the Iowa Blue gene pool was so limited it would be near impossible to find birds that were not closely related.

I see colored bands on legs in various pictures which I presume are to identify the bird.  So how do you track which rooster was over which hen?

So another "try it and see" method would be to use the same hens but rotate the roos until you have a hatch from each combination.  That would help identify what each pair carries?

Karimw, the chicks in the last picture.  What the heck are these.  Hopefully, you plan to take pictures as they grow as it will be real interesting to see what they turn into. Ö

My banding method is pretty basic right now. I use 1 color on the left leg to ID the generation - blue was last year, green this year. The right leg is banded depending on the sire: "white" for the first one I used, "black" for the current one.

I use a very similar banding technique to keep trackk of my IBs too.
 

mrhienz

 they just keep coming and coming

all black and cream

no chipmunks yet

3 didnt make it so far

photos later

       thanks again  schroeder

Okay, so out of my hatch from Mr. Heinz eggs - I got 3 boys and 1 girl.  All were black/dark from the very beginning.  The boys are nice sized.  The girl is so/so with only a light collar of penciling around her neck.  The girl started laying in May and laid consistently from day one.  She is a great escape artist and much prefers to free range all day.  So, I need to add some diversity to my group - who has unrelated eggs?

Yes, they are ferocious broodies! I had one sit through 2 sets of eggs before she finally hatched some. The other hens just piled on top of her to lay in the favorite box and kept breaking the eggs  She's a good mama though. She raised 7 up to toddler age before I needed the space and booted her out.

Here's some from my "spring hatch" I like the color and shape of this guy, but his comb isn't the best. He's got a great tail though! I see so many with scraggly tails at this age. Very little red left in his wings and looks to be pure for silver!

I hope his chest lacing cleans up a little more with his next molt.

Here's a lovely silver penciled - you can see the autosomal red clearly but he has dark (er) legs and eyes than the ones I've raised before:

Unfortunately not too many pullets in this hatch and they didn't want to be photographed on this shoot