Ok, I'm home now. Had the pics saved but had to search thru my mess of links to find the right one. If you go to this link you see the explanation of the barnevelder x orpington crosses.
http://www.the-coop.org/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=001963
The top starts with a hen and midway down (post #9 I think) shows what the grandmother, grandfather and the mother all looked like.
I believe once you have successfully gotten your pattern (lacing) down you would then try breeding for form and lacing....meaning the heavier body of the orpington. Again this is assumption on my part.
I had considered why can't I use a gold laced wyandotte...but wyandottes for the most part have rose combs which are dominant over straight so that would be a bad trait you would continually have to try to breed out whereas the barnevelder has the straight comb. Issue is barnevelders are in general harder to come by and poorer stock in this country then in Europe.
Gold laced cochins are beautiful and the size is big like a good orp but the feathering on the legs is dominant and difficult to breed out......
In continuous threads I have been searching I continually see the use of barnevelder in the crossing to get the lacing for the gold laced orps. To further complicate the issue I have read there is more than one type of barnevelder with regard to color/pattern (single vs double laced).
If you go to feathersite :::
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Barnev/BRKBarnev.html
and look at the third pic down of the hens (A flock of Barnevelder hens) you can see the beauty in those birds and imagine how they would look crossed with an orp to give them the puffball look.
Anyway I don't know if I'm on the right track or not but that's what I've got so far.... you have to remember I am piece mealing a lot together from one thread to another. If I knew more what I was doing I would join one of those U.K. forums and just ask a lot of questions....but I think I would look like a complete idiot...lol
~Julie
, I know, I know, I'm crazy, but I want to give it a go. So Jody, Cynthia, Julie and anyone else I need your input (where to begin, how to get the color, GL Wyandottexbuff orp?)! Perhaps we could make this a BYC community project, everyone sharing their knowledge. OH and this is why I want to take on this project! when I saw this my jaw hit the floor!
