The Mix and Matches Breeding Project Thread

[cscarney]

Several years ago we bought a young group of "whatsits" from a breeder at Ohio National. They were bantams with d'Uccle and silkie characteristics and turned out to be great broodies. Unfortunately, we lost them all to a raccoon attack the following year (I now build Fort Knox for Chickens for EVERY coop, run, and ark on the place). We recreated the cross a year or so later with a silkie roo x d'Uccle hen and got birds with identical traits to the original whatsits, confirming our suspicions about the cross.

They have proven to have many of the best traits of both breeds: the friendliness and broodiness of the silkie, and the more weather tolerant feathering and better laying ability of the d'Uccle. I just kept pullets of the cross, but plan to do it again this year both in original and reverse (d'Uccle roo on silkie hen) and then breed to fix the traits. I find them incredible useful here as broodies/foster mothers, as well as being attractive little birds in their own right.....

Also working on a strain of fawn duckwing Phoenix bantams from a fawn that showed up in a cross between the duckwings and a dominant white rooster.....

 

[ccassidy18]

Sounds interesting. I am especially curious with the Phoenix, as I have those,lol

lol

any pics?

 

[yellowherb]

the silkie D'Uccle cross sounds interesting. I find most of my adult D'Uccle Mille's are really friendly. I've never had silkies before so I can't say if they are that friendly, but they are sure better than what I'd call common chickens like RI Reds.

I did pick up a few silkie chicks in a buff color partridge type and hope at least one is a pullet.

As for types used to originally make sultans, they are really rare. I'll have 6 months to think on it and see what other sultan type traits show up in the mixed d'uccle chicks.

 

[cscarney]

No pics on the Phoenix yet--if you look at a fawn duckwing OEG, that's the color and pattern we're breeding for....Tail carriage on the Phoenix is lower and the feathers are a lot longer of course....We did lose one of the fawn cockerels yesterday courtesy of the local Cooper's hawk, so all the birds are in lockdown for a couple of weeks until it moves on. I'll nag my daughter to get some pix when she's home in a few weeks.

The silkie/d'Ucckle cross really seems to fill our needs for broodies and general pets. They're gentle and friendly, they'd sit on a rock until it hatched if we let them, and the minimal combs and wattles, not to mention the beards, muffs, and foot feathering means they're pretty cold hardy. While they're bantam sized, we've used them to hatch large fowl chicken eggs (Faverolle and Langshan) and bantam (Australian Spotted) duck eggs and they've been able to cover somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10 without losing any. They're a little confused when the ducklings want to play in the water, though (grin)....

 

[yellowherb]

They're a little confused when the ducklings want to play in the water, though (grin)....

LOL I can understand how that might be confusing

 

[yellowherb]

My two sultan hen eggs hatched overnight. 1 is a pure bred sultan (yah!!) and the 2nd is a silvery charcoal color with all sultan features other than a head bump. I'll get pics of all 3 chicks (mille roo x sultan hen and sultan roo x mille hen) after the new guys finish fluffing up.

*crossing fingers for female chicks*
Nearly all of the about 20+ Mille eggs I've hatched are pullet chicks. I've had one rooster chick and it was first hatched. I think my girls are saying I have too many roo's running around.

 

[comster]

This will be my first project.
For my crazy breeding project, I want to create a big bird that has black meat(fibromelanosis) Also at the same time look colorful, Not just all black.

I currently have some partridge Hmong chickens (fibromelanosis). Then cross them with English partridge Orpingtons

I've done some experiments, and breed my Hmong rooster to a leghornXbuff Orpington.
She's beautiful, buff feathers with the fibromelanosis gene.

It seems like a fibromelanosis rooster breed to a non-fibromelanosis will create sex-link chicks. From the breeding, females have black skin and males don't.

I'm not sure if an English Orpington rooster will be able to mate with a Hmong hen. Haha
Her bones might break. But I am certain a Hmong rooster is able to mate with an English Orpington hen.

Currently have partridge Orpington eggs in the incubator. So this will take awhile before the first breeding takes place.

I will post pictures soon of my Hmong chickens. This **** app won't let me post pictures from my phone.

Please let me know what you guys think.
Thanks!

 

[Wappoke]

It seems like a fibromelanosis rooster breed to a non-fibromelanosis will create sex-link chicks. From the breeding, females have black skin and males don't.

Fm fibromelanosis is not sex linked. In order for the black bone phenotype to be fully expressed in the chicken the bird must also carry a sex-linked gene called dermal melainin. It is the derrmal melanin in comjunction with the Fm gene that causes black bone phenotype.

 

[yellowherb]

Wish I could figure out how to add that to my sultan project. My only sex link chick is a black right now. She wasn't high on my priority list as a pullet for this project but since I ordered an assortment.. she came in that. If black was my intention I would have started with a crevecour to sultan.

Here are the 3 mixed chicks so far. (white with blotch is mille hen x sultan roo, dark is mille roo x sultan hen and white is pure) I'm amazed the dark one already looks so much like a sultan chick does, while the blotched side chick looks nothing like a sultan.

 

[comster]

Fm fibromelanosis is not sex linked. In order for the black bone phenotype to be fully expressed in the chicken the bird must also carry a sex-linked gene called dermal melainin. It is the derrmal melanin in comjunction with the Fm gene that causes black bone phenotype.

Ahh thanks for the info!!