Old and Rare Breeds

[Arielle]

While reading the Heritage thread , I found this post by NanaKats

So far I have found a member here on BYC (Jamn) who has been hatching the Cockoo Maline (Mechels in the UK). On a thread back in May, an email for another member was given as a contact for a source here in the States. I'm going to contact the person to see if she is still breeding the birds.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Looking at pics of the Malines, they are a stately looking bird. The turkey headed/peacombed birds look very much like a white skinned brahma to me. On feathersite, the one from Israel looks just like a cuckoo brahma to me in type.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: My sole purpose in crossing Brabanters and Spitz was simply to get a little more genetic diversity. Both breeds have small gene pools, and my Spitz all came from a single hatching. The same with my Brabanters. My Spitz particularly are quite good. I was lucky enough to get eggs from a good breeder. I originally planned to breed the crosses back to the pure bred Spitz.

But then the possibility of breeding Cream (or Citron as they call it in Europe) Spitz arose. We, the members of the American Spitz club, would like to have all the colors the Europeans have. Some others are working on black, blue, white, and chamois Spitz. Since I have the genetic material for cream Spitz, they would like me to make it my project. I just don't know how to go about it.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Hakkerm This is beyond my abilities with chickens, so my offerings come from breeding other livestock in general. THe basics--each animal needs clear identification. A journal to record the breedings and the id number of the offspring, and a record by photo and notes of the birds.

The best I can do is ask a few questions and see if that leads you to an answer. What was the purpose of mixing the breeds? I think you saw a need to improve something in one that the other had , right? Did the offspring from the cross meet that goal? A little or a lot? A few or many? Do you need to repeat the cross to add more specimens that are closer to goal?

Is this helpful?

That sounds like good ideas to me. as you will not know what you have till the babies grow up and possibly have a clutch of there own

 

[Arielle]

Quote: My sole purpose in crossing Brabanters and Spitz was simply to get a little more genetic diversity. Both breeds have small gene pools, and my Spitz all came from a single hatching. The same with my Brabanters. My Spitz particularly are quite good. I was lucky enough to get eggs from a good breeder. I originally planned to breed the crosses back to the pure bred Spitz.

But then the possibility of breeding Cream (or Citron as they call it in Europe) Spitz arose. We, the members of the American Spitz club, would like to have all the colors the Europeans have. Some others are working on black, blue, white, and chamois Spitz. Since I have the genetic material for cream Spitz, they would like me to make it my project. I just don't know how to go about it.


It is your choice if you would like to make the cream your project. Perhaps if you go along with this that same group can advise you on how to do it. I still suggest reading about rotational breeding as in theory you have 2 groups of the rotation. If you raise10 chicks and keep only 3, then breed those and keep only 3, you are painting yourself into a corner potentially. THe ugly recessive genes show up with intense inbreeding. Do you have the stock number to throw out a whole line if a recessive should show up?

I had this happen in my sheep. I closed the flock and kept the best rams and bred them back to mothers, aunts, nieces. After about 10 years, I started having lambs with leg problems. After 3 lambs with hip dysplasia the light bulb went on! Duh. Recessive gene. THe quick fix was to bring in new blood to dilute the gene in my case as I was not breeding pure breds rather I was developing a line that was useful to me. Many lines of domestic animals do have defects, and it is only a problem when an offspring is a double recessive. My point is: you run the risk of creating more double recessives with heavy inbreeding. THe other way to look at this is that this is a testing method to see if there is a recessive hiding.

You said you were limited on space right? Can you breed the numbers of offspring it takes to bring back this color? Maybe just longer? Also, Is is as important to create a new color as it is to maintain a healthy population until the numbers are up? Again, I can only ask questions. I do think having a healthy popultaion to work from is important but you already know that!

 

[hallerlake]

I was thinking during the night, and consulting the chicken calculator. I don't have the room to hatch the number of chicks I'd need to to develop the citron color. I'm just going on with the silver. Thank you for helping me clarify my thoughts.

 

[Arielle]

Given time and experience you might find yourself tackling that color.

 

[hallerlake]

Given time and experience you might find yourself tackling that color.

I think I'd rather work on silver Brabanters. At least silver is a dominant gene rather than a recessive gene like the cream.

 

[Arielle]

If you pursue the color you have a passion for you are sure to succeed.

 

[BKPUCKETT]

I just this week bought a flock of Bobby Boles Asil can any one tell me about them?