Eliminating mahogany from my birds.

[birchwoodbirds]

I'm trying to develop a BBS line of birds. What i keep running into is mahogany on the wing bow of the roosters. One splash hen has never produced it out of about a dozen sons raised to maturity, but the other two have. The rooster I used shows zero red at all anywhere on his body. The hens show none, either, which is why I was working with this group.

But I keep finding some degree of either red wing bows, red chest leakage, or both on the male offspring.

My limited understanding is that mahogany is a dominant trait, which should be pretty straightforward to eliminate or "breed out". But breeding two apparently mahoganyless birds has turnout out several males with the undesired red shoulders.

Any ideas for reaching the goal without starting from scratch? I've bought several dozen pullets and about the same in males, raised them uip to full feather age, only to see red coming in and cull them out of the flock. I hoped that when I got down to the two males I have w/o mahogany and several females not shwoing it that I'd be part way there....nope. Not there, and feeling like I"m throwing away some stunning birds trying to get rid of one bit of undesired color.

 

[Sally PB]

@nicalandia, can you help here?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Only hatch from the hen that doesn't throw it. Females can carry and not show this autosomal red. The boys will show it in the wing if they carry.

I had some Silver Penciled with that problem and bred it out through selection.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

If diversity or body type is an issue you can use cockerels not showing from the other hens but only move forward with pullets from the hen known not to carry the gene. This will get you out of the problem in one year and be able to use genetics, if they have better traits, of the other hens. If they don't have better traits then I'd not use them at all.

 

[birchwoodbirds]

Only hatch from the hen that doesn't throw it. Females can carry and not show this autosomal red. The boys will show it in the wing if they carry.

I had some Silver Penciled with that problem and bred it out through selection.

Thanks for your help! I have two roosters that are whole body red free. One is black, the other blue. Does it matter which I use as long as they don't show a speck of red?

 

[birchwoodbirds]

If diversity or body type is an issue you can use cockerels not showing from the other hens but only move forward with pullets from the hen known not to carry the gene. This will get you out of the problem in one year and be able to use genetics, if they have better traits, of the other hens. If they don't have better traits then I'd not use them at all.

I am very fortunate that the hen not passing it on is the best of the lot. Better comb quality, more substance and she's a laying machine, very steady with high qualtiy, 60 gram eggs five days a week, rain or shine. There's a lot to like about her so I'll move on with her only in the program.