Breeding FAIL again! Trying for a strawberry blonde chicken.

[happydog]

I visited a farm 2 years ago and saw the most beautiful pale gold chickens. They looked like a much lighter version of Buff Orpingtons. Kind of a strawberry blonde color. They were just stunning. The farmer said they were a cross between Buff Orpingtons and White Rocks. They found that cross to do very well for them, big and meaty and good layers.

So I went home and got a White Rock rooster to cover my BO girls and waited for spring. What I got was a bunch of weird barred rock over orps that were anything but gorgeous. So this year I tried it again with a BO rooster over WR hens. Fail again. I'm getting some solid white chickens, some BO looking chickens and some with some barring.

So, I don't know if the farmer was pulling my leg or what. Is there any pure breed of chicken that is a solid, soft pale orangey gold? Or what would you cross to get that color? Is this a common cross and I'm just doing something wrong?

 

[kathyinmo]

Like this one? This is not my picture..... it is Bill's...... lildinkem on BYC.

 

[AinaWGSD]

The farmer may have gotten that color from a BO/WR cross, it really depends on what kind of white his white birds were and what colors they were hiding. Dominant white will cover pretty much any other color (I've heard it described as a genetic "off switch" for other colors) so it's difficult to downright impossible to know what genes your white birds are hiding. Barred is an extremely common color to be hiding under dominant white in most breeds and it's very common to get barred birds when mixing white birds with other colors.

Maybe lavender/self blue orps crossed with buff orps would get you closer to your goal? At least color-wise. Lavender dilutes black to a light grey and dilutes buff/red to a creamy gold color.
This is a Porcelain D'Uccle, which is the mille fleur pattern with the lavender gene added in. (NOT my bird, got the picture from feathersite.com). You can see what the lavender gene does to buff. It would take several generations to get to a solid colored bird if you bred lavender to buff, but it'll probably take several generations to get there regardless of what breeds or colors you used. When working on a project bird it is very rare to get the bird you have envisioned on the first generation of crosses. Maybe the farmer started originally with some BO and some WR and the chickens you saw were the result of several generations of breeding the offspring of those birds together?

 

[nicalandia]

Is this a common cross and I'm just doing something wrong?

what you want is basicaly, a Lemon Buff bird, is a light shade of buff, how do you produce that, well acording to our buff expert Dan Honour you get lemon buff by breeding light buff to light buff and this will give you even lighter buff colored birds, he likes his birds to have a darker color so he is always fighting this light shade of buff with darker birds

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Murphy rules! If you want dark buff, you get light; if you want light, you get dark!

 

[happydog]

Thanks for the replies. They didn't look like either of the pics posted. They were a solid color. I suppose it would work if you bred the lightest buffs over a long time. But gosh, all my buffs look exactly the same shade. And so do all their babies.

I hate that I've wasted 2 years on this experiment with no success and no answers. I wish I could remember where that farm was and I'd go back and ask more detailed questions.

 

[nicalandia]

Thanks for the replies. They didn't look like either of the pics posted. They were a solid color. I suppose it would work if you bred the lightest buffs over a long time. But gosh, all my buffs look exactly the same shade. And so do all their babies.

I hate that I've wasted 2 years on this experiment with no success and no answers. I wish I could remember where that farm was and I'd go back and ask more detailed questions.

well, you could introduce the "Cream" gene to your buff birds, thats going to make them yellow instead of buff. do you have 2 more years for this? I can help

 

[happydog]

I have 2 years. How do I introduce a Cream gene? I could use some help! Thanks!

 

[nicalandia]

I have 2 years. How do I introduce a Cream gene? I could use some help! Thanks!

ok, now that I think you said, Straberry blond, is that like the champagne blond color? a soft peach color? or you want a solid yellow bird?

 

[happydog]

soft peach. About the same as a buff only lighter